Floris Clark McLaren
Floris Clark McLaren was a notable poet born in 1904 in Skagway, Alaska, who played a significant role in the evolution of poetic expression in British Columbia during the early to mid-twentieth century. Known for her book of verse, *Frozen Fire* (1937), she contributed to the cultural landscape of the region by co-founding the poetry quarterly *Contemporary Verse* in 1941, which remained a vital platform for local poets for over a decade. McLaren's educational background includes attending Western Washington University and teaching in Alaska before settling in Victoria, British Columbia with her husband, John Angus McLaren, and their two sons.
Her poetry reflects a transitional awareness of modernity, showcasing a blend of premodern sensibilities and responses to the rapidly changing world around her. Collaborating with fellow poets like Dorothy Livesay and Anne Marriott, McLaren's work in *Contemporary Verse* illustrated a diverse range of poetic ideologies and helped foster a community of literary activity. Although her contributions have not received extensive recognition in modern literary discussions, McLaren remains a significant figure in the history of Canadian literature, particularly in the context of Western poetry's gradual embrace of modernist influences.
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Floris Clark McLaren
Poet
- Born: December 18, 1904
- Birthplace: Skagway, Alaska
- Died: April 15, 1978
- Place of death: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Biography
The first half of the twentieth century was a time of radical change for Anglophone poetry in the metropolitan areas of Canada, but modernity and its ironic consciousness came more slowly to poets in outlying areas. Poets in the Canadian West were slower to register the impact of literary movements like Imagism and the work of Modernist poets like Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot. Floris Clark McLaren is one poet who is often associated with the gradual evolution of poetic consciousness in British Columbia. McLaren is an important literary figure not only for her book of verse, Frozen Fire (1937), but also for her part in founding the poetry quarterly Contemporary Verse, a focal point of poetic activity in British Columbia for eleven years beginning in September, 1941.
McLaren was born in Skagway, Alaska, in 1904, to Henry Clark, a horticulturist, and Marion Granger Clark. She attended local schools and then matriculated at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, after which she returned to Alaska to teach. In 1925, she married John Angus McLaren; two sons were born to the couple in Alaska before they settled in Victoria, British Columbia.
McLaren’s associates in founding Contemporary Verse were Dorothy Livesay, Anne Marriott, and Doris Ferne. The quarterly was edited by Alan Crawley, whose name and work, like McLaren’s, has been largely lost to history. Copies of the quarterly display a wide selection of contemporary poets of various ideologies. The journal became a major vehicle for the development of poetic sensibility in British Columbia for a decade.
McLaren’s own poetry appeared in Contemporary Verse from time to time; her work shows a premodern sensibility that was gradually becoming aware of the rapid changes in metropolitan life. Frozen Fire is her only volume of published poetry and it shows a much more imitative poetry than her later, scattered verse. Images in McLaren’s late poetry reveal a consciousness in conflict with the fragmenting forces of modernity.