Tantramar Revisited Poem

Amy Clark

Amanda Tripp

Canadian Classics

May 14, 2015

An Analysis of Nostalgia in “Tantramar Revisited” and “Low Tide on Grand Pré”

Nostalgia is an idealised longing for former times, places, or people; it colours memory, softens the hues of the past, and inspires a longing to return to these times or places. The poems, “Tantramar Revisited” by Charles G. D. Roberts, and “Low Tide on Grand Pré” by Bliss Carman each explore the idea of returning to a fondly remembered past. In these two poems both Bliss and Carman use descriptions of nature as a means to connect with the past. In “Tantramar Revisited”, repetition of key words and phrases evokes the feeling of the passage of time. In “Low Tide on Grand Pré”, the passage of time is stated more

explicitly through the personification of the landscape. At the end of the poems, the speaker of “Tantramar Revisited” concludes that is better to live in the illusion of memory, and the speaker of “Low Tide on Grand Pré”, accepts the reality of his loss. Although “Tantramar Revisited” and “Low Tide on Grand Pré” are each great examples of the return poem, written in the same era of Canadian history, they differ greatly in their conclusion; where Roberts imprisons himself in a garrison of memory, Carman uses the personification of the landscape as a means to accept the reality of his present.
Each of these poems uses descriptions of natural landscapes as conduits to memories of the past. Roberts describes the natural beauty of the Tantramar Marshes with great alacrity, but the tone of the poem makes it clear that when the speaker looks out over the marsh he sees the landscape of his past. This is best illustrated in the third stanza:
Ah, how well I remember those wide red flats, above tide-mark
Pale with scurf of the salt, seamed and baked in the sun!
Well I remember the piles of blocks and ropes, and the net-reels
Wound with the beaded nets, dripping and dark from the sea!
Now at this season the nets are unwound; they hang from the rafters
Over the fresh-stowed hay in upland barns, and the wind
Blows all day through the chinks, with the streaks of sunlight, and sways them
Softly at will; or they lie heaped in the gloom of a loft. (Roberts, 78)
In this passage the speaker becomes lost in his memories of the past, describing the scenery of the past rather than that he sees from his vantage point overlooking the modern marsh.

In his book Harsh and Lovely Land: The Major Canadian Poets and the Making of a Canadian Tradition, Tom Marshall notes that: “As the Tantramar lands are bounded and preserved by dykes, so the poet attempts to hold them in timeless suspension in the microcosm of a poem whose rhythmic rise and return themselves embody the sense of the endless cycle” (Marshall, 10). The speaker embodies a garrison mentality as he stands secure in his fortress of memory holding back the present by clinging to the

past.
Early critics of Carman’s first book of poetry also entitled “Low Tide on Grand Pré” accuse him of keeping a similar distance in his poetry. Whalen, in his book Bliss Carman and His Works, introduces on such criticism: “Waldron indicted Carman’s poetry as one that...is empty of human interest, being too taken up with scenery, “the most barren topic of poetry” (Whalen). This does not give Carmen enough credit; in “Low Tide on Grand Pré” Carman describes much more than the stark beauty of the Grand Pré. The speaker describes childhood memories as if the landscape where they occurred is a third person in his memories. He recalls “waving meadowlands”, and having “caught the summer flying low” and holding “it there between our hands”. He speaks of passing time in a “drowsy…meadow stream”, and talks of moving through twilight as if it were like passing a lady, “scented fine like musk” (Carman, 19). The extensive personification of the landscape is an intensely humanising way of describing the pastoral scene, and there is a sense of mutual friendship between the speaker, his companion and the land. While both Roberts and Carman make connections to the past through descriptions of the countryside, Roberts attempts to hold the landscape static through memory, and Carman humanises the landscape through personification making it a dynamic part of his remembrance.
In both “Tantramar Revisited” and “Low Tide on Grand Pré” Carman and Roberts describe the passage of time using various literary techniques.

In “Tantramar Revisited” Roberts sets up the feeling of the passage of time through the use of repeated words and phrases that echo through the poem. The poem opens: “Summers and summers have come and gone…Many and many a sorrow has all but died” (Roberts, 78). These lines allude to the passage of time, set a bleak tone, and introduce the reader to the repetitions that follow. This continues with the reference to “chance and change” in both the first and last stanzas; the repeated usage of “miles on miles” in the pastoral descriptions; the repeated use of similar imagery such as green hills, beads of water, and fishing equipment; and the reiteration of “old-time” in the final stanza (Roberts 78). These repetitions set up a sort of internal rhythm by which the speaker measures time and loss. In discussing the poem Ware notes “the opening lines present a mental landscape…The melancholia so palpable in the poem…is surely not for the flight of summers-they will, after all return” (Ware). These repetitions also serve as intrusions into the beautiful nature imagery reminding the reader that this scene is in fact a memory preserved and not merely a description of Tantramar.

