Character guide

Bill Brown

supporting

Also known as Brown, bold Bill Brown, Will

Brown belongs to the loose fraternity of figures McIntyre summons to embody risk — the swimmer, the steamer passenger, the townsman caught in public drama. His boldness is his defining trait and his quiet liability, since the poems that invoke him tend to place him near water, crowds, and forces larger than any single man. He matters because he gives the collection its recurring pulse of masculine bravado, a thread readers can follow from poem to poem.

Poor Tom

supporting

Also known as Tom, poor Tom

Tom is less a fixed person than a recurring note of pathos — the suitor vowing to wed, the unidentified young man raised from Toronto Bay, the mourned absence that gives other verses their weight. His tension is between devotion and disappearance: he loves, he is loved, and yet the poems keep returning him to water, silence, or the anonymity of a suit with a maker's name. He matters because he teaches the reader how McIntyre handles grief — gently, repeatedly, without ever quite letting Tom rest.

Robert Burns

supporting

Also known as Burns

Burns never speaks in these poems, yet his presence shapes them — invoked alongside Poe, Saxe, and Whitman in McIntyre's roll call of admired bards. He represents the ideal McIntyre keeps reaching for: verse that is warm, homely, and unashamed of ordinary subjects like hens, tea, and railroad bonds. His shadow matters because it explains the collection's ambition — to write Canadian life with Burns's tenderness and none of his polish.

Thomas Campbell

supporting

Also known as Campbell, O Campbell

He appears in the collection as a name to be celebrated rather than a figure to be dramatized — one of the poets McIntyre tips his hat to while building his own Canadian canon. The tension is generational: Campbell belongs to an older, grander British tradition that McIntyre admires but cannot simply imitate. He matters because he anchors the book's sense of lineage, reminding readers that these local poems are written in conscious conversation with a wider literary world.

John McCrae

minor

Also known as John, McCrae

A figure mentioned in the context of poetry.

Father Ranney

minor

Also known as Ranney

A clergyman appearing in the narrative.

Mary Crosby

minor

Also known as Mary

A female character mentioned in the poems.

John Roe

supporting

Also known as John

Roe is the collection's most companionable presence, a first-person teller who moves easily between anecdote and ballad, from the peasant's cottage to the frozen carcass of a bear. His charm lies in his unflappable curiosity: he watches, he reports, he enjoys the absurd without losing his footing. He matters because he gives the book its oral, fireside quality — the sense that these poems are being told to you by someone who was there.

Doctor Gardiner

minor

A doctor appearing in the narrative.

Tom Norton

supporting

Also known as brave Tom, poor Tom

Norton belongs to the same emotional territory as the drowned swimmer Webb and the victims of the Victoria — men whose bravery is met by forces indifferent to it. His aliases tell the story: 'brave Tom' in one breath, 'poor Tom' in the next, as if valor and grief were two names for the same person. He matters because he embodies McIntyre's recurring theme that heroism and loss travel together, especially near water.

Shakespeare

minor

Also known as Shakespeare Bacon, Bacon

The famous playwright, referenced as a literary figure.

Big Bear

minor

Also known as the Big Bear, Bear

A bear character in a narrative poem.

Sir Walter Scott

supporting

Also known as Scott, Sir Walter, Walter Scott

In McIntyre's poetic landscape, Scott stands as the ancestral standard against which local Canadian and Scottish versifiers are quietly measured. He never speaks in these pages; instead he haunts them as an ideal, the figure whose clean, sweet line McIntyre resolves to imitate even as people talk. His presence matters because he frames the collection's central anxiety: whether colonial poets can inherit the old world's music without merely echoing it.

Mrs. Moody

minor

A female character mentioned in the poems.

John Grant

minor

Also known as Grant, poor Grant, Grant Big fat

A character described as large and unfortunate.

Little Dora

minor

Also known as Dora

A young female character in the poems.

Jackal

minor

Also known as the Jackal

An animal character in a narrative.

Robert Fleming Gourley

minor

Also known as Robert Gourley

A person honored in a dedicated poem.

Lady Ann

minor

Also known as Mary, the Lady Ann

A noblewoman appearing in a narrative poem.

Tennyson

minor

Also known as poets Tennyson

The Victorian poet, referenced as a literary figure.

Dog Johnston

minor

A dog character appearing in the narrative.

Bill Jones

minor

Also known as Jones, brave Bill Jones

A character described as brave.

Jack Smith

minor

Also known as Smith, poor Jack, Jack, little Jack

A character, possibly unfortunate or small.

Alexander Murray McIntyre

minor

Also known as Sandy, McIntyre, bard McIntyre

A bard or poet mentioned in the work.

Gordon Cumming

minor

Also known as the Lion Hunter, Gordon Cumming, Hunter

A famous lion hunter referenced in the poems.

