Good-bye to the Sugar Refinery

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Good-bye to the Sugar Refinery

Wheatley reflects on her experience with the Canadian Women’s Army Corps — exploring her own coming-of-age and offering an historical testament to the Canadian women who joined the Corps in World War II. Rich with sentiment, Wheatley’s poems are never sentimental, but enlivened by honesty and wit.

AUTHOR

Patience Wheatley

Patience Wheatley was born in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, England, and came to Canada at the age of fifteen. Her first two collections of poetry were published by Goose Lane Editions.

Reviews

In this her second book of poems, Patience Wheatley reflects upon her experience with the Canadian Women’s Army Corps — exploring her own coming-of-age and offering an historical testament to to the Canadian women who joined the Corps in World War II. The discipline of army drill “recalling crunching patterns / made by our feet on parade ground gravel / to sharp words of command” becomes in memory a time “when once we did it together and perfectly” — an image of fulfillment both spiritual and sexual.

A young girl’s romanticism is later transformed, after marriage and children, to the “blessed revelation” that “love is &#47 the predicate.” Rich with sentiment, Wheatley’s poems are never sentimental, but enlivened by honesty and wit.

“She is capable of touching the human heart with a simple, casual image.”
– Quarry

“A mature voice, wise with experience . . . An important first book by a talented new voice who most surely will not remain in the shadows.”
– Poetry Canada Review