William Wilfred Campbell
William Wilfred Campbell was a Canadian poet and civil servant born in 1861 in Berlin, Ontario. He pursued his education at the University of Toronto and Wycliffe College before training for the ministry at the Episcopal Theological School in Massachusetts. After resigning from religious life in 1891, he transitioned into a career as a civil servant in Ottawa while continuing to write poetry. His early works reflected his emotional responses to contemporary scientific theories, such as evolution, and often revolved around themes of nature, particularly drawing inspiration from the Canadian landscape. Campbell, along with fellow poets Archibald Lampman and Duncan Campbell Scott, contributed to a weekly literary column titled "At the Mermaid Inn." He gained recognition for his poetry in both Canadian and American literary circles, and his first collection, "Lake Lyrics, and Other Poems," published in 1889, remains notable. Throughout his career, Campbell published five volumes of poetry, two novels, and several plays, establishing himself as a significant figure in Canadian literature before his death on January 1, 1918. His works also reflect his views as an imperialist and Anglophile, and he is often associated with prominent poets of his time.
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William Wilfred Campbell
Writer
- Born: June 1, 1861
- Birthplace: Berlin, Ontario, Canada
- Died: January 1, 1918
- Place of death: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Biography
William Wilfred Campbell was born in 1861 in Berlin, Ontario, Canada. He attended the University of Toronto and Wycliffe College. Campbell followed in his father’s footsteps and trained to enter the ministry at the Episcopal Theological School in Massachusetts. His early poems demonstrate his emotional, brooding response to the newly introduced theory of evolution and to the meaning of the new concepts of life.
Campbell resigned from the religious life in 1891 and began work as a civil servant in Ottawa. He continued to write poetry. He also wrote a weekly column of literary essays with fellow poets Archibald Lampman and Duncan Campbell Scott, called “At the Mermaid Inn.” Much of Campbell’s poetry focused on nature, particularly that of the local environment of Canada. In the late nineteenth century, poems of nature and the spirit of man were welcomed by editors and readers of American journals, and Campbell had much success in submitting his poems for publication in the United States. His poetry also reveals him to be an imperialist and an Anglophile.
In addition to five volumes of poetry, Campbell published two novels and several plays. He is best remembered for his first poetry collection,Lake Lyrics, and Other Poems, published in 1889. Campbell is frequently linked with poets Lampman and Scott of Ontario and Charles G. D. Roberts and Bliss Carman of New Brunswick. Campbell died on January 1,1918.