Poets’ Pathway: City Archives Plaque for William Pittman Lett
Poets at the unveiling of the Lett plaque, including George Elliott Clarke (left, Canada's poet laureate at the time), and Andrée Lacelle and Jamaal Jackson Rogers (who were City of Ottawa poets laureate), 2017.
We meet in the garden of the City Archives for introductions and to hear a little about the garden, the surrounding area, the bronze plaque commemorating the life and work of W.P. Lett, and the Archives themselves. But mostly we will hear about Lett. William Pittman Lett’s official job was City Clerk, but this inexhaustible man had a variety of surprising roles in early Ottawa's busy and muddy beginnings.
Amazingly, Lett's three grandchildren were present at the unveiling of this plaque in 2017! We will read the plaque aloud, and also the translation, created by Ottawa poet Michel Therién.
After the talk at the Archives, the walk will move south and east through the greenspace. During the walk, you will hear lines from our celebrated Confederation poets who wrote of Ottawa's fields, woods, and rivers, and you will be able to share your own memories and stories and other works to celebrate this land, this neighbourhood, and each other.
The Poets’ Pathway is a 34-km walking trail around Ottawa established to commemorate the Confederation Poets, Canada’s and Ottawa’s famous poets of the 19th Century, who lived in this area and wrote about Ottawa’s local landscape. We have installed 14 bronze poetry plaques along the trail, which runs from Britannia to Beechwood Cemetery. Each plaque bears a poem appropriate to the landscape where it is situated. It is part of our mandate to help maintain the Poets' Pathway trail areas as greenspace. For more information on the Poet's Pathway, visit our website at www.poetspathway.ca.
