'A collected poems' is either a gravestone or a testimonial to survival.

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.