SOURCE: "Bill Bissett: Poetics, Politics & Vision," in Essays on Canadian Writing, No. 5, Fall, 1976, pp. 4-24.

In the following essay, Early provides an overview of Bissett's work and emphasizes the political meaning of his idiosyncratic style.

"Frivolity and ecstasy are the twin poles between which play moves."

—Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens

In some three dozen books of poetry published since 1966, bill bissett has often seemed intent on making a virtue of disorder. If the redundancy of much of his work is undeniable, so is its great variety. Challenging all manner of authority, literary and otherwise, he has mounted an attack on convention that at times appears nihilistic to the point of stunting his considerable artistry. Nevertheless, there is a vital consistency in his theories, forms and themes. The most idiosyncratic and the most ideological of his poems reflect a visionary writer whose achievement is already an impressive one.

While...