Robert Hilles, a Canadian Poet (Now Living

¶ … Robert Hilles, a Canadian poet (now living in Thailand), is a work that dates from 1976 and looks backward on boyhood memories, which in this case are not particularly uplifting. In fact, Hilles' poem is a kind of questioning paean in an oblique universe that fails to see the beauty in sacrifice or the reward in virtue. No path is lit toward future happiness -- all is bitter, brittle, and cold. This paper will analyze Hilles' "Then" and attempt to explain its focus on banality and depression.

The first line (begun without capitalization, as all the lines of "Then" are begun) implies the abysmal state of education: "poverty teaches no one." It is a rebellious assertion in the face of pressing absurdity: how can poverty be a virtue -- a way to humility? The poet (fresh out of adolescence and bewildered by the lack of masculinity and direction in adulthood -- noted in his father's existence between two non-existent realms) looks back on his childhood in Canada and places his dumbfounded expressions in the mind of a child. There is a tone of disgust and revulsion in Hilles' assertion -- but also a certain amount of resistance. Could it be possible that Hilles learns nothing from poverty because he refuses the lesson as a young man -- just as he refuses to conform to grammatical convention?

As his writing teacher would later state, "I'm DELIGHTED to see you using upper-case letters at the start of lines in your new poems…How good that you're rediscovering old virtues!!" Hilles' response is that his later development and respect for grammar is the result of looking backward and forward at the same time. So also, as an older man, can Hilles look back on his poem "Then" with a certain wistfulness while still acknowledging its power.

The poem, of course, admits of no judge but Death -- in the form of poverty personified by the revolver and the father who is barely there -- who has sacrificed everything so that his son may also be barely there. It is not an un-just complaint that the young Hilles offers up to the Fates -- for what sort of world refuses to reward sacrifice? Where is the promise of happiness? Rather, the child who, as Wordsworth says should be "father of the man," is, here, left to "walk on [the] bones [of the previous generation] with a new pair of shoes." There is no beauty, no growth, no upward vision or transcendence -- only trudging disappointment and meaningless materialism.

The focus by Hilles on his early disillusionment is not an attempt to subvert virtue or sacrifice -- but it is an attempt to raise a question as to what virtue or sacrifice should tend. "Then" is, if anything, a reproach of the world for having lost its Way. Hilles shows little understanding of what that Way is, but -- objectively speaking -- he is certain that the present way can hardly be expected to make sense: it is futile, banal, and lacking of merit or point.