Domestic Violence

by Eavan Boland

Eavan Boland's new collection turns to the domestic interiors in which the dramas of women's lives are played seductions and quarrels, anger and grief, the care of children. In her attentiveness to the humdrum realities of suburban life, Boland makes them luminous with the power of live myths. Looking back over her own life, back through the lives of the women who preceded her, Boland arrives at the deep structures of memory where, as she writes, legends are made new 'not by saying them, but by unsettling / one layer of meaning from another'. This is a collection from a poet at the height of her powers, writing with authority and grace.

Genres: Poetry, Irish Literature, Grad School, Feminism

Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Born in Dublin in 1944, Eavan Boland studied in Ireland, London and New York. Her first book was published in 1967. She taught at Trinity College, University College Dublin, Bowdoin College, the University of Iowa, and Stanford University. A pioneering figure in Irish poetry, Boland's works include The Journey and other poems (1987), Night Feed (1994), The Lost Land (1998) and Code (2001). Her poems and essays appeared in magazines such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Kenyon Review and American Poetry Review. She was a regular reviewer for the Irish Times. She was married to the novelist Kevin Casey.

Reviews

[Raul]

Atlantis – A Lost Sonnet

How on earth did it happen, I used to wonder
that a whole city–arches, pillars, colonnades,
not to mention vehicles and animals–had all
one fine day gone under?

I mean, I said to myself, the world was small then.
Surely a great city must have been missed?
I miss our old city–

white pepper, white pudding, you and I meeting
under fanlights and low skies to go home in it. Maybe
what really happened is

this: the old fable-makers searched hard for a word
to convey that what is gone is gone forever and
never found it. And so, in the best traditions of

where we come from, they gave their sorrow a name
and drowned it.

Incredible, no? One of the best poems I have ever read. It would be near impossible to have another poem that great in a collection, but there were still some very good poems collected here. Most of which deal with national identity, Irish national identity to be precise, and which would have turned me away as I tend to stay away from whatever has a whiff of nationalism. But national identity here isn't rooted in tales of past glories and victories and superiority, instead it's that of survival focusing on ordinary lives and deaths, not shying away from moments of great pain as famine and defeat for instance. Also collected here are poems on grief, death, and change. A good introduction to this writer.

[Monique · Rating 4 out of 5]

First time I've heard of the poet, and first time I read anything from her. The poems about mothers and daughters resonated with me the most. The collection is short but nothing short of powerful in meaning. Thanks to my friend Benny for this recommendation. :)

[Eric Stutzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prior to spring of this year, Eavan Boland was a name with which I was not familiar. It wasn't until I saw an article in early May that chronicled her life and her achievements as one of the foremost Irish poets of the 20th century, and this collection of her work was listed as one of the highlights in a long career of poetry. Flash forward to late summer, I had a free afternoon on my hands, and I was strolling through the library, and this cover happened to grab my attention, which was then held when I read the title. I must say I was at first bewildered; the title 'Domestic Violence' and the genre, poetry didn't seem like they went together at all, and to top it off the cover design appeared to be related to neither the title nor the genre. I was fascinated. Soon after, I looked at the author, and saw the name Eavan Boland, which, although familiar, required my reading of the back cover to remember. Following this, I checked the book out and went back to my dorm.

However, due to a combination of circumstances, and a healthy portion of forgetfulness, I had managed to put off the reading of this book for several weeks. That is until I noticed it on my desk and decided to give it a shot. I sat down, got comfortable, and read away. What was inside was pleasantly unexpected. The poetry was very distinct in its style and rhythm, and crisp in its poignancy. Eavan Boland, an Irish native, infuses her writing with her love for and the sense of home she finds in Ireland. She paints the island in a way which doesn't come across as flattery, merely as an authentic view of someone who knew the area well.

When it comes down to it, this is a collection of poems, many of which have nothing to do with one another. The book is divided into collections, titled: Domestic Violence, Letters to the Dead, Indoors, and Becoming the Hand of John Speed, respectively. These miniature collections all revolve in some way around a very loose central theme or motif. For example, the latter two collections are focused quite a bit more on Ireland itself, from the "mountain crowned by snow," to "the clink-clink Irish rain makes on its journey in a garden in the suburbs, falling on out of season jasmine."

