The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.2003, Side 9

Vol. 58 #2
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
51
Out in the Open Air
The liberating legacy of Stephan G. Stephansson
by Rev. Stefan M. Jonasson
The American philosopher Ralph
Waldo Emerson idealized the poet as the
representative human being, in whom the
powers of both divinity and nature came
into focus. “The poet is the person,” he
wrote, “in whom these powers are in bal-
ance, the man without impediment, who
sees and handles that which others dream
of, traverses the whole scale of experience,
and is representative of man, in virtue of
being the largest power to receive and
impart.”1 Few societies have better under-
stood Emerson’s sentiment than that of the
Icelanders, who have celebrated their poets
throughout the generations.
As we mark the sesquicentennial of his
birth, scholars and general readers alike
acknowledge Stephan G. Stephansson as
the finest poet among the Icelanders in
North America, if not the finest poet in
modern Icelandic literature. Richard Beck
described him as “one of the most prolific
as well as one of the greatest poets Iceland
ever produced,” whose “literary achieve-
ments are astounding” and “presuppose
unusual genius, irrepressible creative urge,
and an untiring devotion to the poetic
art.”2 Watson Kirkconnell styled him
“Canada’s leading poet,” speculating that
he would “some day be acknowledged as
the earliest poet of the first rank, writing in
any language, to emerge in the national life
of Canada.”3 Harvard University’s Stanton
Cawley described him as “the greatest poet
of the Western world,” arguing that his
work eclipsed that of the American giants
Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman and Ralph
Waldo Emerson.4 Whichever superlatives
one may choose, Stephansson clearly ranks
among the poetic geniuses of human histo-
ry. But great souls often defy the labels that
are applied to them. It is insufficient to call
Stephansson a great poet, unless we mean
to do so with Emerson’s understanding of
the poet as a representative person; other-
wise, we must acknowledge that
Stephansson’s greatness cast its influence
over a wider sweep of earthly concern than
the art of poetry. As Richard Beck
observed, “no one can read Stephansson’s
poetry thoughtfully and intensively with-
out coming to recognize the greatness of
the man as well as of the poet.”5 While
many have focused on Stephansson as a
poet in the literary sense, less attention has
been given to him as a social prophet and
philosopher. A pioneer farmer and poet, he
was as importantly a pioneer thinker.
People often point to the title of
Stephansson’s collected works, Andvokur
- or “Wakeful Nights” - as a particularly
apt metaphor for the poet’s life, driven as
he was to compose his verses into the wee
hours of the morning after long days of
labour on the farm. Yet I would argue that
his spirit is better captured in the title of his
slender first collection of poetry, Ud a
vfdavangi - “Out in the Open Air”- which
was published in Winnipeg in 1894. It was
out in the open air that he worked the land
to earn a living; it was out in the open air
that he allowed his mind to transcend the
limitations of conventional thought; it was
out into the open air where he sought to
lead those who have whiled away many a
wakeful night reading his words and pon-
dering their rich meaning. Emerson wrote
that “poets are thus liberating gods”6 and
there can be little doubt that Stephansson’s
influence during his lifetime, and his
enduring influence since, has been as a lib-
erating force in the life of his readers,
whether in politics, religion or literature. It
is still out into the open air where this poet
and prophet leads us.
The man who came to be known as the
“Poet of the Rocky Mountains”
(Klettafjallaskaldid) was born Stefan