“Archibald Lampman’s “The Cup of Life” expresses Romantic mourning for a lost, divine connection with nature in the context of the developing Canadian landscape. Written in 1889, the sonnet offers critical commentary on the effect of Southern Ontario’s rapidly industrializing economy. Lampman uses food metaphors to describe the metamorphosis of a typical individual entering the capitalist order, and to appeal for awareness on this aspect of the human condition in hope of social reform. Alluding to Homer’s The Odyssey, he invites reflection on the dangers and lessons of experience. The poem positions the reader as the consumer of an unnatural drink that may devastate the essence of identity. In doing so, it provokes anxiety over the precepts that society demands one swallow, and reflection upon the nature of identity within the social order.”

“Archibald Lampman believes that everyone is tainted by life, but ultimately the decisions that one makes will determine how one ends up. A figurative cup encompasses the poem “The Cup of Life.” This idea of going through life by filling a cup up, draining it, and then filling it back up with no questions is really quite concerning. One must be courageous and make one’s own choices in life. One must not conform to others’ opinions. One must stay true to one’s self and question every decision. One must be willing to take risks.”

“These hands in the darkness are like people “swarming on some common highway” and they “plod onward with blind feet.” One never truly knows where on in going in life, but if one follows mindless, group decisions, one will be stuck in the darkness one’s entire life.”

“Lampman likens the process of entering society to drinking from a poisoned cup, suggesting that industrial greed prevents spiritual nourishment and results in our reduction to swine (food for the industrial order, as well as unthinking consumers). To avoid monstrous transformation, we should question what we ingest. The coloured hands featured in Drinkwater’s painting are often used as a symbol for universal need in a global community. The artist states that the painting is about “the desire to reach youth again,” as typically, “We stop chasing our dreams, or ideals, that we are filled with when we are young.” However, the painting does not problematize the fact that yearning for youth is part of the consumerist ideology which destroys natures and devalues the arc of the human life-span.”

“Brewster’s installation involves four painted canisters containing tea. One is painted with worm-like creatures, the second black, the third blue with gold starbursts, and the fourth with what looks like intestines or brain tissue. Inside the lid of the one tin, an inscription reads, “We are the monsters underneath your bed and inside your head.” Like Lampman, Brewster’s work suggests people should question what they ingest. One canister smelled like alcohol, also indicating that tempting drinks should be examined carefully and may not be as they appear at first glance.”

“The painting is of a confined, Greek mythological room in which both nature and people are stuck. The figures appear ghostly as if they are mindlessly living life without actually being there. The ghostly figure drinks from a cup, but when the drink doesn’t turn out the way that the figure had hoped, then the figure turns into a pig-like creature. According to Lampman, life will “[taint] us all” and it will even turn “half to swine.” If one does not make intuitive choices, then one will end up confined, living a boring life. ”