Rising Leviathans:
How Barn Poetry Can Uncover Canadian History
By Mikayla Barney, OBP Member and Volunteer
Repurposing can come in many forms. The literary legacy of a structure can be just as important as the real thing. At Ontario Barn Preservation, we aim to preserve old barns, their architecture, cultural history and contribution to our rural landscape.
Author of the book Age of Barns (1967), Eric Sloane wrote that the building knowledge of barns was historically passed down from one generation to another – not unlike an oral history. Going back further, the word “barn” was first recorded in 500 AD, meaning “a place for barley.” It combines the old English word bere (barley) and aern (place). Other old English terms are “place for storing” or “resting place.”
If we unpack this definition further, a barn is a place for growth and rest. Not just for grains but maybe for the soul as well. And what medium is better at doing this than poetry? One of the first Canadian records of the word “barn” in a poem was written in 1884, by poet Isabella Valancy Crawford. Originally born in Dublin, Ireland, it was a chance encounter with Richard Strickland that introduced Crawford to other known literary legends, like Susanna Moodie and Catherine Carr Traill. While living in the backwoods of Canada, she wrote her poem “Malcolm’s Katie: A Love Story.”
A small snippet of her poem can be found below:
Well, he is rich; those misty, peak-roofed barns-
Leviathans rising from red seas of grain-
Are full of ingots shaped like grains of wheat.
His flocks have golden fleeces, and his herds
Have monarchs worshipful as was the calf
Aaron called from the furnace; and his plows,
Like Genii chained, snort o’er his mighty fields.
…
The memory swings between the ‘then’ and ‘now.’
His seldom speech ran thus two different ways:
“When I was but a laddie, thus I did”;
Or, “Katie, in the fall I’ll see to build
Such fences or such sheds about the place;
And new year, please the Lord, another barn.”

Regardless of any critical or political opinions of the poem, it is a great historical reference point to further understand what was happening in Canada at that specific point in time. In 1884 when the poem was published, many big changes were happening in Canada. Indigenous issues were emerging more than ever, as Louis Riel was returning from exile. Women were finally given the right to study at Toronto University. And farmer institutes were being established, offering an optimistic outlook on the future of agriculture. Somewhere between Peterborough and Lakefield, Crawford might have looked out on the rural landscape and taken empowerment and comfort in the structure and simplicity of a rural barn during those changing times.
The poem also reveals more descriptively what a barn was used for in rural Ontario in the Victorian Era. Following the wheat-boom, the 1880s saw traditional crops like wheat and barley begin to dwindle. Wheat only amounted to 19% of farmland, whereas fodder crops saw 38% of that land. By the early 1900s, live animals, meat and dairy products took rise and left those golden fleeces in the dust.
It’s fascinating how a simple barn poem can offer a backdrop of insight into history, if we are only willing to spend the time to dismantle it. This poem is only one example of the woven stories that barns can tell. To cap off the beginning of 2025, I encourage you to read some barn poetry from the list I have compiled below.
And to quote Crawford herself; a new year, another barn.
Charles G. D. Roberts. “The Oat Threshing.” 1860-1943. Libraries and Archives Canada.
Charles G. D. Roberts. “In an Old Barn.” 2003. New Brunswick Literature Curriculum in English.
Lorette C. Luzajic. “Barn.” Niagara Falls Poetry Project.
Christopher Dewdney. “November.” 1994. Canadian Poetry Online, University of Toronto.
Carol A. Stephen. “If I Leave.” 2016. Silver Birch Press.
Sources:
Nesmith, Tom. 1874-1910. Pen and Plough at Ontario Agricultural College. Archivaria 19 (Winter 1984-85).
Women’s Suffrage in Ontario: An Educational Resource. Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
Crawford, Isabella Valancy. Malcolm’s Katie: A Love Story. Libraries and Archives Canada. 1884.
Oxford English Dictionary. Barn. Accessed October 2024.
Evergreen Bend Farm. What is a Barn? Accessed October 2024.
Wikipedia. Barn. Accessed October 2024.