Analysis of 'The Country North of Belleville'

          The poem ‘The Country North of Belleville’ is taken from Al Purdy’s collection of poetry titled Beyond Remembering. ‘Belleville’ refers to a city located at the mouth of the Moira River on the Bay of Quinte in Southern Ontario. The poem is an example for Al Purdy’s deep engagement with Canadian landscape especially Ontario and the problems of human settlement in Canadian Shield.

          The poem begins with the poet’s introduction of various places in Canada. Since Canada is a settlement colony, the question of place and the attitude of settler’s to the geography are very crucial. Al Purdy lists out various specific places in Canada and remarks that people may have their own sense of beauty and no one will deny this. This may suggest that the pristine, wild and untamed nature of the locality enjoys unquestionable heights of beauty which no one doubts. The comment can also testify Al Purdy’s concern for the old Canada.

          The poet continues to describe the region and calls it as ‘a country of defeat’ because human efforts to make the country habitable fail miserably. He compares the efforts of farmers to cultivate the region as that of Sisyphus, the Greek king who was punished to push a large rock up on a steep hill, only to find it rolling back on nearing the top. The farmers gradually realize that their attempts to tame the country will not bear fruit.

         He describes the country as quiet, distant and lean covered with inches of black soil. They try their best to build human habitat on the wild country and it refuses to change and repeatedly returns to its earlier stage of a forest. The poet gives a detailed portrait of the abandoned country. The farms have tuned into forests, the fences are strewn all over, and the stones are covered with moss. He feels the forsaken farms as cities under water.

        During the fall plowing, farmers are tempted by the beauty and fertility of the land. They are wooed by the red patches of land mixed with gold. They plow the land thoroughly till the patterns in the field get as complicated as that of the brain. It may suggest people fail to yield the land and it still continue untamable. The poet also mentions that the new generation is unwilling to live with the difficulties of the country and leaves.

       In the conclusion, the poet remarks that people may revisit the country of defeat. This may be a hint at the way human settlement has changed over the years and the progression achieved. The introduction of new technologies and the change in the attitude of the people to the country have made it easy for the people to yield the country. They have to trace their way to the Canadian Shield.