Canada’s Greatest Poet: A Quinte and Prince Edward County Icon
No introduction to the culture of the area around the Timber House would be complete without mentioning Al Purdy. There’s something not immediately obvious, but ultimately very captivating about this area. Al Purdy may epitomize this phenomenon of unanticipated connection, better than any person or thing. He was born 10 miles up the road in Wooler. He went to school in Trenton briefly and in later years, he lived 12 miles east of us, over in Ameliasburgh. His relatives are all around us. His poetry connects us to this area in unexpected and powerful ways.
Visiting places Al lived and played is a wonderful way to spend a day or two. His last home in Ameliasburgh is a sacred pilgrimage for Canada’s best known writers. A classic 60′s A-Frame structure, it is the subject of a campaign, called the A-Frame Trust, to preserve it for future generations. As Margaret Atwood, one of Canada’s top writers, said, “The preservation of this home is akin to the preservation of Canadian literary history”.
Retracing Al’s steps might also include a visit to the Quinte Hotel in Trenton. It may not be a place you’ll want to go inside! But any fan of Canadian literature should know about it. The Quinte Hotel in Trenton has been known as the Sherwood Forest Inn for many years, but locals still call it the Quinte hotel, or simply the Hotel. It can be a scary place sometimes, and it’s not uncommon for a dust-up to happen every once in a while. As another writer said, “It’s the kind of place where you have to know when to just shut your mouth and stare straight into your beer without looking sideways.”
Al Purdy wrote ‘At the Quinte Hotel’ as a poetic tribute to this mainstay of Trenton Ontario nightlife. The poem conveys a profound sense of the place, and all the Quinte Hotels of the world along with the people in them. ‘At The Quinte Hotel’ was introduced to mainstream Canadian culture in the short film, ‘At the Quinte Hotel’ starring Al Purdy reading the poem, and Gord Downie from the Tragically Hip. A pilgrimage to the place is a rite of passage for any Purdy fan. Purdy was a great friend of the American writer Charles Bukowski, and their works have often been compared. Purdy wrote prolifically about places across Canada and is known as ‘the voice of the land’. He was awarded the Order of Canada in 1982 and is a literary hero, particularly among writers and poets.
To see ‘At the Quinte Hotel’
