Robert Finch
Robert Duer Claydon Finch was a notable American-Canadian poet and educator, born on May 14, 1900, in Freeport, Long Island, New York. Coming from a privileged background, he developed an early appreciation for the visual arts and languages, becoming fluent in French by age four. His education continued at the University of Toronto, where he earned a B.A. in French in 1925, followed by studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. Finch had a long career as a French instructor at the University of Toronto, where he taught for forty years and became closely associated with the Montreal Group, a collective of modernist poets.
Finch's poetry, which often drew inspiration from modernist figures like Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, was distinguished by its traditional forms and complex imagery derived from Christian themes and mythology. His first collection, *Poems* (1946), garnered the Governor General's Award but also faced criticism for being overly intellectual and European. Despite this, Finch continued to explore timeless themes of beauty and art, earning a second Governor General's Award in 1959 for *Acis in Oxford, and Other Poems*. Although marginalized during his later years, Finch's work has since been recognized for its modernist qualities and intricate craftsmanship, which resonate with contemporary audiences exploring the nature of poetry and its role in reflecting human experience. Finch passed away on June 11, 1995.
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Robert Finch
Poet
- Born: May 14, 1900
- Birthplace: Freeport, New York
- Died: June 11, 1995
- Place of death: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Biography
Robert Duer Claydon Finch was born May 14, 1900, in Freeport, Long Island, New York. Born into privilege, Finch grew up in an environment that fostered a love of the visual arts and encouraged Finch’s interest in both reading and languages (by four, he was fluent in French). In 1906, the family relocated to a ranch near the Canadian Rockies. Finch matriculated at the University of Toronto in 1919 and graduated in 1925 with a B.A. in French. After two years at the Sorbonne in Paris, he accepted a position teaching French at the University of Toronto, where he remained for the next forty years. Finch pursued an interest in poetry that was informed by his admiration for Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot rather than for the poetry that defined Canadian verse at the time: lushly romantic poems most often centered on traditional themes of nature, family, and country. By contrast, Finch’s poems, while crafted in traditional forms, were allusive, dense, coolly ironic, shaped around complex imagery drawn from Christian literature or mythology. His poetic line was self-consciously lyrical, polished, and its rhythms and rhymes were richly paced (his long love of music had developed a keen ear for the sonic effect of poetry). Finch explored questions about the nature of itself, specifically its function as a principle of order in a chaotic world and as a principle of beauty in an otherwise unpromising contemporary urban wasteland.
As Finch’s reputation grew, he became associated with the Montreal Group, a coterie of young poets, among them A. M. Klein and A. J. M. Smith, who were energetically introducing modernism to a Canadian audience via literary journals and anthologies. When Finch’s first collection of poems, Poems (1946), was awarded the prestigious Governor General’s Award, it sparked sharp controversy. Critics accused Finch of being too European, too intellectual, and, ultimately, pretentious and artificial. The criticism would follow Finch over the next decades, and each volume he produced affirmed his reputation for conservative, Christian-grounded meditations; for tightly controlled emotions; and for use the form itself as the defining measure of a poem. In an era in which poetry increasingly turned to political and social agendas, Finch maintained his lofty interest in generalized themes of art, beauty, love, and nature. He would be awarded a second Governor General’s Award in 1959 for Acis in Oxford, and Other Poems (1959), whose centerpiece includes an ornate recollection of the tectonic impact of hearing Handel’s sweeping oratorio “Acis and Galatea.” Finch’s later verse reflects his earliest interests and delights in exploring the sound of language, investigating the mysteries of beauty and art, and above all, executing traditional forms with self-conscious grace. When he died on June 11, 1995, Finch was largely marginalized by the critical press, who saw Finch’s poetry as precious, contrived, and forced. Later, though, when Canadian poetry experienced a renaissance and Canadian poets broke free the picturesque landscape poetry that had dominated for more than a century, Finch’s verse was recognized as the epitome of modernist poetics: intensely crafted, delicately ironic, and quietly restrained.