caption death_date birth_place imagesize training nationality field birth_date language image article_title name
alfred purdy memorial 21 april 2000 wooler , ontario 200px albert college and trenton collegiate institute canada canadian writer , editor and poet 30 december 1918 english toronto al purdy memorial 01.jpg al purdy
 '' ` alfred wellington purdy '' '
al purdy

alfred wellington purdy , -lrb- december 30 , 1918 -- april 21 , 2000 -rrb- was a 20th-century canadian free verse poet .
purdy 's writing career spanned fifty-six years .
his works include thirty-nine books of poetry ; a novel ; two volumes of memoirs and four books of correspondence , in addition to his posthumous works .
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 . ''
