Eavan Boland - Outside History Flashcards
Stars are a symbol of timelessness
Personification of stars
Alliteration
What we see aren’t the stars themselves but hints of them only
These stars - these iron inklings of an Irish January
The light of these starts occurred …
Thousands of years before our pain did
They= stars/women
Remote in distance and time
We only get a vague sense of the light they emitted thousands of years ago. She doesn’t want to focus here attention on myths anymore
,
They have always been outside history
Earth is a contrast to the stars which aren’t human
You feel human when you feel upset for those who are forgotten in history
They isolate themselves from society as if they have chosen to be remote
Again, personification of stars
Under them remain a place where you found you were human
She wants to engage with the pasta in a meaningful way vas a writer
Boland wishes to deal with the real events instead of poetry about myths; the role traditionally assigned to women writers
She wants to become part of history
I have chosen: out of myth into history I move to be part of that ordeal
Darkness is a contrast to the stars
This highlights the troubled past
Like the stars, these are only now reaching her realisation
Darkness is only now reaching me
Famine road
She is engaging with the past and shining a light on past suffering.
She sees the ghosts of the dead
Achieved the ability to see ghosts and shadows
Clotted like a sky full of stars
Roads clotted as firmaments with the dead
Reference to time
Their pain is more real now
Die slowly as they are still in memories
Die slowly like stars
How slowly they die
Realisation that our empathy won’t do anything for them
We - collective responsibility
While our understanding of their suffering comes too late, there is still a need to recognise the wrongs
We are always too late
Themes in the poem
The oppression of women
Remembering history’s victims
