Merrybegot

Unabridged audio book edition of Merrybegot, poems by Mary Dalton (Véhicule Press, 2004).

Performed by Anita Best (narration and song) with Patrick Boyle on trumpet and flugelhorn.

Born of a cultural tradition rooted in story and song, Mary Dalton’s Merrybegot celebrates the poetic cadence and phrasing of the Newfoundland vernacular through a series of short dramatic monologues. These poems reel like an outlandish jig or spark and smoke like dry boughs flung upon a fire. They are impassioned, sullen, outspoken or conspiratorial; each voice is arresting in its idiosyncratic delivery, each story is an element in the creation of a vivid and distinctive portrait of a people and a culture. Merrybegot was the winner of the 2005 E.J. Pratt Award for Poetry, and was shortlisted for both the Pat Lowther Award for Poetry and the Winterset Award.

Physical: CD Listening time: approx. 60 minutes