Clasp

by Doireann Ní Ghríofa

Clasp is award-winning poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s first English-language collection of poems. In three sections entitled ‘Clasp’, ‘Cleave’ and ‘Clench’, Ní Ghríofa engages in a strikingly physical way with the world of her subject matter. The result is by times what one poem calls ‘A History in Hearts’, among other things an intimate exploration of love, childbirth and motherhood, and simultaneously a place of separation and anxiety. In one poem set in the boys’ home in Letterfrack, a place of undeniable terror, we see how, in the name of religion, “The earth holds small skulls like seeds”.

Genres: Poetry, Ireland, Irish Literature

75 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Doireann Ní Ghríofa is a ​bilingual ​writer​,​ devoted to exploring how the past makes itself felt within the present. ‘​​A Ghost in the Throat’ finds an 18th century poet haunting a young mother, leading her through visions of blood, milk, lust, and murder. Written on the roof of a multi-storey car park in Ireland, it went on to be described as “powerful” (New York Times), “captivatingly original” (The Guardian), and a “masterpiece” (Sunday Business Post). ​'A Ghost in the Throat’ won the James Tait Black Prize and was voted overall Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, while the US edition was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book of 2021. It is to appear in 15 further languages worldwide.
Doireann is also the author of six critically-acclaimed books of poetry, each a deepening exploration of birth, death, desire, and domesticity. Awards for her writing include a Lannan Literary Fellowship (USA), the Ostana Prize (Italy), the James Tait Black Prize (Scotland), a Seamus Heaney Fellowship, and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature​, among others.

Reviews

[Bart Van Overmeire · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a well known fact that Doireann Ní Ghríofa's writing is the best thing that happened to me the past year. So I read this poetry collection sparingly, savouring it bit by bit.

[Peter Graarup Westergaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great poetry

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each of these poems is a universe. At times they flow together beautifully; at times they are islands in the stream. There is a lot of character and personality to them, a very clear poetic identity.

[Alli Shoemaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up- I felt her personal poems to be the most interesting. Gorgeous writing style, but I found it hard to connect with obscure people like Emily Dickinson’s housemaid. My favorites were her poems about motherhood or when she evoked a haunted sense of place.

[Annika · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Simon Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had been meaning to buy this book for a good while. It was great to see some of her poems that were familiar to me from when I met Doireann a few years beforehand in their earlier drafts. The book is in three parts. Possibly because I have a young child, the poems relating to her own child gripped (or clasped!) me the most. Other poems that take place in hospital are graphic and at times uncomfortable to read (in a good way) and one can't help but feel you're there in that ward feeling those lacerations.

[Katie Dillon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a slim book of poetry! I read two of her others (which I will also review in short order), and figured that each one individually is too short to count for my reading goal, but all three combined are long enough. This is the first one I read and I already said "I'm reading it" on Goodreads so I picked this one to add to my reading goal.

I just love her writing so much. These poems were all so gorgeous. The one that goes, "I am a curator of loss" is my favorite from this collection. Just beautiful!

[Lisa Stice · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful and painful; celebratory and regretful; fearless and anxious

[Mark Ward]

3.5 really

[Sophie]

I keep going back to this book, there is such depth and beauty in each page.

[Juliano · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Is this what it is to be an adult? Yes. You are alone.’ In Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s first English language book of poems, Clasp (published 2015), there is a profound and palpable sense of the brutality of life, from such medical procedures as the almost-comical removal of a tooth and traumatic birth, to depictions of landscapes and buildings that are witness to violence and pain. Yet there is something vibrant and living that is working against these everyday horrors and losses, like in ‘tapetum lucidim’: ‘[pause. / sing of hunger, sing of night / sing of future, sing of fire / sing of scorched meat / wedged between your teeth.]’ Her sense of rhythm and imagery are constantly evocative, her subjects as dark and unpredictable; my favourite poem in the pack was the thoroughly modern, bleak and relatable ‘Narcissus’, whose ‘soundless words flash onto strangers’ screens / until silence no longer feels like loneliness. / Narcissus gazes through glass until his eyes ache.’ So excited to read Doireann’s upcoming prose debut with Tramp Press!

[Cari Zuckerman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not someone who normally reads poetry but I adored A Ghost in the Throat and needed a book of poetry for a reading challenge I'm doing so I picked this up. After the incredibly beautiful language of A Ghost in the Throat, I had high hopes for this collection. I didn't find much here to stir my emotions or immerse me in a moment. Perhaps if I were a mother I'd be moved by some of the pieces about pregnancy, childbirth, and her children. As someone who still grieves the loss of my soul dog two years ago, who happened to be a terrier, my favorite line was from the final poem, Seven Views of Cork City: "I wish I could live in a terrier's dream."

In short, I was disappointed. I thought I'd find the same magic here as I experienced when listening to the audiobook of A Ghost in the Throat, but I didn't.

[Megan Milburn-McAlister · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most impactful books I read last year was Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s “A Ghost in the Throat,” so I collected her poetry books and have been making my way through them. I have started with “Clasp,” and I am not at all surprised that I loved it. She manages to make what I thought were unique experiences to me seem universal, and I am so moved by how visceral and real she describes moving through the world as a woman. My favorite poem is “I Carry Your Bones in My Body” and I wish my children could read “On Patrick Street” and understand what it was like to use a pay phone.

Beautiful poems, will forever be on my bookshelf.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ik kwam het tegen in het MoLi museum in Dublin.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

doireann ní ghríofa u are and always will be THEEEEEE irish woman poet

[ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I loved that lighthouse - it made me. A broken
home is still a home, where waves of traffic sing a lullaby
through dark."

[Áine Ní Néill · Rating 5 out of 5]

doireann ní ghríofa, woman that you are,