Leaving Certificate Ordinary Level – Excellence in English Language and Literature
Eavan Boland
Eavan Boland was born in Dublin in 1944 but spent several years of her childhood in London and New York because her father was a diplomat and had to travel for work. Returning to Ireland, Boland studied at Trinity College, Dublin. She enjoyed her time there and found living in Dublin City in the 1960s helpful and inspirational to her career as a writer. However, when she married the novelist Kevin Casey in 1969 and started a family, Boland moved to the suburb of Dundrum. She was no longer part of the lively city life, but still managed to fi nd creative inspiration in this new place.
Boland has taught at Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin. In 1979, she was a member of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Since 1996, Boland has been Professor of English at Stanford University in the United States.
T is Moment
A neighbourhood. At dusk.
T ings are getting ready to happen out of sight.
Stars and moths. And rinds slanting around fruit.
But not yet.
One tree is black. One window is yellow as butter.
A woman leans down to catch a child who has run into her arms this moment.
Stars rise. Moths fl utter. Apples sweeten in the dark.
