Mary Dalton's breakthrough collection of poems--informed by the cadence and phrasing of Newfoundland vernacular and imbued with explosive energy.
Born of a cultural tradition rooted in story and song, Mary Dalton’s Merrybegot celebrates the poetic cadence and phrasing of the Newfoundland vernacular through a series of short dramatic monologues. These poems reel like an outlandish jig or spark and smoke like dry boughs flung upon a campfire. They are impassioned, sullen, outspoken or conspiratorial; each voice arresting in its idiosyncratic delivery, each story an element in the creation of a vivid and distinctive portrait of a people and a culture.
Originally published in 2004 by Signal Editions, Véhicule Press
Shortlisted for both the Pat Lowther Award for Poetry and the Winterset Award