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“Mine is a Newfoundland-centred universe.”
   Mary Dalton
Given that she’s not just Canadian but fiercely devoted to Newfoundland specifically, it may be natural that Mary Dalton is a lesser-known poet. But many of us are sitting up and taking notice after this great profile from The Walrus:
I say this with the utmost deference: Mary Dalton is a valley cheese. A consummate poet, she is eminently local, her terroir the idioms and folkways of Newfoundland. Although she has been recognized over the past thirty-five years, her bracing poetry is overdue for widespread acclaim. Inseparable from the easternmost province, it deserves to be read here, there, and everywhere.

Dalton’s new book, Interrobang, is named for an awkward bit of punctuation that combines a question mark and an exclamation point. Betwixt and between, fundamentally ironic, it’s the typographical equivalent of WTF; in one poem, Dalton dubs it the “prince of ambivalence.” Chess experts and finicky readers use exclamation points to record smart moves and bons mots, while question marks flag dubious tactics and sloppy phrasings. But the interrobang muddles neat distinctions, fusing doubt and certainty, success and error. The title tells us that Dalton’s poems ask questions and make statements all at once—as good poems, like riddles, tend to do. Sixty years ago, the critic Northrop Frye proposed that “Where is here?” was the “riddle” at the heart of a “Canadian sensibility.” Dalton loves riddles, but her poems are sure of at least one thing: here is an island in the North Atlantic.

In Interrobang, Dalton is drawn to the evocative objects and heirlooms of that island: the shop bell that “announces an entry,” the money box that keeps “news of unpaid bills, unkept / promises to itself,” a blue bottle of “Gerald S. Doyle’s Newfoundland Cod Liver Oil” with its “stinking / gut-churning goodness.” Or, if not objects, specimens: “Tansy,” “Stinging Nettle,” “Dog Rose,” “Joe Pye Weed.” She alludes to the plants’ medicinal properties, largely forgotten now, as carefully as she documents the names of Holyrood clubs: “The Butterpot Tavern, Mother Hickey’s, Mary Anne LaCour’s, Davises’, Fureys’, Crawleys’.” Here, poet and community historian are virtually the same. But Dalton is no singer of shanties. Rather, she is an observant, almost anthropological poet whose scrupulous attention to her home place resists the flattening of language and culture. Her poetry captures what she calls “the tang and texture” of local speech.

If this sounds a touch quaint, rest assured that Dalton’s poems are rarely sentimental. They have few epiphanies and no grand pronouncements. Her poetry is cool, reserved, and seldom, despite its subject, folksy. A line from Interrobang could be a motto for Dalton’s eventual Collected Poems: “nostalgia be damned.”
    -PROFILE: Forget Polite Verse—This Poet Wants You to Feel the Salt and Soil of Newfoundland: Mary Dalton’s fight to preserve her community’s speech (Nicholas Bradley, Nov. 7, 2024, The Walrus)
One poem discussed by Mr. Bradley seems to capture all the elements of her work perfectly:
The Jillicker

He was the best jillicker in the harbour--
In the long run, they said, he'll make his mark--
An arm like that on him, and a brain to match--
Now he's just another drunken uncle--
You can set your clock by him in all weathers,
Sashaying down over the Big Meadow,
Thumbs in his belt-loops, cock of the walk,
Set to trade cuffers, for a few smokes and a beer.
Here are the definitions of those two dialectical terms:
jillick v
jillick v EDD jellick Do; cp EDD jelt 1. To throw a (flat) stone across the surface of a body of water, using an underhand motion; SKIM. Dictionary of Newfoundland English
cuffer n cuffer n also cuff EDD cuff v 4 (2): cuffer 'a tale, a yarn' (Austr); 6 sb 'a lie'; O Sup2 ~ sb2 (1887).
    Dictionary of Newfounldland English
Besides the pure story-telling joy of the verse, we get her preservation of the language and her utter lack of sentiment. We’ll be back for more.


(Reviewed:)

Grade: (A)


Websites:

See also:

Poetry
Mary Dalton Links:

    -WIKIPEDIA: Mary Dalton
    -FACULTY PAGE: Mary Dalton (Memorial University)
    -BOOK SITE: Interrobang by Mary Dalton (Vehicule Press)
    -PODCAST: Flahoolic: : A Poetry Podcast (Mary Dalton, CHMR-FM)
    -ENTRY: Mary Dalton (Jacob McArthur Mooney, The Canadian Encyclopedia)
    -ENTRY: Mary Dalton (George J. Dance, Penny's poetry pages Wiki)
    -ENTRY: Mary Dalton (Heritage NF)
    -ENTRY: Mary Dalton (Writers NL)
    -INDEX: Mary Dalton (Saltwire)
    -INDEX: Mary Dalton (Memorial University)
    -INDEX: Mary Dalton (Fiddlehead)
    -INDEX: Mary Dalton (Maison Neuve)
    -POEM: I'm Bursting to Tell: Riddles for Conception Bay (Mary Dalton, Oct. 5, 2006, Maison Neuve)
    -POEMS: Salt Pile, St. John's Harbour by Mary Dalton and The Salt Man by Mary Dalton (Newfoundland Quarterly, Fall 2004)
    -EXCERPT/DEFINITION: mob; mobbing (Dictionary of Newfoundland English Word Form Slips)
    -EXCERPT/DEFINITION: rathered (Dictionary of Newfoundland English Word Form Slips)
    -POEMS: Mary Dalton (Connotation Press)
    -AUDIO POEM: The Jillicker
    -VIDEO POEM: Osmotic (Mary Dalton, National Poetry Month 2021)
    -PROFILE: Forget Polite Verse—This Poet Wants You to Feel the Salt and Soil of Newfoundland: Mary Dalton’s fight to preserve her community’s speech (Nicholas Bradley, Nov. 7, 2024, The Walrus)
    -ARTICLE: Mary Dalton named poet laureate for St. John’s (SaltWire Network, Jan. 31, 2019)
    -AUDIO INTERVIEW: Mary Dalton celebrates the language and culture of Newfoundland (CBC Radio, Feb 01, 2016)
    -AUDIO INTERVIEW: "Edge: Essays, Reviews and Interviews" is a new collection from poet Mary Dalton. (CBS)
    -INTERVIEW: Poet Gerry LaFemina Interviews Poet and Professor Mary Dalton (Poets at Work)
    -INTERVIEW: Like the Star-Nosed Mole: John Barton in Conversation with Mary Dalton on Her Cento Variations (John Barton, Autumn 2012, Malahat Review)
    -INTERVIEW: There's a Carnival for You: An Interview with Mary Dalton (Barbara Nickel, Vehicle Press)
    -AUDIO INTERVIEW: Mary Dalton talks about growing up in Marysvale.: She talks about her family, food, holidays, local hang outs and businesses, superstitions, school, childhood activities, and other aspects of life in the community. (Memorial University, 2017-01-24)
    -VIDEO INTERVIEW: Interview with Mary Dalton (Stephanie McKenzie, Memorial University)
    -PODCAST: Not the Boss of Me: with Mary Dalton (Flahoolic Season 2 - Ep 10, CHMR-FM)
    -AUDIO LECTURE: Mary Dalton (Atwater Library)
    -INTERVIEW: Author spotlight: Mary Dalton (Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia)
    -INTERVIEW: 20 Questions with St. John’s poet laureate Mary Dalton (Juanita Mercer, March 1, 2020, Saltwire)
    -PROFILE: ‘Perfect platform’: St. John's poet laureate marries wordplay and technology with Flahoolic podcast (Janet Harron, Sep. 26th, 2019, Memorial University Gazette)
    -VIDEO: Mary Dalton: Memorial Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) faculty members Lisa Moore (Department of English) and Mary Dalton (Department of English, Professor Emerita) discuss her work as a poet, the Pratt Lecture, and more (State of the Arts Ep 7, 5/14/21, Memorial University)
    -PROFILE: Incendiary Intellect: Patrick O’Reilly on how Mary Dalton’s interest in voice transcends Newfoundland—or Canada (Patrick O’Reilly, April 12, 2016, Partisan)
    -VIDEO: Mary Dalton performs at the Words Aloud 11 Spoken Word Festival in Durham, Ontario, Canada, November 8, 2014
    -VIDEO: Mary Dalton (Tree Reading Series Featured Reader 23 Apr 13))
    -ESSAY: Newfoundland Poetry as "Ethnographic Salvage": Time, Place, and Voice in the Poetry of Michael Crummey and Mary Dalton (Paul Chafe, 2007-06-06, From There to Here: Place and Public Cultures)
    -ESSAY: Mouth to Hand: Can Newfoundland English survive on print alone? (Amanda Jernigan, Oct. 5, 2006, Maison Neuve)
    -ESSAY: Reading poetry and its paratexts for evidence of fair dealing: Mary Dalton’s Hooking, cento poetics, and copyright law (Dr. Mark A. McCutcheon, Athabasca University)
    -VIDEO ARCHIVES: Mary Dalton poet (YouTube)
    -REVIEW: of Interrobang by Mary Dalton (CBC)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: Highlight Reel: On the found poetry of Mary Dalton's Hooking. (Brian Palmu, March 18, 2014, Maison Neuve)
    -REVIEW: of Hooking: A Book of Centos (Fraser Sutherland, erudit)
    -REVIEW: of Hooking (Katia Grubisic, Malahat Review)
    -REVIEW: of Breakwater: Newfoundland Poetry Series: Mary Dalton (Lynn Davies, Fiddlehead)
    -REVIEW: of Edge: Essays, Reviews, Interviews by Mary Dalton (Robert McGill, University of Toronto)
    -REVIEW: of Waste Ground by Mary Dalton (Latitude 65)
    -REVIEW: of Merrybegot by Mary Dalton (Joanna M. Weston, The Danforth Review)
    -REVIEW: of The Vernacular Strain in Newfoundland Poetry: the 2020 Pratt Lecture By Mary Dalton ( Heidi Greco, Miramichi Reader)
    -REVIEW: of Red Ledger by Mary Dalton: CENTRAL QUESTION: How should Newfoundland sound? (Stephanie Burt, The Believer)
    -REVIEW: of Red Ledger (Janet Fraser, Newfoundland and Labrador Studies)

Book-related and General Links: