Napoléon P. Landry

Acadian poet and historian, Father Napoléon P. Landry, was born on 30 December 1884 in Saint-Joseph de Memramcook to parents Philippe Landry and Marie-Rose Gaudet. He died unexpectedly on 27 September 1956 after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Moncton. Landry’s roots were firmly planted in Maritime soil. He lived in several towns and villages in New Brunswick, including Memramcook, Bouctouche, Sackville, and Sainte-Marie Parish, Kent County, making him conversant in the cultural dynamics of New Brunswick. Landry was well known for describing Acadie in both a historical and mythical context in his poetry (Hains 186). As such, he became a vessel through which the Acadian literary tradition was circulated. His poetry was deeply informed by his spirituality, as well as his intense desire to shed light on the past and to re-establish the Acadian literary voice, which had been pushed underground since the Expulsion in 1755. His ultimate goal was to “arouse a legitimate pride in Acadian youth who would be responsible for perpetuating their ancestors’ glory and tradition” (Boudreau/Maillet 695).

Landry’s two major works are books of poetry: Poèmes de mon Pays (1949) and Poèmes Acadiens (1955). The recognition he received for his work affirms his reputation as the “best known and most important” Acadian poet of his era (Boudreau/Maillet 695). Correspondingly, he was the recipient of several literary awards, including an honorary diploma from the Société des Poètes Canadiens-Français in 1953 and a French language prize from the Académie Française in 1955. He also won fourth prize and a laureate’s diploma in an international poetry competition for his poem “Votre Assomption” (New 180). Today, the Centre d’études Acadiennes Anselme-Chiasson at the University of Moncton holds the poet’s records in its archives.

In addition to his poetic endeavours, Landry was also a spiritual leader for much of his life, known affectionately as Le Père Nap’, or Father Nap’, to fellow Acadians (New 179). Highly educated, he attended institutions across the east coast. In his home village of Memramcook, he attended Notre Dame du Sacré Cœur convent school and then Université Saint Joseph before transferring to the Eudist Fathers’ College Saint-Anne in Church Point, Nova Scotia, where he received his BA in 1909. He later studied to become a priest at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Halifax, where he was ordained in 1914. His experience of the priesthood and of his education to become a priest emerges in many of his poems.

Perhaps not surprisingly, then, his poetry evokes a profound sense of localism and a longing to reclaim his Acadian heritage. In the homage at the beginning of Poèmes Acadiens, he praises the Acadian people for having persevered through years of suffering and persecution, writing that “le peuple Acadien, après avoir ceuillir la palme du martyre, en des jours bien sombres, se lève aujourd’hui triomphant, dans la gloire d’une résurrection qui émeut le monde entier” (8). In his view, they were martyrs who endured many dark days but triumphed in spite of their hardships. This sentiment forms the consistent message in Landry’s poetry: that, contrary to popular belief, Acadie has worldwide historical significance, its sons and daughters spread far and wide as models of strength and endurance.

In popularizing that sentiment, Landry and his contemporaries, such as Antoine Léger, worked to create a new narrative for Acadians, emphasising that their history should not be limited to martyrdom or victimization at the hands of the British (Young 110). Rather, they endeavoured to uncover a vibrancy in Acadian culture that had been silenced in most history books but endured despite attempts to erase it. This vibrancy is particularly evident in the poem “La Voix de la Terre Acadienne” from Poèmes Acadiens, which personifies Acadie.

The poem’s first line reads, “je les ai vu partir, comme dans un nuage” [I saw them leave, as if in a cloud] (1, this and subsequent trans. by author). This "leaving" is an allusion to the Expulsion, when Acadie lamented the loss of her “fiers paysans, tous ceux [qu’elle aimais] tant” [her proud people whom she loved so much] (2). Landry imagines the rupture as an intense physicality, akin to having one’s sides torn apart, “[les] flancs se déricher ” (26). The poem advances through a series of images both sacred and localizing, employing literary devices and language reminiscent of New Brunswick’s earlier Confederation poets. Since Landry’s life roughly spanned the Confederation poets’ timeline, it is not surprising that his signature works would evoke this distinctly Canadian style, one that melds human and natural elements to create the psychic landscapes in which people live. New Brunswick’s Confederation poets – Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Francis Sherman – were also deeply spiritual, similarly experiencing God in nature. Landry, it seems, was an especially attentive reader of Sherman’s melancholy. Here is his distinctly personal sense of that melancholy in the final stanza of “La Voix de la Terre Acadienne”:

 Puis le silence sur moi comme un suaire…

Le prêtre, hélas! jamais ne revint me bénir;

Je ne pouvais plus voir en face la lumière,

Et je me regardais, dans ma peine, mourir. (49-52)

[Then the silence came over me like a shroud… Alas! The priest never came back to bless me; I could no longer see the light, and I watched myself die in my grief.] The stanza recounts the painful death of Acadie. She dies shrouded in silence, forgotten by a metaphorical priest who never comes back to bless her. More consequentially, that death imparts a sense of ennui that Landry, in other poems, seeks to trouble and reverse.

It is in keeping with his higher aim, then, that the bulk of Landry’s work evokes the much more powerful and lasting love of place. The opening stanza of Poèmes Acadiens’ “Memramcook,” for example, reads as an ode to his home village:

La verte chaîne des collines,

Étale au rebord du ciel pur,

Un dessin de dentelles fines…

Le plus beau nimbe de lumière. (1-7)

[The chain of green hills, spread out against the pure sky, a drawing of fine lace… the most beautiful halo of light.] Landry describes Memramcook as an immense and beautiful valley, inviting the reader to join him in celebrating his homeland – not an empty pastoral but as a place of renewal and vibrancy.

Napoléon Landry, then, was a key figure in the establishment of the modern Acadian literary voice. His poetry marked a turning point from a somber alienation to something richer and more imaginatively alive. His work is a testament to the relentless courage and resiliency of the Acadian people.

Salima Tourkmani-MacDonald, Fall 2021
St. Thomas University

Bibliography of Primary Sources

Landry, Napoléon. Poèmes Acadiens. Montréal et Paris: Fides, 1955.

---. Poèmes de mon Pays. Moncton: Norbert Robichaud, 1949.

Bibliography of Secondary Sources

Boudreau, Eddy. “Poèmes de mon Pays.” [Clipping from an unidentified newspaper.] Centre d'études acadiennes Anselme-Chiasson, Université de Moncton. Moncton, NB.

Boudreau, Raoul, and Marguerite Maillet. “Acadian Literature.” Acadia of the Maritimes: Thematic Studies From the Beginning to the Present. Ed. Jean Daigle. Moncton: Université de Moncton, 1995. 679-719.

Bousquet, Jean. “Poèmes de mon Pays par N.P. Landry ptre.” [Clipping from an unidentified Sackville, NB newspaper.] Centre d'études acadiennes Anselme-Chiasson, Université de Moncton. Moncton, NB.

Cogswell, Fred. “Modern Acadian Poetry (Intro. & Trans.).” Canadian Literature 68-69 (Spring-Summer 1976): 62-75.

“Critique du Volume de M. l’abbé N.P. Landry, Parue Dans la Revue d’Histoire de l’Amérique Française.” L’Evangéline30 September 1949. Centre d'études acadiennes Anselme-Chiasson, Université de Moncton. Moncton, NB.

Gaudet, Placide. “Arbre Généalogique de M. l’abbé Joseph-Napoléon Landry.” La Voix d’Evangéline n.d. Centre d'études acadiennes Anselme-Chiasson, Université de Moncton. Moncton, NB.

Hains, Julia. “Poésie et Francophonie.” Rev. of Langages poétiques et poésie francophone en Amérique du Nord, by Lélia L.M. Young. Canadian Literature 220 (Spring 2014): 186-187.

New, W.H. Canadian Writers 1890-1920. Detroit: Gale, 1990. 179-180.

Poirier, Georges. “Un Poète se Révèle.” [Clipping from an unidentified Moncton, NB newspaper.] Centre d'études acadiennes Anselme-Chiasson, Université de Moncton. Moncton, NB.

Richard, Chantal, ed. Poèmes acadiens de Napoléon Landry. Moncton: Institut d’études acadiennes, 2014.

Runte, Hans R. Writing Acadia: The Emergence of Acadian Literature, 1970-1990. Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi, 1997.

Young, Lélia. Langages Poétiques et Poésie Francophone en Amérique du Nord. Québec: Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2013.