Literatura postcolonial poemas, Apuntes de Idioma Inglés

¡Descarga Literatura postcolonial poemas y más Apuntes en PDF de Idioma Inglés solo en Docsity! Witness Trees (2011) – Lorna Shaughnessy Manuela Palacios Witness Trees is Lorna Shaughnessy’s second book of poems after the collection Torching the Brown River (2008), also published by Salmon Poetry. Moreover, she has experience in the translation of contemporary Mexican poetry, as her books with poems by Pura López Colomé and María Baranda (both in Arlen House, 2006) attest. In fact, Shaughnessy’s writing is a paragon of border-crossing, from the North to the South of Ireland, from the island to the European mainland and, across the ocean, over to the American continent. An exclusive focus on the familiar terror of a violent North might prove to be too ensnaring, so she also incorporates into her poetry the experience of those who struggle for life in the world’s remotest corners. Witness Trees is a book about surviving a traumatic past. The author provides two different sources for the title of the collection. A poetic reference, Robert Frost’s “Beech”, connects the Witness Tree with the need to bear witness to past wounds (25). The second source is explained in the epigraph of the title poem “The Witness Trees”, where Martin Jacoby describes the characteristics of this conifer: the tree that survives the passing of a dune grows bigger, becomes more productive and its seeds inherit its remarkable performance. Shaughnessy is fascinated by the resilience of these “testigos”, the umbrella pines in the Doñana Nature Reserve in south-western Spain: “They reach down into unsuspected sources / and root, stretch towards an intuited light. / As the sand rises they keep their heads above land / and remember to grow” (40). The first line break in this quotation is a perfect example of how syntax and lineation match the subject matter, as the reader becomes involved in the struggle of the tree to find a firm rooting place. This book collection is divided into three parts: I. Rebuilding, II. Witness, and III. Survivors, a structure that unsettles the cause-effect expectations about witnessing in the first place, surviving next and, finally, rebuilding. Shaughnessy does not seem to trust such teleological orderliness. In the first part, the writer glides smoothly from human to non-human nature: landscapes become allegorical motifs : “but her life bore a closer resemblance to a hilltop bog” (17); humans fail in their responsibility to protect the environment: “I lug my guilt up the hill, try to shake it off / but 1 it settles like a hump on my back” (16); the caged birds’ song “though undeserved, still redeems” (18), thus unveiling the soothing powers of nature. The landscapes depicted may initially remind us of W.H. Auden’s “The Watershed”, a poem that lends its voice to nature only to confirm humans’ alienation from it: “Go home, now, stranger” (1966: 23). However, Shaughnessy encourages us to overcome first impressions, “No snow, but a hard, hard frost” (15), and discover the beauty that lies hidden: “angular pucks of ice with rainbows inside” (15). The asceticism of the landscape matches the sober style and versification. “Rebuilding”, the third poem in the collection, ends with a note of hope that hovers over the whole first part, as it refers to nature’s obstinate hold on life: “Somewhere, robins are rebuilding unseen / with unsurpassed, invisible skill” (16). The second part, “Witness”, contains a substantial number of poems on the Northern Ireland Troubles. This is verse about trauma and taboo which, with the passage of time, gives way to the irrepressible need to raise one’s voice “I’ve run out of reasons not to speak” (27). Geoffrey Hartman (2003: 257) claims that the task of trauma studies is to discover the “psychic wounds” in the accounts of traumatic experiences. Reading Shaughnessy’s “The Harpist” (30-31) in this light, one first notices her overt references to political violence “Six bullets his body took in nineteen eighty-four / as they left the Church that ordinary Sunday, / the day his daughter died in his place. Six bullets”. A more attentive reading, however, spots those psychic wounds in grief-related notions of numbness “my stunned awkwardness at the funeral”, entrapment “Ambushed by the suddenness of memory”, unreliability “I […] feel the familiar scepticism rise” and ghostliness “But now, the likeness in her mother’s picture / brings old grief closer, makes a fiction of the coming year”. If the four-poem series “Belfast Obituaries”, placed around the centre of the collection, denounces the vicious cruelty of the Northern Ireland conflict, poems like “Exodus”, “Arpilleras” and “His Mother’s Apron” delve into the predicament of marginalised and oppressed groups in other lands. These are poems peopled by Central-American migrants who risk their lives as they cross the border with the United States, Chilean mothers and wives who search for their missing ones, and an Armenian painter who struggles with memories of starvation and confronts his trauma with the help of art. The tragedy of a survivor’s ordeal is that, after they manage to live through an unbearable experience, they usually find themselves alone. They have no one with whom they can verbalise their experience of suffering and turn it into a chronological narrative, which is an essential step in the recovery from trauma. The third and final part of the collection, “Survivors”, begins with a series of portraits of such lonely people whose voices speak “lines from another play, another time” (49). Like the rest of the book, these are 2 is constituted by atrocity, brutality, inhumanity and cruelty. The poet is Irish, mostly he engages with Irish culture, tradition or the convention. Others celebrate it but he talks about it to point out its internal contradictions. He explores the dark sports of human history in Irish culture. He always relates the individual Irish culture to the general theme of humanity. Analysis - 'Punishment' - by Seamus Heaney The poem "Punishment" by Seamus Heaney is a very vivid voyage through his imagination as he describes a corpse that was found in 1951 of a young girl who had been brutally tortured and killed as punishment for adultery in a way that was custom for the time period the body dates. Heaney writes as though he can see the girl near the time of her death and even feel her tethers and bonds as though he were experiencing it first hand. He uses excruciatingly detailed imagery giving the poem a very dark and ominous feel. Also, the use of enjambment is used very artfully to flow the reader along in a progression of thought, and moves seamlessly from past to present. He devotes the entire first half of the poem to description alone, with lines like "her shaved head / like a stubble of black corn," fifth stanza, that force the reader to picture the detestable manner in which she was treated. The title, "Punishment," does not really tell the reader what to expect. It is one ambiguous word, which may mean different things to different people. However, one common part that could likely be assumed is everyone would describe punishment as being something that is deserved. Entering the poem with this in mind leads to a quick shock as the reader begins to realize what Heaney is describing. What is punishment? Punishment is defined as a penalty imposed for wrongdoing, but who decides what wrongdoings are and the appropriate punishment for each deed? Heaney draws more on this as he connects the girl found in the bog to those women who were punished during much of the turmoil and war in Ireland for having relations with the British. Heaney mentions in the last two stanzas of the poem that he did nothing as he watched those women being stripped and tarred in the streets, almost as if he is placing the blame partially on himself; not just himself, but all those, like Heaney who stood by and did nothing. The situations are similar in this way because even those people who were not directly involved in executing the punishment share the guilt of the mistreatment for their complacency. We are all complacent as things progress and wrongs are done all around us. It is the old evils paralleled to 5 the new; they have changed very little. Heaney writes in stanza eight "I almost love you / but would have cast, I know, / the stones of silence." He imagines his own part in the events leading up to her death and they mirror his inaction in the end of the poem in reference to his present time. There is also the possibility that he is receiving his own punishment in this piece. It starts out with all the feelings of the young girl being transferred to the first person. He feels the restraints that were placed upon her because they are symbolic of his own restraints: the feeling of being in a crowd and seeing someone become the subject of ridicule; those who defend the person become in party with the victim, and in the volatile condition of Ireland at the time, could have very well received similar punishment for taking their defense. Therefore, no one helps, they choose to remain part of the crowd, but their guilt becomes their burden and a punishment of its own. The "little adulteress," what crime did she commit but love. Her crime pales in comparison to the atrocity she received as punishment, just as those women who chose to associate with the British were dealt with unjustly. Heaney even seems to set himself up as the imaginary co-adulterer with his selection of words when describing the young girl in a very personal tone. He calls her "My poor scapegoat," and refers to a time before she was killed in stanza seven: "you were flaxen-haired, / undernourished, and your / tar-black face was beautiful." This may also be re-enforced by the voice choosing to mention the girls nipples in the cold wind, which to me seems out of place other than to illustrate her nakedness, not only to the elements but also to her peers, to those enacting this horrible judgment, and to the fact of approaching death she faces. It is as if there is a duality in his perception of her; he refers to her both lovingly and in an awkward cruelness that sets a very strange feel to the poem. Punishment by Seamus Heaney Punishment is featured in North, a poetry collection published in 1975. North seeks for images and symbols of the past to convey the violence and political conflicts of the end of the twentieth century. The collection has two main sections. The first part is more symbolic and talks about ancient matters, as Greek myths, bog bodies, and the Vikings, among 6 others. The second part, on the other hand, describes life during The Troubles, a conflict in Northern Ireland that took place between 1968 and 1998. Punishment was inspired by bog bodies. Bog Queen, The Grauballe Man, and Strange Fruit are other poems of the collection that were also inspired by bog bodies. Punishment, in particular, is written to Windeby I, a bog body found in Germany that was believed to be a girl. In the poem, the lyrical voice imagines the life of a girl charged of adultery. This ancient form of brutality relates to that of the end of the twentieth century and The Troubles in Ireland, relating past and present through an act of violence. Punishment consists of 11 quatrains with no fixed rhyme scheme. Lines vary between two and eight syllables and there is a great use enjambment lines. Seamus Heaney indicated that this poem was based on personal experience. In an interview with the Paris Review he said about Punishment: “It’s a poem about standing by as the IRA tar and feather these young women in Ulster. But it’s also about standing by as the British torture people in barracks and interrogation centers in Belfast. It’s about standing between those two forms of affront”. You can read the full poem here. Punishment Analysis First Stanza In this first quatrain, the lyrical voice imagines a girl. Throughout the poem, he/she will depict the stages leading to the execution of this young girl accused of adultery. The lyrical voice creates a vivid image, as he/she senses how she is brought to her death (“I can feel the tug/ of the halter at the nape”). Notice the emphasis on the senses and how the lyrical voice feels the girl and “the wind/on her naked front”. The lyrical voice, thus, appears to be watching the girl from the outside as she is taken to the execution site. Second Stanza The second quatrain continues to describe the girl. The lyrical voice mentions her naked torso and how she walks towards the execution site. The girl is described as weak and fragile, as she stands in the wind and trembles. Notice how the effect of the wind in the girl’s body is depicted, by the color of her nipples (“amber beads”) and the 7 Third Stanza The third quatrain furthers the description towards the girl’s death. The stanza begins as the first one, emphasizing that the lyrical voice sees the girl in a certain situation (“I can see her drowned”). Now, the lyrical voice pictures the girl dying and depicts this by illustrating her body in a realistic way. The word “bog” is highly symbolic and the images that follow explain how she was drowned to death (by the “weighing stone” and “the floating rods and boughs” keeping her in place). There are a great number of vowel sounds in the stanza, which create a certain musicality that goes along with the images created. Fourth Stanza The fourth quatrain continues with the scene of the girl’s death. The lyrical voice explains her punishments and the consequences of it. As in the previous stanza, the lyrical voice creates powerful images in order to illustrate the young girl’s terrible destiny in a very graphic and authentic way. The description of the girl as “barked sapling” emphasizes her youth and how she was “dug up”. “oak-bone” and “brain-firkin” function as compressed similes which further the description of the girl’s body and her bones after her death. Fifth Stanza The fifth quatrain focuses on how the girl’s body pictures her as a prisoner. The lyrical voice focuses on the details on the girl’s body. Her head was shaved “like a stubble of black corn”, as a punishment for adultery, and she is blindfolded (“her blindfold a soiled bandage”) and has a ring around her neck, as all prisoners do. However “her noose a ring” could also mean the entrapment of married life, which the girl was condemned to. Sixth Stanza The sixth quatrain expands on the symbolism of the