The title 'Domestic Violence' comes from one of the poems in the collection, a poem which happens to be one of the most beautiful, yet severe in the entire collection. This, among other poems such as 'In Season', 'And Soul', and 'The Nineteenth-Century Irish Poets' rank among the best poems I have ever read by Boland, as they are each abstract in their delivery, yet direct in their weight. In total, this is one of the finest collection of poetry I have ever read, and I cannot wait to read more by Eavan Boland, one of Ireland's best.

[Liisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the elegaic and familial poems maybe a little more than the ones about Ireland - though I suppose I should not be making that distinction?

"Your coffin was so small.
Only I knew it was full of
candlewick bedspreads,
orange pekoe tea leaves
smoking chimneys over wet peat;
.....
the secret histories of things
deserve to linger, to belong again
to the coil of your hair I found once
as a child, dried out by shadows,
in a shut-tight wooden box

in which was a mirror with
an ornate handle, an enameled back,
... from which
your face disappeared years ago."

From "Secrets"

[Weathergrrrl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book to return to over time, as experience and insight evolve, these poems will change in accessibility. Two touched me specifically. The title poem, Domestic Violence, was used by child in competition for Poetry Out Loud. This was the first time I had read Boland's poetry and listening to my teenager grapple with the text was incredibly moving. The other, And Soul, spoke to me as a person from an island nation on the connection with water in all its forms. It resonated at a deeper level.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Domestic Violence" is not Boland's finest work by a longshot, but she seems practically incapable of writing poems that either in sum or in parts aren't touching in their severity, crisp in their sensitivity, empathetic in their vision. It's a spare book in more ways than one -- short, but also precise, and in the simple, uncomplicated language for which she is known. The terrain is familiar (perhaps too much so) -- the human complexity hiding in simple Irish life, the toughness and tenderness of loss, moments of revelation emerging in (sometimes historic, usually someone's personal) change. The titular poem is exceptional, metaphor turning the sadly common into something radiant. Other standouts include "An Elegy for my Mother in Which She Scarcely Appears," "To Memory," and "The Nineteenth-Century Irish Poets."

[Mimi (a.k.a Ellen) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taking the ordinary and magnifying the scenario to the 100th power is the strength Boland brings to all her works. Whether it is a marriage, motherhood, Ireland, the legacy of Irish poets, illness, death, or just an image on a milk pitcher, she will make you see it in a new and powerful light.

This new collection does the same and her perspective has matured, in my opinion, to looking through the wisdom of an older person. It's wonderful for me to note she has not abandoned one of her most searing commentaries on Ireland and how inhospitable the country has been for women--writers and otherwise.

While her overarching topics remain the same, Boland adds an element of violence in the domestic sphere into each poem, and that's what makes this collection stand out from the others.

[Noel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a long time since I properly read any poetry, which seems like some kind of secular confession. I don't know why I picked this book of all books when browsing my bookshelves this evening. Maybe the title promised some meaning, certainly not comfort, after the most recent horror of the ongoing horrors that seem to be the ongoing acceptance of things.

I think I remember who recommended her to me but that was getting on for a decade ago and I'm pretty sure at some point I have read her work before but have forgotten. I read this through in one sitting. Reading most of it aloud, joys of living alone. I found this a very powerful and emotional collection.

Letters to the Dead
...
VII
How many daughters stood alone at a grave,
and thought this of their mothers’ lives?
That they were young in a country that hated a woman’s body.
That they grew old in a country that hated a woman’s body.
...

How many indeed and how many will continue to do so?

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Day 28 of the Sealey. Technically a reread altho I don’t seem to have recorded it on Goodreads.

