SOURCE; "Poet's Dilemma," in Canadian Literature, Vol. 135, Winter, 1992, pp. 130-31.

In the review below, Mezei faults Tremblay's "clicked and tainted" libretto for NELLIGAN, finding that his "lines do not rise to his usual exuberant eloquence."

There is no doubt that Emile Nelligan, Québec's "national poet," has not loosened his hold on the Québec imagination. As I write this review, a major commemorative conference, "Colloque Nelligan: 50 ans après sa mort" is taking place in Ottawa. It will culminate in the launching of "l'édition critique de l'oeuvre nelliganienne."

Nelligan's poems, which are unquestionably evocative and moving, echo the Symbolists he admired, and with a few, striking exceptions are set in an oneiric rather than a localized world. His renowned sonnet, "Le vaisseau d'or," which sinks "dans l'abîme du rêve" has been set to music, choreographed, and used as the name of a restaurant operated...