The Statue of the Virgin at Granard Square Speaks: IOE notes

Question 1

What is this poem about (in terms of society)?

Answer 1

This poem is about the society that Meehan inhibited and it was a society that was hypocritical.

Question 2

What type of poem is this that is characteristic of the poet?

Answer 2

It is a narrative poem

Question 3

what does the very first line do for the poet?
“It can be bitter here at times like this,”

Answer 3

It introduces the subtle, nuanced, complex style in which Meehan writes

Question 4

“The howling won’t let up. Trees
cavort in agony as if they would be free and take off”

What is this a superb example of that is stylistic of the poet? What other techniques are present here and give their effect?

Answer 4

It is an outstanding example of aesthetic language on her part.
It contains storm imagery like Shakespeare which is used as a symbol of disorder/chaos and pathetic fallacy to reflect the poet’s mood when she looks at the society in which she lives

Question 5

Where is storm imagery seen in this poem? (quote)

Answer 5

The howling won’t let up. Trees
cavort in agony as if they would be free
and take off

Question 6

What is the relevance of the storm imagery in the poem?

Answer 6

It is used as a symbol of disorder/chaos and pathetic fallacy to reflect the poet’s mood when she looks at the society in which she lives

Question 7

Meehan is an activist by doing what?

Answer 7

Meehan is well known as an activist who raises poetry into public consciousness.

Question 8

In this dramatic monologue, what does Meehan remember?

Answer 8

In this dramatic monologue, she remembers the heartbreak associated with one young woman’s tragedy.

Question 9

Explain the setting of this poem (when, where, what happens?)

Answer 9

Set on All Souls’ Night, the iconic statue comes alive as the poet assumes the voice of the Blessed Virgin in the grotto recalling the past

Question 10

What tone is heard in the opening stanza? What is there an emphasis on in this stanza?

Answer 10

Her resentful tone is evident throughout the opening stanza. There is an emphasis on rejection and alienation.

Question 11

“It can be bitter here at times like this,
November wind sweeping across the border.
Its seeds of ice would cut you to the quick.”

There are two meanings to the harsh winter weather here. Explain them.

Answer 11

Harsh winter weather is an obvious symbol of cruel times.

But it also alludes to the bitterness caused by society.

Question 12

What is the importance of the isolated statue away from the town?
“The whole town tucked up safe and dreaming,
even wild things gone to earth, and I
stuck up here in this grotto, without as much as
star or planet to ease my vigil.”

Answer 12

The isolation of the statue highlights the experience of the young girl who died here and her loneliness in death.

Question 13

“The howling won’t let up. Trees
cavort in agony as if they would be free
and take off”
What do these images provide to the reader?
What type of scene does Meehan create with these images?

Answer 13

Graphic details of the desolate landscape in stanza two provide a disquieting context for the anguish of the terrible event. Meehan creates a surreal scene of chaos and suffering.

Question 14

“where men hunt each other and invoke
the various names of God as blessing
on their death tactics, their night manoeuvres”
What is Meehan expressing her opinion on?

Answer 14

Meehan expresses contempt for the way murders have sometimes been carried out in the name of religion.

Question 15

“I hear fish drowning.
I taste the stagnant water mingled
with turf smoke from outlying farms.”

What is wrong with these images? (2)

Answer 15

1. Something is wrong in this society. There is disorder and it is disjointed and unnatural.
2. Water should be fresh not stagnant (having no current or flow and often having an unpleasant smell as a consequence.)

Question 16

Why is the repetition in the 3rd stanza important?

Answer 16

The insistent repetition creates a religious rhythm

Question 17

What is the Virgin Mary normally associated with?
What does the statue dislike about this focus?

Answer 17

She is primarily associated with her passive maternal role, confined to the background in the story of Christ’s suffering. She is uneasy with the focus on violence ‘the scourging and the falling’.

Question 18

Why are society’s prayers of little value to the statue?

Answer 18

The prayers go nowhere. The Virgin feels distanced from her role as an icon unable to help those who kneel before me. She has no illusions about her own lack of influence, their prayers/fly up like sparks

Question 19

What stana has a positive change of tone echoing the first stanza?

Answer 19

an unexpected change af tone occurs in Stanza four Echoing the first line, the poem becomes more positive and nostalgic:

Question 20

When does the statue interchange her anger for something new? Explain this new feeling using this quote:
I would break loose of my stony robes,
pure blue, pure white, as if they had robbed
a child’s sky for their colour. My being
cries out to be incarnate, incarnate,
maculate and tousled in a honeyed bed

Answer 20

For the first time, the statue exchanges her anger with passionate desire. She yearns for natural physical intimacy, to ‘break loose of my stony robes. The statue longs to break free, to be incarnate, incarnate.

