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National Poetry Registry

Introducing the National Poetry Registry

Welcome to the National Poetry Registry. The National Poetry Registry helps connect Canadian parliamentarians, citizens and poets. Selected by parliamentarians, citizens, and a bibliographer, the poems listed herein refer to Canada’s senatorial regions (e.g., provinces) and federal electoral districts. An author’s actual residency is immaterial: a Toronto-based poet might appear with a poem about Halifax and one about Calgary.

My hope is that Canadians will look up a constituency and discover poets whose work will gain additional relevance via their verses about a place—or places—therein. I also hope to inform parliamentarians about how poets have viewed—or view—a riding and acquaint them with the poets who have lived in or visited their electoral districts.

Two notes: first, the compilation of this website does not represent an exhaustive list of all constituencies and related poets; secondly, due to reasons of copyright, neither whole poems nor excerpts appear here. In closing, I wish to acknowledge here the fine, original research and outreach labour of Dr. Diana Manole, Ph.D., in assembling this group of Canadian poems and poets.

Dr. George Elliott Clarke, O.C., O.N.S., Ph.D.
The 7th Parliamentary Poet Laureate (2016-17)

Search the National Poetry Registry

You can search the database for poems that refer to Canada’s provinces or territories (senatorial regions) or for poems that refer to federal electoral districts (constituencies). Please note that not all constituencies are listed.

For regional entries, use the dropdown menu to select a province or territory.

For constituency entries, use the dropdown menu to select a province or territory, then select the constituency name (listed alphabetically).

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Disclaimer

As the steward of the Parliamentary Poet Laureate, the Library of Parliament strives to achieve balance between its mission and organizational values, and the artistic expression of Poets Laureate. Poets Laureate have the discretion to determine how to exercise specific activities relevant to their role, as defined in the Parliament of Canada Act, while endeavouring to carry out their duties in such a way as to not compromise public confidence and trust in the Parliament of Canada.

As such, the works or external resources on this site are created or selected by the Poets Laureate, and the Poets Laureate are solely responsible for them. The posting of these works or inclusion of external resources is not an endorsement of any kind by the Library of Parliament. This section is subject to the same general terms of use for the Library of Parliament’s digital content outlined in the Important Notices page.