Charles Sangster
Charles Sangster was a Canadian poet born in 1822 in Kingston, Ontario, who is recognized as a significant early figure in Canadian literature. His life was marked by challenges, including the early death of his father and a difficult career trajectory. Although he gained popularity during his lifetime, his work fell into obscurity after his death in 1893 until it was rediscovered in 1957 at McGill University. Critics note that while Sangster's poetic talent was notable, it was not fully realized due to the hardships he faced, including a demanding job at the post office that he felt detracted from his writing. His major literary contributions include two volumes of poems: *The St. Lawrence and the Saguenay, and Other Poems* (1856) and *Hesperus, and Other Poems and Lyrics* (1860), with the title poem of the first volume being considered his most significant work. Sangster's influence has led many to regard him as the "father of Canadian poetry," reflecting his role in shaping a national literary identity. Despite his struggles, his legacy continues to be acknowledged for its importance in the evolution of Canadian poetry.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Charles Sangster
Poet
- Born: July 16, 1822
- Birthplace: Kingston, Ontario, Canada
- Died: December 9, 1893
- Place of death: Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Biography
Critics are uniform in their assessment that Canadian poet Charles Sangster’s talent was significant, yet not fully realized due to the difficult circumstances of his life. Although popular during his lifetime, his poems were largely unknown between his death in 1893 and their “rediscovery” in the McGill University archives in 1957. In spite of his literary shortcomings, he is considered an important early voice in the development of a Canadian national literature. Many consider Sangster to be the “father of Canadian poetry.”
Sangster was born in mid-1822 in Kingston, Ontario, the first Canadian capital. His father, an employee of the Navy Department in and around the Great Lakes region, was the son of a British Army Sergeant who had fought in the American Revolution. The elder Sangster died when his son was two years old. In 1837, Charles Sangster quit school, left home, and began working at the Fort Henry Ordnance Division, performing various tasks—including preparing ammunition during the rebellion of 1837—until 1849.
During his years at Fort Henry, Sangster worked as a part-time editor for the periodical British Whig, a publication which he would serve as editor later in the 1850’s. He began writing poems in the 1840’s, submitting some of them for publication in local newspapers. He eventually collected them into two volumes: The St. Lawrence and the Saguenay, and Other Poems, which would be published in 1856, and Hesperus, and Other Poems and Lyrics, published in 1860. The ambitious and imaginative title poem of the first volume, based loosely around the narrative of a journey down the St. Lawrence and Saguenay rivers and featuring rich description and complex conceit, marks the main achievement of his literary career.
Sangster married for the second time in the same year that he published Hesperus. His first wife had died childless eighteen months after their marriage in 1856, coincidentally the same year he published his first volume. In order to support his growing family, which would eventually include his wife and four children, Sangster began working for the post office, a drudgery- filled job to which he later attributed the decline in quality of his poetic output. Starting in the mid-1870’s, he developed an assortment of physical maladies which would plague him for the remainder of his life. In the late 1880’s, he compiled several additional volumes of unpublished poetry, but was unable to publish them before his death.