John Lent, The Face in the Garden

Craig McLuckie (Okanagan College)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.1.2: Canadian Writing and Culture (Anglophone): The Twentieth Century and beyond, 1900-present.
Vol. editors: Sarah Henzi (Simon Fraser University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Glen Nichols (Mount Allison University), Wendy Roy (University of Saskatchewan), Denis Salter (McGill University), Karis Shearer (University of British Columbia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1990

Places

Canada (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poem collection

Resources

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The Face in the Garden

explores subjectivity by using prose and poetry to refer to external and internal states of consciousness. The volume is a transitional moment in the writer’s career. On the one hand it presents his first published stories; while, on the other, it consolidates his accomplishments as a poet.

The volume is in five parts, the prose “Prologue: Shelter” and “Epilogue: Mutability”, “Section One: Towards the Gardens”, a sequence of five short stories, “Section Two: In the Gardens”, 13 lyric poems, “Section Three: Facing the Gardens”, a poem in 15 parts. The intent is signposted by epigraphs from Andrew Marvell and John Cowper Powys. The former stresses continuity in Lent’s thematic interests: “humility” and the ordinary; the latter indicates the

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2076 words

Citation: McLuckie, Craig. "The Face in the Garden". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 September 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11945, accessed 23 April 2024.]

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