Eavan Boland War Horse
Eavan Boland
The War Horse
• Tends to use simile.
• Boland once said she found simile as an obvious form of comparison, metaphor more sophisticated and subtle.
• Horse represents spirit of war, unpredictability of history
• Criticism of our apathy
• Images tends to be quite heavy handed
• Tinkers horse – language of war, loss of war,
• End of poem more cryptic
• Shifts from Suburbia to Contemplation of History. Violence:
Her poems often record moments of conflict and violence and more importantly she explores the hurt, injustice and insensitivity that accompany these situations. In 'The War Horse', she captures how we fear involvment and try to opt out. When the horse moves on the speaker tells us that there is a relief 'our unformed fear of fierce commitment gone' and again when the neighbors 'use the subterfuge of curtains' to avoid the issue. Doing nothing is an option that Boland rejects in her poem 'Child of her Time'. she says we must 'find for your sake whose life our idle/Talk has cost, a new language'. In other words, violence has in part been contributed by our own carelessness and we must make sure that we make a stand for a new and more peaceful world. As a poet she moved 'to be part of that ordeal' to explor that darkness that is part of our human natures. Poetry has an important role to play in an Ireland scarred by violence.
The War Horse:
Theme and tone: violence inflicted upon society, tone is anxious,bitter and fearful.
Viewpoint: The poem suggests the fear and destruction which violence has inflicted on normal ordinary and innocent lives in the community. The horse in the poem poses a considereable threat and the speaker is thankful when he passes to the end of the street. the langueage is emotive and evokes the brutality that accompanies the shedding of blood in Ireland in both past and present. The response of the south, in hiding behind curtains, is reprehensible.
Memorable images: line 3/4, line 15/16, line 22-24, line
The War Horse
• Tends to use simile.
• Boland once said she found simile as an obvious form of comparison, metaphor more sophisticated and subtle.
• Horse represents spirit of war, unpredictability of history
• Criticism of our apathy
• Images tends to be quite heavy handed
• Tinkers horse – language of war, loss of war,
• End of poem more cryptic
• Shifts from Suburbia to Contemplation of History. Violence:
Her poems often record moments of conflict and violence and more importantly she explores the hurt, injustice and insensitivity that accompany these situations. In 'The War Horse', she captures how we fear involvment and try to opt out. When the horse moves on the speaker tells us that there is a relief 'our unformed fear of fierce commitment gone' and again when the neighbors 'use the subterfuge of curtains' to avoid the issue. Doing nothing is an option that Boland rejects in her poem 'Child of her Time'. she says we must 'find for your sake whose life our idle/Talk has cost, a new language'. In other words, violence has in part been contributed by our own carelessness and we must make sure that we make a stand for a new and more peaceful world. As a poet she moved 'to be part of that ordeal' to explor that darkness that is part of our human natures. Poetry has an important role to play in an Ireland scarred by violence.
The War Horse:
Theme and tone: violence inflicted upon society, tone is anxious,bitter and fearful.
Viewpoint: The poem suggests the fear and destruction which violence has inflicted on normal ordinary and innocent lives in the community. The horse in the poem poses a considereable threat and the speaker is thankful when he passes to the end of the street. the langueage is emotive and evokes the brutality that accompanies the shedding of blood in Ireland in both past and present. The response of the south, in hiding behind curtains, is reprehensible.
Memorable images: line 3/4, line 15/16, line 22-24, line