ring/noose. The lyrical voice suggests that the ring is an element that stores death and “the memories of love”. This is a complex and intense image which is emphasized by the last two lines. Then, the lyrical voice addresses the 10 subject of adultery directly by calling the girl “Little adulteress”, accentuating her youth and her fragility. Moreover, the punishment is also mentioned directly. From the previous stanza, there is a sort of link between the quatrains as one continues the message of the one before. This helps to provide a sort of unity in the poem, but, also, to accentuate every quatrain as an evocative portrait that provides a bigger scene. Notice, also, how the images depicted get more graphic and more dramatic with the stanzas in order to increase the dramatic tension in the text. Seventh Stanza The seventh quatrain talks about a past state of the young girl. The lyrical voice remembers that she was beautiful before, with her “flaxen- haired,/undernourished” and her “tar-back face”. These images contrast with those depicted before, as the girl, although in a past state, is mentioned as beautiful. The last line of the stanza is crucial because the tone of the poem shifts and the lyrical voice feels a sort of pity towards the girl. Moreover, the girl is mentioned with the possessive “My” and she is described, again, as a fragile victim (“poor scapegoat”). Eighth Stanza The eighth quatrain presents a shift in the lyrical voice’s position. Throughout the stanzas, the lyrical voice described the girl from a distant point, but, in this particular quatrain, he/she relates sentimentally to the girl (“I almost love you”). The lyrical voice also mentions that he/she is “the artful voyeur”, a role which implies that he saw her death and did nothing to stop it (“the stones of silence”). The tone in this stanza is more intense, as the lyrical voice puts him/herself and his/her feelings in the stanza. Ninth Stanza The ninth quatrain continues with the description of the girl’s body. The lyrical voice goes back to depicting the remains of the young girl’s body (“of your brain’s exposed/and darkened combs”). The girl appears to be completely exposed; there is little dignity in her death. Furthermore, the lyrical voice portrays the girl’s remains in a very powerful and descriptive way. 11 Tenth Stanza The tenth quatrain shifts back to the lyrical voice’s position. This stanza is a critical part of the poem as the lyrical voice admits his/her feeling of guilt (“I who have stood dumb”). The lyrical voice feels guilty because he/she didn’t do anything and watched the girl being punished. The young girl’s helplessness and her death can be related, because of the strong historical background of the poem, to that of the Irish women in modern society. Eleventh Stanza The final quatrain continues with the message of the previous one. The tone of the poem shifts and becomes a sort of confession. The lyrical voice refers to the barbarities of the modern world (“civilized outrage”) and how to reverse them (“tribal, intimate revenge”). Thus, the poem finishes with a dramatic message. As already mentioned, the poem is deeply related to historical events that happened in Ireland during the end of the twentieth century and here Heaney recalls his own reactions and denounces of that particular time. About Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney was born in 1939 and died in 2013. He was an Irish poet, playwright, lecturer and translator. In the 1960’s Seamus Heaney became a lecturer in St College in Belfast after attending Queen’s University Belfast. His most notable works are: Death of a Naturalist, North, Field Work, The Spirit Level, Beowulf, District and Circle, and Human chain. Moreover, during his lifetime, Seamus Heaney received many awards such as the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize (1968), the E.M. Foster Award (1975), the Nobel Prize in Literature (1995), the Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres (1996), the Saoi of Aosdána (1997), the Golden Wreath of Poetry (2001) and the T. S. Eliot Prize (2006), among many others. The Lost Land: Poems Eavan Boland 12 the idyllic world of Night Feed. Boland’s ability to present both worlds testifies to her poetic maturity. The need for connection is a major theme in Boland’s poetry. Aware of traditional connections in Irish and classical myths, she longs for an earlier period when such ties came instinctively. Her sense of loss with respect to these traditional connections extends beyond mythology to Irish history as well, even to Irish history in the twentieth century. Modern-day Dubliners have been cut off from the sustaining power of myth and history. Their lives, therefore, seem empty and superficial. Surrounded with the shards of a lost culture, they cannot piece these