Browse Exhibits (2 total)
Excerpts From The Real World July
The exhibit contains materials from the Archives and Special Collection in the University of Calgary. The materials include Robert Kroetsch's drafts and work on his poem, "Excerpts From The Real World".
In the exhibit, you will be able to see changes throughout the draft, which pinpoints towards Kroetsch's thought process.
There are also pieces of papers, typed and written, letters, and small notes with writing on them.
These items were chosen to demonstrate the variant forms of a single element of poetry that can be found within the Kroetsch archive. By demonstrating the progress of a single passage, from an initial idea handwritten on an envelope, through hand written pages, and those typed both on lined and unlined paper, we hope to give insight into the creative process of Kroetsch's writing.
Seed Catalog, Section 7
The images shown here are typescript drafts, with holographic annotation, of Section 7 from Kroetsch’s long poem “Seed Catalogue.” These drafts were chosen with the intent of exhibiting a formally interesting section of this particular archive in its entirety, in order to allow for convenient genetic study of a contained unit. Section 7 of the published poem is interesting for its extrapolation on the poem’s repeated phrase “how do you grow a poet?” unique formal variations, and references to other Canadian literary figures (Kroetsch’s colleagues), such as Al Purdy and James Bacque. Several lines appear in these drafts that do not appear in the published poem, and others are moved out of section 7 to different locations in the published work. Interesting to note as well are the small edits made throughout with attention to word choice and altered tone. Comparative study of these drafts with the published sections of the poem will allow for insights into the relationship between the poem’s structure and content.