The $3 poem

But critical praise was of little use to the fatherless little family in Brantford where Pauline, approaching thirty, was desperately conscious of the fact that, so far from being a help to her mother, she was as dependent as her mother was on the generosity of the other members of the family. Mr. Charlesworth once recalled that during this period he made out a pay-slip of $3 for The Song My Paddle Sings, without doubt the most famous of Pauline’s poems, and he said that this actually was more than most publications of the time paid for poetry.

Marcus Van Steen, ed., Pauline Johnson: Her Life and Work (Musson, 1965).