For me, the vast marvel is to be alive. For man, or for flowers or beast or bird, the supreme triumph is to be most vividly and perfectly alive.

Purdy's writing career spanned more than fifty years. He has been called the nation's "unofficial poet laureate" and "a national poet in a way that you only find occasionally in the life of a culture. Alfred Wellington Purdy OC OOnt (December 30 1918 – April 21 2000) was one of the most popular and important Canadian poets of the 20th century.