Soundings

Sonnet No. 64

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...

Some samples of poetry dissection...not for the squeamish!

Loud Is The Vale

No Second Troy

Canal Bank Walk

Mirror In February

I plan on making birds out of these pages... a bit of art therapy for the spotty leaving cert student in me!