Nightscapes
by Jean Bleakney
‘Nightscapes’ beautifully captures the feeling of being isolated from nature that is common in urban environments.
If this was Donegal
I wouldn’t be able to breathe
for fear of swallowing stars…
A Watery City
by Jean Bleakney
‘A Watery City’ engages with themes of friendship and journeying, significantly how they are affected by the passage of time.
Well if I’d known how many bridges there were in that city
I’d have worried for your soul and I’d never have written
Hope the prose is flowing as effortlessly as the Lee if
I’d considered the sea. I hadn’t reckoned on reversible rivers.
Donegal Sightings
by Jean Bleakney
‘Donegal Sightings’ explores how elusive the natural world can feel, even when we are immersed within its beauty.
You would need three weather eyes
out here on Dawros Head where the sky,
Atlantic laden, signals its intentions
in airbrushed cliffs and disappearing islands;
Personal Helicon
by Seamus Heaney
Heaney’s ‘Personal Helicon’ draws inspiration from his rural carefree childhood and intimate connection with nature.
Consolidation
by Jean Bleakney
Jean Bleakney’s ‘Consolidation’ is a deeply personal poem about the act of rearranging the cowry shells that the speaker and her children gathered in the past.
Some sunny, empty afternoon
I’ll pool our decade’s worth
and more of cowrie shells
gathered from that gravel patch
Winterisation
by Jean Bleakney
‘Winterisation’ subtly weaves the processes of preparing for winter and steeling oneself for news of bereavement.
Halloween at the caravan.
All along the strand
sand is rearing up
like smoke from a bush fire.
Spring
by Jean Bleakney
‘Spring’ is an unsettling poem that explores the dangers of devotion and deferring happiness instead of living in the present.
It spills from sun-shocked evenings in March
and slit seed-packets, buckled into spouts.
She palms and strokes and shunts them, via heart-line;
index-fingers them to rows of labelled pots.
Sunlight on the Garden
by Louis MacNeice
‘Sunlight on the Garden’ by Louis MacNeice is a poem about change, death, and accepting that life eventually ends.
The sunlight on the garden
Hardens and grows cold,
We cannot cage the minute
Within its nets of gold;
Ravenna
by Oscar Wilde
‘Ravenna’ by Oscar Wilde is the poet’s recollection of a trip to the culturally and historically important Italian city of Ravenna.
A year ago I breathed the Italian air,
And yet, methinks this northern Spring is fair,
These fields made golden with the flower of March,
The throstle singing on the feathered larch,
Csontváry’s Flowers
by Jean Bleakney
‘Csontváry’s Flowers’ is a fascinating insight into one extraordinary artist’s view of the work of another.
The thin ribbon of sky, and thinner still,
blued hints of the easterly Carpathians
then down into the whole arboretum of blue-greens and greens
closing in around the valley town of Selmecbánya
‘Had I not been awake’
by Seamus Heaney
‘Had I not been awake’ is a stunning expression of hope against the backdrop of doubt, which reminds the reader of their capacity to inspire.
A Description of the Morning
by Jonathan Swift
‘A Description of the Morning’ by Jonathan Swift describes the various events happening one morning in London’s West End in the early 1700s.
A Memory
by Lola Ridge
‘A Memory’ by Lola Ridge describes a speaker’s memories of a specific emotional night she spent with the listener on the shore of a tropic sea.
A Peasant
by Ronald Stuart Thomas
‘A Peasant’ was written in 1942. The poem presents an emblematic character of Thomas’s poetry called Iago Prytherch.
All Day I Hear The Noise Of Waters
by James Joyce
‘All Day I Hear The Noise Of Waters’ is a poem featured in James Joyce’s Chamber Music. This poetry collection
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.
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
by William Butler Yeats
After losing his dear friend in World War I, William Butler Yeats wrote this particular poem, ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death. Robert Gregory, an Irish Airman, was accidentally shot down by an Italian Aviator, who happened to be a dear friend of Yeats.
And Soul
by Eavan Boland
‘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.
Belfast Confetti
by Ciaran Carson
Ciaran Carson’s poem ‘Belfast Confetti’ describes how external conflicts influence a speaker’s mind. It speaks on the aftermath of the Troubles in Belfast.
Blackberry-Picking
by Seamus Heaney
In ‘Blackberry-Picking’ the speaker is recalling a recurring scene from his youth: each August, he would pick blackberries and relish in their sweet taste.
Breaking the Surface
by Jean Bleakney
‘Breaking the Surface’ by Jean Bleakney is about the “art of skimming,” an extended metaphor for the art of writing poetry.
Brown Penny
by William Butler Yeats
‘Brown Penny’ by William Butler Yeats is an expression of the various levels of honest “love” that follow us from birth to death.
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.
Clearances
by Seamus Heaney
‘Clearances’ forms part of a series of sonnets in which Heaney examines his relationship with his mother, and focuses on her death.
Docker
by Seamus Heaney
‘Docker’ is a 1966 poem by Seamus Heaney which depicts the life of a dockworker in Belfast and explores his personal and religious sense of discord.
Ecce Puer
by James Joyce
‘Ecce Puer’ was published in 1932 and it is featured in Collected Poems. Joyce wrote this poem in order to mourn the recent death of his father, John Stanislaus Joyce.
Exposure
by Seamus Heaney
‘Exposure’ by Seamus Heaney discusses the poet’s role in a society and how he might contribute helpfully to the discourse of the time.
Genetics
by Sinéad Morrissey
‘Genetics’ by Sinéad Morrissey speaks on the composition of one’s body and how one is made of their mother, father, and their combined history.
He Wishes His Beloved Were Dead
by William Butler Yeats
‘He Wishes His Beloved Were Dead’ by William Butler Yeats is a ballad in which one lover yearns for the death of the other so that they may be together as he wishes.