pieces together into a coherent system. The alienation of modern urban Irish people from their cultural roots is the subject of Boland’s “The New Pastoral” (from Night Feed). She considers alienation from a woman’s perspective. Aware of the myths that have traditionally sustained males, Boland desires equivalent myths for females. She longs for a “new pastoral” that will celebrate women’s ideals, but she finds none. She encounters many domestic “signs,” but they do not “signify” for her. She has a vague sense of once having participated in a coherent ritual, of having “danced once/ on a frieze.” Now, however, she has no access to the myth. Men seem to have easier access to their cultural roots than women do. The legends of the cavemen contain flint, fire, and wheel, which allowed man “to read his world.” Later in history, men had pastoral poems to define and celebrate their place in the world. A woman has no similar defining and consoling rituals and possesses no equivalent cultural signs. She seems a “displaced person/ in a pastoral chaos,” unable to create a “new pastoral.” Surrounded by domestic signs, “lamb’s knuckle,” “the washer,” “a stink/ of nappies,” “the greasy/ bacon flitch,” she still has no access to myth. Hints of connection do not provide a unified myth: I feelthere was a past,there was a pastoraland thesechance sights— what are they allbut late amnesiasof a riteI danced onceon a frieze? The final image of the dancer on the frieze echoes both John Keats’s Grecian urn and William Butler Yeats’s dancers and golden bird. The contemporary poet, however, has lost contact. Paradoxically, the poem constitutes the “new pastoral,” which it claims is beyond its reach. The final allusion to the dancer on the frieze transforms the mundane objects of domestic life into something more significant, something sacred. Boland seems in conflict over whether women should simply conform to male stereotypes for women or should resist these pressures to lead 15 “lesser lives,” to attend to “hearth not history.” Many poems in Night Feed accept this “lesser” destiny, poems such as “Night Feed,” “Hymn,” and “In the Garden.” The several poems in this volume that deal with paintings, “Domestic Interior,” “Fruit on a Straight-Sided Tray,” “Degas’s Laundresses,” “Woman Posing (After Ingres),” “On Renoir’s The Grape-Pickers,” all deal with paintings by male painters that portray women in traditional domestic or rural roles. The women in these paintings appear content with their “lesser lives.” Poems such as “It’s a Woman’s World” seem less accepting, however, more in the spirit of In Her Own Image, which vigorously rejects basing one’s identity on male stereotypes. “It’s a Woman’s World” complements “The New Pastoral” in its desire for a balance between hearth and history. as far as history goeswe were neveron the scene of the crime. . . . And still no pagescores the low musicof our outrage. Women have had no important roles in history, Boland asserts. They produce “low music,” rather than heroic music. Nevertheless, women can have an intuitive connection with their own “starry mystery,” their own cosmic identity. The women in those paintings, apparently pursuing their “lesser lives,” may have a sense of “greater lives.” The male world (including male artists) must be kept in the dark about this, must keep believing that nothing mythic is being experienced. That woman there,craned to the starry mysteryis merely getting a breathof evening air,while this one here—her moutha burning plume— she’s no fire-eater,just my frosty neighbourcoming home. In Her Own Image The “woman’s world” and the “starry mysteries” are presented far less romantically in In Her Own Image. The poems in this volume refuse to conform to male stereotypes of woman as happy domestic partner. They explore male-female conflicts in the deepest and most intimate psychic places. The title In Her Own Image indicates the volume’s concern with the problem of identity. Boland wishes to be an individual, free to determine her own life, but other forces seek to control her, to make her conform to female stereotypes. A woman should be perfect, unchanging, youthful, pure—in short, she should be ideal. Male- dominated society does not wish women to explore their own deepest desires. Women transform these social messages into the voice of their own consciences, or, in Sigmund Freud’s terms, their own superegos: “Thou shalt not get fat!” “Thou shalt not get old!” “Thou shalt not get curious.” 