Byron

minor

Also known as Byron Poets, The brilliant, passionate Byron, Cameron

The Romantic poet, referenced as a literary figure.

Oliver Goldsmith

minor

Also known as Goldsmith

The Irish writer, referenced in the poems.

Edgar Allan Poe

minor

Also known as Poe, the Albatross, Albatross, The Albatross, E. A. Poe the Albatross

The American poet, referenced as a literary figure.

Daniel Hebner

minor

A character appearing in the narrative.

James McIntyre

minor

Also known as McIntyre

A poet or character mentioned in the work.

James Hogg

minor

Also known as Hogg

The Scottish poet, referenced in the poems.

Henry Karn

minor

Also known as Harry

A character appearing in the narrative.

Mrs. Staunton

minor

A character in a poem about Horace Greeley.

Milton

minor

The English poet, referenced as a literary figure.

Bulwer-Lytton

minor

Also known as the great Bulwer, Bulwer

The novelist and playwright, referenced in the poems.

T. D. McKee

minor

Also known as the late Honourable T. D. McKee

A politician honored in a poem.

The Colonel

minor

Also known as the Colonel

A military officer appearing in the narrative.

Jane

minor

A female character mentioned in the poems.

Longfellow

minor

The American poet, referenced as a literary figure.

Tom McKay

minor

Also known as McKay, Tom

A character appearing in the narrative.

Walt Whitman

minor

The American poet, referenced in the poems.

Prince Charlie

minor

Also known as bold Prince Charley, Charlie

The Jacobite prince, referenced in the poems.

King Bomba

minor

Also known as King, Bomba

A king character in a narrative poem.

Mr. McGee

minor

Also known as McGee

A character mentioned in the poems.

Will Carleton

minor

Also known as Carleton, Willie

An American poet, referenced in the poems.

Young Benwell

minor

Also known as Benwell

A character appearing in the narrative.

Wambo

minor

Also known as The beautiful and youthful Wambo, Miss Wambo

A beautiful young female character.

King Hiram

minor

Also known as Hiram

A biblical king referenced in the poems.

Queen Victoria

minor

Also known as Queen, Victoria

The British monarch, referenced in the poems.

Colonel Wonham

minor

Also known as Wonham

A military officer honored in a poem.

Hugh Millar

minor

Also known as Millar

A Scottish geologist and writer, referenced.

Uncle Sam

minor

Also known as Sam

A personification of the United States.

Chief Big Wolfe

minor

Also known as big Wolfe

A Native American chief character.

Frank Leach

minor

Also known as Leach

A character appearing in the narrative.

Daniel Pheisan

minor

Also known as The late Daniel Pheisan

A deceased person honored in a poem.

Wee Flora

minor

Also known as Flora, the charming bonnie Flora, Young Flora

A charming young female character.

Washington Irving

minor

Also known as Washington Irvine, Irvine

The American author, referenced in the poems.

King Duncan

minor

Also known as McBeth, good King Duncan

A character from Macbeth, referenced in the poems.

Harold

minor

Also known as Harry

A character appearing in the narrative.

Tom Moore

minor

The Irish poet, referenced in the poems.

John Dryden

minor

Also known as Dryden, Pope Genius of Dryden, Pope

The English poet, referenced in the poems.

Ettrick Shepherd

minor

Also known as Hogg, Hogg

The poet James Hogg, referenced by his nickname.

Burnaby

minor

A character appearing in the narrative.

Old Carlock

minor

Also known as Carlock

An elderly character appearing in the narrative.

Samuel Coleridge

minor

Also known as Coleridge, See Coleridge

The English poet, referenced in the poems.

Bryan Borohm

minor

Also known as Bryant

A character or poet referenced in the poems.

St. Andrew

minor

Also known as Andrew

The patron saint of Scotland, referenced.

Mr. W. D. Grant

minor

Also known as Grant, young Grant

A character appearing in the narrative.

Dear Dick

minor

Also known as Dick

A character addressed in a poem.

Ruth

minor

A female character, often a narrator or focal point.

Salmon Wilmot

minor

Also known as Wilmot

A character appearing in the narrative.

Donald Ross

minor

A character in a poem about a person of that name.

John Galt

minor

Also known as Galt, Dunlop John Galt, Dunlop

The Scottish novelist, referenced in the poems.

Lord Rae

minor

Also known as Rachel, The present Lord Rae

A lord character appearing in the narrative.

Saxe

minor

Also known as Saxe The mind, the witty Saxe

A poet referenced for wit.

Lord Brougham

minor

A British statesman, referenced in the poems.

Mr. Gourley

minor

A character mentioned in the poems.

McGeorge

minor

A character appearing in the narrative.

Governor Lorne

minor

Also known as Lorne

A Canadian governor general, referenced.