Dark and Stormy

In an autobiographical poem called “Being Caught,” John Newlove writes, “I want to be at home in the weather.” For him, the weather is a condition, an environment, some version of reality, but not a home. In The Weather & the Words, a highly readable selection of letters, expertly edited by J. A. Weingarten, Newlove drops occasional comments about the elements. While living in British Columbia in the 1960s, he complained about the drenching rain: “Goddam May here, and it rains like mad; druther be back on prairies, where there’d be sunshine.” A few years later in Toronto, he fought cold spells with Aspirins and whisky.

Canadian poets have a lot to say about the weather, both as meteorology and as metaphor. Archibald Lampman’s outstanding “Heat” exults in the shimmery temperatures of high summer. P. K. Page’s “Stories of Snow” summons up snowdrifts and frozen lakes as counterpoints to tropical vegetation. Whatever else is happening, there is always the...