Question 21

I would break loose of my stony robes,
pure blue, pure white, as if they had robbed
a child’s sky for their colour. My being
cries out to be incarnate, incarnate,
maculate and tousled in a honeyed bed

What does the repetition present here emphasize? What is Mary crying out for?

Answer 21

Repetition emphasises her yearning to feel truly alive. In place of Mary’s traditional immaculate image, she cries out to be ‘maculate and tousled in a honeyed bed’.

Question 22

Explain this quote:
. Death is just another harvest
scripted to the season’s play

Answer 22

‘Death is just another harvest/scripted to the season’s play. Dying is part of the cycle of nature too.

Question 23

What happens in stanza 7? (place and parallels)

Answer 23

Stanza seven takes the reader back to the icy present. It is All Souls’ Night and the relentless keening gale returns, bringing more reminders of death

Question 24

Explain the imagery in this quote:
I would not be amazed if every corpse came risen
from the graveyard to join in exaltation with the gale,
a cacophony of bone imploring sky for judgement
and release from being the conscience of the town.

Answer 24

The wild supernatural scene and disturbing image of the ghosts celebrating death becomes increasingly intense: ‘ a cacophony of bone’. The dead souls demand “judgement’ and ‘release from being the conscience of the town. It is time for the living to take responsibility for the horrific events that happened here.

Question 25

What must the living now do on all souls night?

Answer 25

It is time for the living to take responsibility for the horrific events that happened here.

Question 26

What is the tone in stanza 8?
“On a night like this I remember the child
who came with fifteen summers to her name..”

Answer 26

The tone in stanza eight alternates between pity and remorse

Question 27

What is the similarity between the girl and the virgin Mary?

Answer 27

The similarity between the girl’s sad history and the story of the Virgin Mary is striking. Both would risk being marginalised by their community,

Question 28

“and she lay down alone at my feet
without midwife or doctor or friend to hold her hand”
What is the impact of this quote?

Answer 28

The sense of frustration and guilt is heightened,

Question 29

“I did not move,
I didn’t lift a finger to help her,
I didn’t intercede with heaven,”
How do these lines have such an emotional impact on the reader?

Answer 29

As the forceful voice reaches a dramatic climax, short lines intensify the emotional impact: 1 didn’t lift a finger to help her./I didn’t intercede with heaven.

Question 30

What is the main irony in the poem? (at the end)

Answer 30

The poem’s irony is that the Virgin herself is ineffectual. Though the lines are ambiguous as to whether she cannot or will not help the girl, her powerlessness is beyond doubt.

Question 31

What does the statue’s monologue transform into by the end of the poem?

Answer 31

In the final stanza, the statue’s monologue becomes a prayerful lament.

Question 32

She describes human existence as our foolish dance’ and begs for mercy: ‘hear me and have pity’ What is ironi cabout the actions of the statue?

Answer 32

She describes human existence as our foolish dance’ and begs for mercy: ‘hear me and have pity. Poignantly, the Virgin herself is now praying for forgiveness.

Answer 33

From the outset, the statue’s disembodied and haunting narration has implicated a sense of communal involvement based on the repressiveness of Irish society.

Question 34

What is Meehan pointing out about religion in this poem?

Answer 34

Meehan obviously points to the complicity of organised religion in Ann Lovett’s tragedy.

Question 35

What is the final stanza a subtle but powerful example of?

Answer 35

It is an example of Meehan’s subtle but powerful social commentary/
An isolated child, completely alone, comes to God to pray for an intercision.

Question 36

What is Meehan’s critique for society?

Answer 36

She is a critic of the society dominated by the catholic church and the role of the catholic church in our society

Question 37

What is the statue of the virgin a symbol of? (IOE)

Answer 37

It is used as a symbol of the institution of the catholic church which is static, immobile and unwilling but also incapable of helping the vulnerable.

Question 38

What does the girl represent in this poem?

Answer 38

The girl represents those who are vulnerable

Question 39

“On a night like this I number the days to the solstice
and the turn back to the light.”
Explain these ideas and images.

Answer 39

Meehan is conjuring up ideas of pre Christian Ireland (Pagan Ireland when the sun was worshipped)

Question 40

What insights to we gain insight into from the poet?

Answer 40

From this poem, we gain an insight into Meehan’s sense/opinions of nature and the failures of the society she is depicting.

Question 41

What does the actual church represent? How does the church in the poem parallel these ideas and beliefs?

Answer 41

The church represents hope that there is a God who cares most about the vulnerable (Meehan is saying this truth is gone).
There is a powerful church that people are devoted to (symbol of going to the grotto to pray) but it has lost its humanity and doesn’t care for the vulnerable.

Question 42

Explain what the society depicted in the poem is like.

Answer 42

It is a profoundly religious society where vulnerable people are not cared for.