Thanks to @surabhi.reading for reminding me pull Eavan Boland off the shelf this month. I bought this one in Dublin (at Hodges Figgis) in 2009. It’s such a lovely, very sparse collection (very few poems that are over a single page). There’s so much change in these poems—people starting new lives, moving, people’s lives ending. Each poem seems to tell a story with so many layers, you could just read them over and over. Standouts this read were: “8. Irish Interior”, “Secrets” and “Inheritance.”

[H]

"nothing is ever entirely / right in the lives of those who love each other."

"what would it mean, i used to wonder, to leave / everything you knew, leave it altogether, never mention / memories; start again inside that reticence?"

favorite poems were "how the dance came to the city," "neighbors," and "atlantis--a lost sonnet."

[amanda abel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5* I’ve only ever read individual poems by Boland, so it was lovely to engage with a whole collection. Some of these poems I found to be completely captivating, while others (especially the ones dealing with the history of or locations in Ireland) I felt quite shut out from. I’m eager to find some more to read though, as when they landed, they carried a punch.

[Dr. Sionainn · Rating 5 out of 5]

"There is still time, I will tell her. We can still
grow older together.

And will Ireland then be free?
And will Ireland then be free?

We loved the same things, I will say-
or at least some of them. Once in fact, long ago,

Yes! Ireland shall be free
From the center to the sea.

I almost loved you."

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was introduced to Eavan Boland through her poem "the War Horse," which I think is excellent.

This is likewise an excellent collection, one that caused me to reflect and in some cases want to write her back.

[Catherine Ayres · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an elegant, beautiful and incendiary book. Boland is one of the most talented poets of our time.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful. Boland is still my favorite.

[Ari Raliegh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic

[sarah lu · Rating 3 out of 5]

the sections "domestic violence" and "letters to the dead" were especially good, the others fell a little flat for me

[courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

well, totally predictable, but i loved this. i loved it as much or more than anything else i've read of hers. her language is straightforward and strong and her subjects are so finely wrought... i love that the violence that she mentions in her title underscores each piece, adding a kind of vibration to it. the poem may be about a plate, but we know better -- and we feel in "plate" the possibility of destruction. that is it: the violence of the title is really a potential violence, a threat under which we all live everyday. that is what provides the thrum and vibration beneath these poems.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this. Probably one of the more coherent collections I've read, in that it absolutely held up to a reading in one sitting - letting the book wash over me all in one grieving hoping wave didn't diminish the individual power of the poems at all; it gave them context.

(with nothing to assist me but the last
and most fabulous of beasts - language, language -
which knows, as I do, that it's too late
to record the loss of these things but does so anyway,
and anxiously, in case it shares their fate.)

[Cathal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the very few poetry collections I've read back to front, and one of the even fewer I've read more than once. Eavan Boland is a highly accomplished poet (as I don't really need to say!) and this collection may not represent some of her best work, but it is still compelling and valuable for what it is. This is a short review but all I really have to say is that this collection is great and I recommend it for all poetry fans!

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

These poems explore a relationship with the place and history that makes Ireland, a relationship that is both intimate and distant, tenuous and firm. I just want to cry everytime I read “Falling Asleep to the Sound of Rain. Indeed this and other poems are like the rain that is soft but so present in its wet chill.

[Carrie Etter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book seemed to fall off somewhat as it progressed, as the early poems seem particularly fresh and distant from contrivance and sentimentality, while later poems seemed to edge in that direction just enough for the movement to be palpable.

[Andria Caputo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have so much respect for Eavan Boland. As a female Irish poet, she has succesfully found a place for herself in the Irish cannon. This collection of poetry was especially poignant; the poems were beautifully written and her imagery invokes the spirit of her words perfectly.

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is much better that title might lead one to beleive.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haven't read this book yet but it is definitely on the list!

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

She is one of my favorite poets. I was introduced to her writing in college. The poems to her mother are the best.

[Tiff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book of short poems that I couldn't follow. Poetry is subjective to the person reading it and doesn't have to make sense to anyone but the author and in this case it didn't make sense to me.

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loving inhaling whole poetry books in the bath, lately. Been meaning to read this for months; glad I got round to it.