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A Review of Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’s Poetry
by Lind Grant-Oyeye A common theme in reviews of her poetry is that Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’s work is not restricted to space or time but shifts between realms and places. In the Dublin Review, Gerard Smyth characterizes the poet as one who shifts from the material world to the otherworld [1]. She is portrayed as focusing on the metaphysical, translating experiences between worlds. Accordingly, readers new to her poetry might expect texts bursting with paranormal experiences. Her latest book Collected Poems (Wakefield Press, 2021) comprises work spanning over four decades with some new poems included. Assembling nine books into a single volume seems ambitious at first glance; however, it provides…
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Patrick Kavanagh: a Reader’s Experience
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Patrick Kavanagh: a Reader’s Experience
by Richard Hayes For generations of Irish readers—for this one certainly—the poetry of Patrick Kavanagh is inextricably associated with Soundings, the anthology of prescribed poetry for the Leaving Certificate English curriculum that was a staple of Irish secondary education from the end of the 1960s until the mid-1990s. Edited with sensitivity and skill by the late Augustine (“Gus”) Martin, then professor of English at University College Dublin, Soundings presented the poetry curriculum for the final exam with unashamed emphasis on the texts of the poems, without recourse to illustrations or photographs or that patronising commentary that seems to dominate textbooks now. Martin in his introduction to the book speaks of…
