to escape. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography (DCB) states that Dreamland "demonstrates a conventional colonial approach to poetry. Such poems as 'August' succeed in their attention to natural detail: descriptions of the blueflies, the milkmaids, and the 'ribby-lean' cattle in parched fields anticipate the mature nature poetry of Archibald Lampman. But too often he wrote not of the timberlands he knew but of a dreamland weakly modelled upon the romantic flights of Keats." However, the book was praised by "the established poet Charles Sangster, who referred to Canada's sophisticated literary tradition as one that was habitually overlooked in the popular press." Writing later in the Ottawa Journal, William Wilfred Campbell saw Dreamland as a precursor to the nature poetry later popularized in Canada by the Confederation Poets: "The thirty-three poems constitute the first attempt to deal with Canadian nature, in the manner of Keats and the other classic poets, and many of them in theme and treatment are similar to the verse of Lampman and Roberts.... And there are strong evidences in Mair's work that he influenced these poets to a great extent." Mair published Tecumseh, a historical drama mainly in blank verse dealing with the War of 1812, in 1886. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography calls Tecumseh "a major contribution to our 19th-century literary heritage, wherein the War of 1812 is the central event of Canadian history. Among the many literary treatments of this war...Tecumseh stands as the most accomplished." Canadian critic Alan Filewood praises Mair's treatment of issues on the path to mature Canadian nationhood, using General Isaac Brock to represent the responsibility to the monarchy and progress, and the Indian chieftain Tecumseh to represent the responsibility to nature and the environment. Similarly, Dennis Duffy, writing in The Canadian Encyclopedia, calls Mair's writing "pedestrian and untheatrical", but it stresses the importance of Mair's vision of Canada as "a co-operative enterprise in contrast with the self-seeking individualism of the United States." Recognition Mair was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1889. In 1937 he was designated a Person of National Historic Significance. Publications Dreamland and Other Poems. London: S. Low, 1868. Montreal: Dawson, 1868, Tecumseh. Toronto: Hunter, Rose & Co., 1886. London: Chapman & Hall, 1886. Through the Mackenzie Basin: A Narrative of the Athabasca and Peace River Treaty Expedition of 1899 . London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., 1903. References External links Charles