The shadow doll poem eavan boland biography

A long long time ago (I can still remember…*ahem*) I had to study a number of poems for my Leaving Certificate (read A Level equivalents) examinations. Up until this point; I had enjoyed poetry but rarely read it for fun, preferring somewhat easier and more accessible fiction (utterly buying into the myth that poetry was somehow hard, irrelevant or distant  from everyday life).These were my first contemporary poems and poets.

The selection were electrifying and these poems – combined with a passionate and enthusiastic teacher – awoke something within me. It’s a wonderful moment when a person realises that you don’t have to ‘get’ poetry to love it. Just knowing that every experience can be both a unique and shared one is a powerful thing.

Eavan Boland was one of the triumvirate of ‘Irish’ poets that we studied.
Born in Dublin in 1944; at the age of six she moved to London with her family, encountering vehement anti-