16 These naysaying inner voices dominate the first three poems of In Her Own Image: “Tirade for the Mimic Muse,” “In Her Own Image,” and “In His Own Image.” The “mimic muse” in the first poem urges the speaker to “make up,” to conceal aging with cosmetics. The illustration for this poem shows a chubby and unkempt woman gazing into a mirror and seeing a perfect version of herself—thin, unwrinkled, and physically fit. The phrase “her own image” in the second poem refers to another idealization, the “image” of perfection that the speaker carries around inside herself. She finally frees herself from this psychic burden by planting the image outside in the garden. The illustration shows a naked woman bending over a small coffin. The third poem, “In His Own Image,” considers the pressures of a husband’s expectations on a wife’s sense of self. The speaker in this third poem does not try to reshape her features with makeup. She is battered into a new shape by a drunken husband. No illustration appears with this poem. The speaker’s “tirade” in “Tirade for the Mimic Muse” begins at once and establishes the intensely hostile tone of much of In Her Own Image: “I’ve caught you out. You slut. You fat trout.” She despises the impulse in herself to conform to a stereotype, to disguise the physical signs of time passing: “the lizarding of eyelids,” “the whiskering of nipples,” and “the slow betrayals of our bedroom mirrors.” In the final section of the poem, the authentic self has suppressed those conforming impulses: “I, who mazed my way to womanhood/ Through all your halls of mirrors, making faces.” Now the mirror’s glass is cracked. The speaker promises a true vision of the world, but the vision will not be idyllic: “I will show you true reflections, terrors.” Terrors preoccupy Boland for much of this book. “In Her Own Image” and “In His Own Image” deal with different aspects of the “perfect woman.” The first poem has a much less hostile tone than does “Tirade for the Mimic Muse.” The speaker seems less threatened by the self-image from which she wishes to distance herself. Images of gold and amethyst and jasmine run through the poem. Despite the less hostile tone, Boland regards this “image” as a burdensome idealization that must be purged for psychic health: “She is not myself/ anymore.” The speaker plants this “image” in the garden outside: “I will bed her,/ She will bloom there,” safely removed from consciousness. The poem “In His Own Image” is full of anxiety. The speaker cannot find her center, her identity. Potential signs of identity lie all around her, but she cannot interpret them: Celery feathers, . . .bacon flitch, . . .kettle’s paunch, . . .these were all I had to go on, . . .meagre proofs of myself. 17 called 23 Poems in 1962 and began studies at Trinity College the same year; she received degrees in English and Latin in 1966. After graduation, she became a lecturer in the English Department at Trinity. Boland quickly became disenchanted with academic life, however, and left the university to pursue a career as a literary journalist and to write poetry. In 1967, she published a collection of poetry entitled New Territory. In 1969, Boland married novelist Kevin Casey and moved to Dundrum, a suburb of Dublin. Much of her subsequent work centers on her life as a wife and mother. Largely ignored but quietly building a reputation, Boland first stirred controversy with In Her Own Image (1980). The work brought Boland into debates over feminism and the role of the woman poet in Ireland. Since then Boland has been an ardent voice for the equity of opportunity for female poets in the male-dominated literary climate of Ireland. More than just a vehicle for a cause, however, Boland's poetry has brought her international recognition as a literary figure. Major Works As Boland began writing poetry, she realized that her only models came from the patriarchal male-centered poetry of Irish literary tradition. Women were portrayed as decorative icons of Irish unity. Instead of abandoning national myths, however, Boland attempted to subvert traditional myths in her poetry and present an alternative look at women. Her style and themes developed slowly throughout her career. Her early poems were traditionally lyric and heavily influenced by William Butler Yeats. These early volumes were traditional in their focus and subject matter, but they touched upon issues that would later consume Boland's writing, including her examination of the role of women in Irish literature and society. Boland's style and themes underwent a drastic change with In Her Own Image, which addresses the difficult subjects of child abuse, wife abuse, anorexia, mastectomy, and victimization. The poems analyze female identity and challenge male-centered thinking by centralizing the experiences of the female body in short-lined stanzas which she refers to as "the anti-lyric." In Night Feed (1982), Boland again tackled the issue of female identity by looking at the domestic lives of women often overlooked in poetry and in Ireland's national myths. She used as her models the still-lives and domestic interiors of painters Jean-Baptiste Chardin and