15+ Eavan Boland Poems - Poem Analysis

Amethyst Beads

by Eavan Boland

‘Amethyst Beads’ by Eavan Boland alludes to Greek mythology and the suffering of a child, Persephone, after she was separated from her mother, Demeter.

‘And Soul’ by Eavan Boland is a poem about death and a body’s dissolution into the elements that it is made up of. The poet emphasizes the connection between a human being made nearly entirely of water and a city that’s drenched by a particularly rainy summer season.

Anorexic

by Eavan Boland

‘Anorexic’ by Eavan Boland conveys the mindset of a woman determined to destroy her physical body through starvation and filled with hatred for her sinful past, as according to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve.

Child of Our Time

by Eavan Boland

Cityscape

by Eavan Boland

‘Cityscape’ by Eavan Boland is a complex, allusion-filled poem that describes Dublin and the Blackrock Baths, and presents contrasting images of past and present.

How We Made a New Art on Old Ground

by Eavan Boland

‘How We Made a New Art on Old Ground’ by Eavan Boland depicts the way that poetry can remake a landscape with dark history, if only for a few moments as one reads it.

Is it Still the Same

by Eavan Boland

‘Is it Still the Same’ is a brilliant, affirming poem that explores memory and its relationship to a particular place and time.

Love

by Eavan Boland

‘Love’ was published in Eavan Boland’s 1994 collection In a Time of Violence. It speaks on themes of love, regret, and memory.

Outside History

by Eavan Boland

Quarantine

by Eavan Boland

Eavan Boland’s poem ‘Quarantine’ is a non-traditional love poem about a husband and wife who are forced to move north during the Great Irish Famine in 1847. RTÉ shortlisted 10 poems as Ireland’s favorite poems of the last century in 2015. Boland’s ‘Quarantine’ was one of them.