SOURCE: An introduction to SELECTED POEMS: BEYOND EVEN FAITHFUL LEGENDS, by Bill Bissett, Talonbooks, 1980, pp. 11-18.

In the following excerpt, Early discusses Bissett's visionary politics and places his work in the context of contemporary Canadian poetry.

Writing on bill bissett in 1980 is a rather different venture than responding to his books as they appeared ten or even five years ago. Bissett's poetry was so closely identified with the political/cultural convulsion of the 1960's that even its admirers were bound to wonder how many of its features would retain interest as the years passed. This selection should reassure them. In the first place, it will remind us that his poetry had deeper sources than topical issues and literary fashion. In the second, it shows that his best work has always been charged with the energy and formal ingenuity of enduring art.

As a radical presence on the Canadian...