Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Women Irish Poets



Eavan Boland


The soul of the Irish poet is given to deep thought and lyrical language.  These thoughts have been expressed by many poets whom we know so well and love so much…to name just a few…


Oliver Goldsmith, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, the great W.B. Yeats, Sean O' Casey, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Brendan Behan and Seamus Heaney.  However, we seldom can come up with the name of any woman Irish poet and there have been quite enough.  Google the list and be amazed.


I would like to mention just one in this blog…and a contemporary poet at that…Eavan Boland.  She was born in 1944 and has published over twenty volumes of poetry to the present day. 


She has won numerous awards and taught at various universities in the United States and Ireland.  She also has written a prose memoir "Object Lessons" (1995). 


Eavan "takes on the matter of Ireland and the matter of womanhood " in her poetry…neither a small task in my opinion. And she does it "in a radically different tone and texture from the work of her Irish contemporaries."  I could go on…but see for yourself.  She is a treasure.  She writes in a woman's voice.  She writes in an Irish voice. She writes in a contemporary voice.  Hers is a voice worth reading.
 
Photo of Oscar Wilde Statue in Dublin
Kathleen Tyler Conklin

2 comments:

  1. Claire, a simply lovely blog post. I'm reading Object Lessons on Amazon and getting a feel for Eavan...Love, Cynthia

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  2. Thanks Cynthia, please post your review here when you finish. I plan to read it soon. I am now reading "The Death Of Santini" by Pat Conroy...the first thirty pages have blown me away.

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