Editing Bliss Carman (section)

===''Vagabondia''===
Carman rose to prominence in the 1890s, a decade the poetry of which anthologist [[Louis Untermeyer]] has called marked by "a cheerless evasion, a humorous unconcern; its most representative craftsmen were, with four exceptions, the writers of light verse." The first two of those four exceptions were Richard Hovey and Bliss Carman. For Untermeyer: "The poetry of this period ... is dead because it detached itself from the world.... But ... revolt openly declared itself with the publication of ''[[#Vagabondia|Songs from Vagabondia]]'' (1894), ''[[#MoreVagabondia|More Songs from Vagabondia]]'' (1896), and ''[[#LastVagabondia|Last Songs from Vagabondia]]'' (1900).... It was the heartiness, the gypsy jollity, the rush of high spirits, that conquered. Readers of the ''Vagabondia'' books were swept along by their speed faster than by their philosophy."<ref>[[#Untermayer|Untermayer (1921)]], p. xxviii</ref>

Even [[Modernist poetry|modernists]] loved ''Vagabondia''. In the "October, 1912 issue of the ''London Poetry Review,'' [[Ezra Pound]] noted that he had 'greatly enjoyed ''The Songs of Vagabondia'' by Mr. Bliss Carman and the late Richard Hovey.'"<ref name="bentley">{{cite journal |first=D.M.R. |last=Bentley |url=http://www.canadianpoetry.ca/cpjrn/vol14/bentley.htm |title=Preface: Minor Poets of a Superior Order |volume=14 |date=Spring–Summer 1984 |journal=Canadian Poetry: Studies/Documents/Reviews |publisher=Canadian Poetry Press |access-date=March 24, 2011}}</ref>

Carman's most famous poem from the first volume is arguably "The Joys of the Open Road." ''More Songs...'' contains "A Vagabond Song," once familiar to a generation of Canadians. "Canadian youngsters who were in grade seven anytime between the mid-1930s and the 1950s were probably exposed to ... 'A Vagabond Song' [which] appeared in ''The Canada Book of Prose and Verse, Book One'', the school reader that was used in nearly every province" (and was edited by Lorne Pierce).<ref name="adams"/>

In 1912 Carman would publish ''[[#EchoesVagabondia|Echoes from Vagabondia]]'' as a solo work. (Hovey had died in 1900). More of a remembrance book than part of the set, it has a distinct elegiac tone. It contains the lyric "The Flute of Spring".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.canadianpoetry.ca/confederation/Bliss%20Carman/echoes_vagabondia/the_flute_of_spring.htm|title=Bliss Carman - Echoes from Vagabondia - Confederation Poets - Canadian Poetry|website=www.canadianpoetry.ca|access-date=2018-02-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160612044511/http://www.canadianpoetry.ca/confederation/Bliss%20Carman/echoes_vagabondia/the_flute_of_spring.htm|archive-date=2016-06-12|url-status=dead}}</ref>