Soundings
The poetry anthology Soundings was the textbook for the Irish Leaving Cert from 1969 to 2000. Yes, that's 31 years! And it contains one female poet, Emily Dickinson. And for some reason it has been reprinted in its original form. (misogyny nostalgia?)
These pages come from my tattered 1989 copy.
The officially sanctioned "meaning" of the poems, word for word, image by image were jotted into every crevice of the page to be regurgitated upon examination.
In those days intelligence was measured by the exactitude with which you could parrot your teachers...imagine!
I'm sure they've found a better system by now...
Loud Is The Vale
I plan on making birds out of these pages... a bit of art therapy for the spotty leaving cert student in me!
These pages come from my tattered 1989 copy.
The officially sanctioned "meaning" of the poems, word for word, image by image were jotted into every crevice of the page to be regurgitated upon examination.
In those days intelligence was measured by the exactitude with which you could parrot your teachers...imagine!
I'm sure they've found a better system by now...
Some samples of poetry dissection...not for the squeamish!
Loud Is The Vale
Comments
No, in fact the day I discovered poetry I knew I'd never be the same again.
Must look for my old copy though it was my brother's before me.
I loved La belle dame sans merci, Because I could not stop for death and Mirror in February...
but to be honest it took me a long time to feel I could read poetry with out some one in the room shouting at me and a snifter of tippex!
I don't remember Fern Hill, will check it out.
Mine was passed down too but I got it back! Sssh...she doesnt know! I suppose thats one advantage of having the same textbook for 31 years!
I am hoping to see your poems soon in a future version!!
I love my own copy of it...but when i see the leaving cert poetry textbooks today - it strikes me how damaging it was to have (almost)no female poets studied by three decades of Irish school children...
As for future versions!....will ye shtop!:)
These will be the bestest wordy birds ever although I'd be more inclined to keep the book intact cos you've made it just so amazing!!!
Take care
x
You Fit Into Me
You fit into me
like a hook into an eye
a fish hook
an open eye
Margaret Atwood
Why don't you have a favourite woman poet day on your blog? And you can take that book and paste one onto each page. I'd like to help with that. We could probably get a government grant for that. They like to pay to be reminded of how badly they treated great hunks of their population - at least they do in Canada.