Plainchant

by Eamon Grennan

Grennan's new collection shows again his powers of close, patient, plainspoken observation. Whether his gaze falls on the dash of a hare, dive of a gannet, heavy stillness of a rain-flecked cow, the song of a lark, or the scurry of an ant across a page of Celan, the poem that emerges is a celebration of the momentary fact, how a particular detail can, when sufficiently attended to, glow with the truth of its own unrepeatable self. Set mostly in the landscape of coastal Connemara, these poems can also bring to vivid life a painting by Bonnard, a family walk, a childhood memory, a chance encounter, a man scything a field, or a brief probing of the work of Beckett. Paying attention is this poet's credo, coaxing his simple but layered, often interrogative language into revealing shapes. Grennan also chooses the repeated format of the poems themselves (justified right and left margins of different widths), aligning accident with design, choice with chance, to articulate his sense of the world as an energy poised dynamically between fact and form, between the time-anchored data of the world and the shaping rapture of art. These are poems that serve—through their intensely observed details and the rich, patient exactitudes of Grennan's language—to sharpen our own habits of attention, renewing our sense of the often unnoticed worlds around us.

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

Published January 1, 2020

About the author

Eamon Grennan is an Irish poet. He has lived in the United States, except for brief periods, since 1964. He was the Professor of English at Vassar College until his retirement in 2004.

Reviews

[Harry Palacio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plainchant is a worming collection of poetry, albeit an allegory is the hare a prostrating god or indignation of lover to lover joist. Perhaps, a narrative about a lone rabbit with culling eyes. Quick with thieves to wrest blue-gods.

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

With keen powers of observation and image-rich language, the poet muses about “the ordinary happenstance” of life and how creatures “get on with it” each in their own unique way until the final reckoning.

Favorite Poems:
“Singer in Storm”
“Chance”
“Lark-Lustre”
“Spiderlight”
“Near High Tide”
“No Words”
“Respite”
“Rhyming with Beckett”
“Rain Cows”
“Glass”
“Dance”
“Landscape with Ghost”
“Nature Vivant: Just Looking”
“A Visitation”
“Parents”
“With Ant and Celan”
“Late Autumn with Swallows and Sandmartins”

[Jennifer Lavoie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me some time to get into the format of the poetry, but in the end I enjoyed the beautiful imagery of the idyllic natural setting. The descriptions of the birds flying and perching on branches is beautiful in how natural it is. The descriptions are vivid, and readers will feel like they are with the poet.

[Lynne Reeves Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adored this collection of poems by Irish writer, Eamon Grennan. Starlings and swallows and hares, fill the Irish landscape, and his insights about life abound. Highly recommend!