Alternatively, Carman illuminates the time passed by personifying the landscape. This is show in the following

passage:
A grievous stream…
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Goes wandering, as if to know
Why one beloved face should be
So long from home and Acadie. (Carman 19)
This homecoming is portrayed as an intimate greeting between friends. In the personification of the stream and fields “the landscape is made expressive” (Marshall, 11), and it builds the idea of landscape is as a companion to the speaker and as his friend. In “Low Tide on Grand Pré” the passing of time is expressed through an affectionate gesture of nature personified, conversely in “Tantramar Revisited” the passing of time is expressed through the repeated intrusion of memory upon reality.
“Tantramar Revisted” and “Low Tide on Grand Pré” are each masterful examples of the return poem, but Roberts and Carman treat the topic of memory and nostalgia very differently. At the end of the poem, the speaker of “Tantramar Revisted” concludes that it is better to live in the fantasy of the past. In the final stanza, the speaker recognizes that he is living in memory:
Yet will I stay my steps and not go down to the marshland,--
Muse and recall far off, rather remember than see,--
Lest on too close sight I miss the darling illusion,
Spy at their task even here the hands of chance and change. (Roberts, 78)
It is as though the speaker believes that by not revisiting Tantramar he can prevent change from taking root; he is clearly garrisoned in denial, refusing to recognize that his bright memory is already in the past. Tom Marshall, in his analysis, says: “Roberts holds the landscape of remembered happiness at a distance. He seems to want to be godlike above the battle” (Marshall, 11). The speaker of “Tantramar Revisited” sings praises to the “old-time sweetness” (Roberts, 78) but stagnates in his “darling illusion” unable to experience reality and accept his grief.
By contrast the speaker of “Low Tide on Grand Pré” returns to the place of his memory and embraces both the joy of his memory and the pain of his loss.
So all desire and all regret,
And fear and memory, were naught;
One to remember or forget
The keen delight our hands had caught;
Morrow and yesterday were naught.

The night has fallen, and the tide…
Now and again comes drifting home,
Across these aching barrens wide,
A sigh like driven wind or foam:
In grief the flood is bursting home. (Carman)
In these stanzas, the speaker is overcome by emotions both exultant and heartbreaking. In speaking of Carman’s work, D.G Jones states: “his texts are all oxymoron; what is permanent is change: what is delightful is ephemeral…. The Janus faced character of “Low Tide on Grand Pré”, its poignant alterity, marks Carman’s oeuvre” (Jones, 37). This counter-point of emotions belongs not only to the speaker but also the landscape; the two, different as they may be, move between moments of communion and isolation and express the mutuality of their grief at the loss of their friend. As Marshall states: “Bliss Carman immerses himself in the intensely relived experience of love and loss….The landscape is made expressive both of his remembered joy and of the grief that followed” (Marshall, 11). The speaker of “Low Tide on Grand Pré” accepts the reality of his loss and begins the process of healing by sharing his grief and memories with his old friend, the landscape of Grand Pré; the speaker from “Tantramar Revisited”, instead, refuses to move beyond his fortress of memory and denial to accept reality.
In conclusion, even though “Tantramar Revisited” and “Low Tide on Grand Pré” are excellent examples of return poem from the Confederation era they differ greatly in their treatment of nostalgia, memory, and grief. Roberts prefers the safety of illusion and denial, where Carman accepts the pain of loss and change and allows himself to fully experience reality. At the end of the poems the speaker of “Tantramar Revisited” recognizes his denial but refuses to move on, and the speaker of “Low Tide on Grand Pré” expresses mixed emotions of both elation and sorrow as he grapples with the acceptance of his loss. Roberts expresses the passage of time in his poem through the use of repetitive words and phrases that constantly interrupt the narrative description of the Tantramar marshes; by contrast, Carman uses the personification of the Acadian landscape to express the passage time directly. Each of these poems uses nature as a channel through which memories can be transmitted. Although Carman and Bliss have different conclusions on nostalgia their poems both strike a universal cord that unites humanity; change and loss are an inevitable part of the human existence, and exploring these feelings through art and literature provides a means for coping and understanding these inevitabilities.

Works Cited
Carman, Bliss, and John Robert Sorfleet. "Low Tide on Grand Pré." The Poems of Bliss Carman: A New Canadian Library Selection. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1976. 19. Print.
Jones, D. G. "Carman: Animula Vagula Blandula." Ed. Gerald Lynch. Bliss Carman: A Reappraisal. Ottawa: U of Ottawa, 1990. 33-41. Print.
Marshall, Tom. "Mountaineers and Swimmers: Roberts and Carman Revisited." Harsh and Lovely Land: The Major Canadian Poets and the Making of a Canadian Tradition. Vancouver: U of British Columbia, 1979. 9-16. Print.
Roberts, Charles G.D. "Tantramar Revisited." The Collected Poems of Charles G. D. Roberts. Ed. Desmond Pacey and Graham Adams. Wolfville: Wombat, 1985. 78. Print.
Ware, Tracy. "Remembering It All Well: "The Tantramar Revisited"." Studies in Canadian Literature / Études en littérature canadienne [Online], 8.2 (1983): n. pag. Web. 5 May. 2015
Whalen, Terrence Anthony. Bliss Carman and His Works. Downsview, Ont.: ECW, 1983. Print.