LAMPMAN, ARCHIBALD

born Nov. 17, 1861, Morpeth, Ont. died Feb. 10, 1899, Ottawa important Canadian poet of the Confederation group, whose most characteristic work sensitively records the feelings evoked by scenes and incidents of the outdoors. Educated at Trinity College in the University of Toronto, he lived in Ottawa, employed in the post office department of the Canadian civil service, from 1883 until his death. He collaborated with two other Ottawa poets in the writing of a weekly column, At the Mermaid Inn, in the Toronto Globe (189293). Lampman was repelled by the mechanization of urban life and escaped to the countryside whenever possible. After being influenced by the craftsmanship and perfection of form of classical poetry and by the lyrical verse of such English Romantic poets as Wordsworth, Shelley, Tennyson, and Keats, he wrote nature poems celebrating the beauties of Ottawa and its environs and the Gatineau countryside of Quebec. Although Lampman was a Socialist and a critic of party politics and organized religion, only a few short poems reflect his radical ideas on politics and economics. During his lifetime Lampman published two volumes of verse, Among the Millet and Other Poems (1888) and Lyrics of Earth (1893). After his death, his friend and literary executor, Duncan Campbell Scott, edited The Poems of Archibald Lampman (1900) and Lyrics of Earth: Poems and Ballads (1925). Several uncollected poems were published in 1943.