Jan Van Eyck. By turning to painting for her inspiration, Boland created a visual feel in the poems of this volume. The poems in The Journey (1983) expand the themes in Night Feed and continue to use the lives of women to redefine what it means to be Irish. The volume contains several poems which subvert the romanticized images of women found in Irish mythology. In this volume Boland also raises questions about 20 the corruption and exclusion of art and the dangers of its use for ornamentation. Critical Reception Reviewers considered Boland a straightforward lyric poet with the publication of her first few volumes. Denis Donoghue stated, "When she published her first book of poems, New Territory, in 1967, it was hard to distinguish her voice from the common tone of English poetry at large: worldly, cryptic, Larkinesque." Many pointed out how much Boland's early poetry owed to Yeats, some criticizing Boland for imitation. Although Yeats was a strong influence on her poetry, critics noted her subversion of his themes. Most critics viewed Boland's In Her Own Image as a departure from the style and themes of New Territoryand The War Horse (1980). Often reviews of this and subsequent works focused on Boland as a feminist, rather than as a poet. Many reviewers dismissed In Her Own Image as being too focused on feminine issues and some even found the themes offensive. The volume caused a stir and reviewers began characterizing Boland as a "women's writer." With Outside History (1990), Boland received critical acclaim in the United States which eventually brought her mainstream attention and praise in her own country. Critics disagree about whether Boland is more successful in her domestic or more politically oriented work. William Logan stated, "Poems of quiet desperation in the kitchen do not form an original aesthetic…. When Ms. Boland stops being the bard of fabric … she is truest to her own culture and most deeply coiled in its falseness." Other reviewers, however, found Boland's use of domestic scenes and topics a brave move for the poet, and preferred these poems to her more politically charged work. In recent years, reviewers have praised Boland for her unique presentation of women and political issues and her fusing of individual lives to public myths in her work. R. T. Smith asserted, "Reminding us that art is perhaps the most fruitful venue for the collaboration of public and private interests, [Boland] provides us with not only a map, but a compass as well, and perhaps a thirst for the journey." Eavan Boland Boland, Eavan (Poetry Criticism) - Essay 21 Introduction Eavan Boland 1944- (Full name Eavan Aisling Boland) Irish poet and critic. Boland is viewed as one of the most important poets in contemporary Irish literature. Critics commend her exploration of feminist issues in her work, particularly the role of women in Irish literature and society. In her poetry she has also subverted traditional Irish mythology and concepts of female identity in order to express a more accurate perspective on the contributions and achievements of women in Irish history, politics, and culture. Biographical Information Boland was born on September 24, 1944, in Dublin. Her father, the Irish diplomat Frederick H. Boland, was posted in 1950 as the Irish Ambassador to the Court of St. James in London, and then in 1956 as the President of the United Nations General Assembly. Growing up in London and New York City, Boland felt alienated from her Irish heritage, particularly in London, where she encountered prejudice against the Irish. As a teenager she returned to Ireland and attended the Holy Child Convent in Killiny, County Dublin. She immersed herself in Irish culture and began to write poetry. In 1962 she attended Trinity College in Dublin and published her first collection of verse, 23 Poems. In 1966 she received degrees in English and Latin from Trinity and was hired by the English department as a lecturer. In a short time, however, she left Trinity and became a full-time literary critic and poet. Much of her early poetry focused on domestic concerns, such as marriage, children, and her home in a suburb of Dublin. Yet with the publication of In Her Own Image (1980), critics began to take notice of her exploration of feminist issues, particularly the role of female poets within the patriarchal literary establishment in Ireland. Her work generated much controversy and brought her international recognition as a feminist literary figure. She has taught at several universities, including University College, Dublin; Bowdoin College; the University of Utah; and Stanford University. In addition, she has received several awards for her work, such as the Lannan Award for Poetry in 1994, the Bucknell Medal of Merit in 2000, and the Frederick Nims Memorial Prize in 2002. Major Works 22