Confederation Poets

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The title Confederation Poets was given to a group of Canadian poets who created a distinctive Canadian poetic style after the Confederation of Canada in 1867. There were two main branches of this group. One, consisting of the poets Archibald Lampman, Duncan Campbell Scott, and William Wilfred Campbell lived in Ottawa. The other group were Maritime poets, including Bliss Carman and Charles G.D. Roberts.

When Ottawa became the capital of Canada in 1867, the Fathers of Confederation wanted to make it a capital worthy of comparison to any capital city in the world. They understood that a true capital is more than bricks and mortar. They wanted a city to lead Canada in arts and sciences, culture and intellect. To that end, they encouraged worthy poets, writers, scientists and artists to move to Ottawa to create the "Florence of North America."

The Ottawa group jointly wrote a column in the Toronto Globe, in 1892-1893, entitled "At the Mermaid Inn." It has become renowned as the genesis of Canadian literary criticism, and the heart of Canadian literature.

Because of this Ottawa became the literary capital of Canada in the latter part of the 19th century. ^[1]