Eavan Boland Poems
This Moment
The poem “This Moment” sees Boland take her inspiration for ordinary everyday domestic and common place scenes. It is a poem of intense tenderness that takes an ordinary event of a child running into its mother’s arms and deems it worthy of artistic expression. Boland uses very short sentences to that culminate to the climax of the embrace between mother and child. She uses images that are sensual and language that is rich and suggestive. The speaker’s appreciation of the everyday extends even to ripening of an apple, a process so slow that almost nobody notices it. These are things that happen out of sight. Boland uses the image of light to further this idea of things happening out of sight, as it is suggestive of people engrossed in their own activities. Perhaps, overall, this poem is a celebration of motherhood. It highlights the mysterious beauty of things we are usually too busy to notice such as moths swooping, stars rising and the beauty of the moment when a mother takes a child up in her arms. The entire poem is a series of images that lead up to this moment
The Pomegranate
In “The Pomegranate” Boland fuses together the universal truth of Greek myth to the modern day woman. She draws on the legend of Ceres and Persephone to symbolise the poets own maternal instincts, that is the parental desire to protect and shield the child from any harm that may come their way. Her daughter’s uncut fruit leads her to recall the pomegranate. Boland cleverly creates her own physical environment which mirrors the mythological landscape of Hades “winter and the stars are hidden”. She uses images in a symbolic way, particularly the image of the pomegranate which is a fruit associated with temptation. In this poem, Boland uses overtones of the Garden of Eden. She suggests that all those who eat this fruit are drawn into darkness. Boland then uses this motif of darkness to create a bleak atmosphere. It can be argued that the process that this poem deals with
The poem “This Moment” sees Boland take her inspiration for ordinary everyday domestic and common place scenes. It is a poem of intense tenderness that takes an ordinary event of a child running into its mother’s arms and deems it worthy of artistic expression. Boland uses very short sentences to that culminate to the climax of the embrace between mother and child. She uses images that are sensual and language that is rich and suggestive. The speaker’s appreciation of the everyday extends even to ripening of an apple, a process so slow that almost nobody notices it. These are things that happen out of sight. Boland uses the image of light to further this idea of things happening out of sight, as it is suggestive of people engrossed in their own activities. Perhaps, overall, this poem is a celebration of motherhood. It highlights the mysterious beauty of things we are usually too busy to notice such as moths swooping, stars rising and the beauty of the moment when a mother takes a child up in her arms. The entire poem is a series of images that lead up to this moment
The Pomegranate
In “The Pomegranate” Boland fuses together the universal truth of Greek myth to the modern day woman. She draws on the legend of Ceres and Persephone to symbolise the poets own maternal instincts, that is the parental desire to protect and shield the child from any harm that may come their way. Her daughter’s uncut fruit leads her to recall the pomegranate. Boland cleverly creates her own physical environment which mirrors the mythological landscape of Hades “winter and the stars are hidden”. She uses images in a symbolic way, particularly the image of the pomegranate which is a fruit associated with temptation. In this poem, Boland uses overtones of the Garden of Eden. She suggests that all those who eat this fruit are drawn into darkness. Boland then uses this motif of darkness to create a bleak atmosphere. It can be argued that the process that this poem deals with