Article

Alain Grandbois

Published Online February 10, 2008

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Alain Grandbois, poet (b at St-Casimir, Qué 25 May 1900; d at Québec City 18 Mar 1975). He is considered the first great modern Québec poet. He travelled the world 1918-39 and shared the hopes and problems of contemporary man.

Grandbois, Alain

Alain Grandbois, poet (b at St-Casimir, Qué 25 May 1900; d at Québec City 18 Mar 1975). He is considered the first great modern Québec poet. He travelled the world 1918-39 and shared the hopes and problems of contemporary man. His work closely integrates the themes of exploring the secrets of the world and studying human destiny, each one reinforcing the other. His writing and subject matter thus had a depth and breadth previously unknown in Québec, making them a model for various young poets of the 1950s. Né à Québec: Louis Jolliet (1933), Les Voyages de Marco Polo (1941), Avant le chaos (1945) and Visages du monde (1971) all demonstrate his knowledge of the world. The confrontation with destiny (adventure, glory, love, liberty, death) occurs in precise locations, through specific characters. His poetry - Îles de la nuit (1944), Rivages de l'homme (1948), L'Étoile pourpre (1957), Poèmes épars - develops these topics within a single character, the man of the "long voyage insolite/À travers l'incantation du temps." The poetry is metaphysical, its scope being that of destiny explored, through exploratory words, and with its developed rhetorical structure it speaks for all in an intimate and personal tone.