SAMPLE INTRODUCTION


I was struck by the potent symbols and powerful metaphors which Boland employs in a very effective way in her poetry. It is through these devices that she explores her own life experiences as a young wife and mother, and as a feminist and a patriot. Her poetry is astonishingly honest and insightful. She never hesitates to reveal shrewd, even unsettling, observations about society, whether it is condemnation of our apathy around events that do not directly affect us, or insightful observations about the institution of marriage and how relationships can evolve over time. For this reason I think Boland is a very brave and extremely refreshing poet, and her poetry gave me some great insights and forced me to reflect on some truths about the world around me.


SAMPLE PARAGRAPH


Stars could be viewed as a clichéd symbol, as they are used so frequently, but Boland uses them in a fresh and unusual way in her poetry. In ‘This Moment’, stars function as a symbol of perfection. They show that all is well with the world: ‘Stars Rise.’ Similarly, in ‘The Pomegranate’, stars represent safety and security, while their absence represents the opposite: ‘It is winter/ and the stars are hidden.’ Both poems are based on Boland’s personal experiences as a mother and show that stars are a symbol of home for Boland. I thought Boland’s most powerful use of stars as a symbol was in ‘Outside History’, where she uses an intriguing scientific fact (that the light we see from stars is thousands of years old, and some of those stars may have burned out by the time we see them) to symbolise those who are forgotten by history: ‘These stars –/ whose light happened// thousands of years before/ our pain did’. Like the stars, we only see these outsiders when it is too late: ‘And we are too late. We are always too late.’


SAMPLE CONCLUSION


Boland’s poetry is both engaging and thought-provoking. She explores her own life, particularly her role as a mother, with disarming candour. Yet, I would never term Boland a confessional poet, because there is always a universal element to her poems. She uses her own life experiences to examine and reflect upon the world she lives in. In doing so, she reveals perceptive social truths such as the mystery underlying the banality of suburban life, the self-obsession of modern life and most powerfully, she reminds us of the uncomfortable fact that we are all responsible for creating this society of ours, and that we have a collective duty to make it better, no matter how much we would like to shirk this duty.


64 VERSE 2025


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