Cécile Cloutier is a significant Quebec poet whose work, condensed and elliptical, represents a search for intimate communion and for spiritual vision as she endeavors to establish, through language, a vital contact with the hidden forces of the natural world. Her many theoretical writings show that for her the conscious, creative act of writing, which liberates the energy of language, is a means whereby the poet can ensure that the world and human presence in the world have meaning and structure.

Cloutier is a member of the generation of poets which emerged during the Quiet Revolution in Quebec. She was one of the first of this generation to have her work published. These poets took possession of the word and used it to name both themselves and the land to which they belonged. While Cloutier does not frequently refer explicitly to the situation of the French...