On Seeing the Statuettes of Ezekiel and Jeremiah in the Church of Notre Dame

Born Israel Lazarovitch in Târgu Neam?, Romania, Irving Layton immigrated with his family to Montreal at the age of twelve. Layton was a flamboyant poet who railed against bourgeois dullness and believed that Canadian poetry needed to break away from British traditionalism and establish its own style. Known as much for his private life as for his writing, Layton helped establish the cooperative poetry publishing house Contact Press in 1952, and taught poetry at several Canadian universities. In 1967, he received the Canada Council Award. which enabled him to travel to Israel, Greece, Nepal, and India, travels that would influence his later writings. He was a professor of poetry at York University.