Boland Flashcards
(4 cards)
The famine road
Mistreatment and subjugation of women and irish history
“Idle as trout in light colonel jones, these irish give them no coins at all, their bones need toil”
“Road” “going nowhere”
Euphemistic and cacophony “they not blood their knuckles on roch such April hailstone for water”
“Barren never to know the load of his child in you, what is your body if not a famine road”
“Wretches work till they are quite worn”
Charles treveleyan.
The war horse
Irish brutal past. Reflects the powerlessness and vulnerability of humans in the face of war, violence and destruction
“About the clip clop casual”
“Loosened from its daily tether in the tinker camp on the eniskerry road”
Ominous simile compares the uprooted roots to “Corpses, remote, crushed, mutilated”
Careful dictation and enjabments creating a sense of unease “but we are safe, our unformed fear Of fierce commitment gone; why should we care” constant undercurrent of danger and unresolved conflict
Closing “of curtains”
The black lace fan my mother gave me
Intimate and romatic focusing on personal memory and emotional inheritance. The poem begins with concrete, sensory details “buying it for five frances in the Galeries/ in pre-war Paris” makes the moment vivid and real
“Wild roses, appliquéd on silk by hand” tactile and visual richness
“Inference of its violation” traces of pain or loss. Memories connected to love and history are often both beautiful and fragile
Poetic language shifts from the physical object and the emotional world it evokes.
“Empty café terrace” highlights anticipation and uncertainty. Memory can be incomplete and mysterious
Personal objects can carry stories across time
The pomegranate
Relationship between mothers and daughters. Deep insight into motherhood, loss and the complexities of letting go.
Mythical allusion, referencing the greek myth of ceres and persephone. Boland draws a parallel to the ancient mother grief to her own experiences as a modern mother. The bond trancends culture and time. The pomegranate ties persephone to the underworld. In the poem its a symbol of choice, maturity and inevitable seperation.
Daughters choice to “Pluck a pomegranate” represents her independence and the pain with growing up
“The place of death” a child can be curious, hungry and drawn towards lifes experiences
Tone is quiet, written in first person with a relflective, almost quiet tone that captures both sorrow and acceptance
The conversational language “she will wake up. She will hold/the papery flushed skin in her hand” brings intimacy. Poem feels personal amd real. The free verse structure mirrors the real life nature and the unpredictability of emotion. Allowing boland to to move fluidly between past and present, memory and myth
