Through the Square Window

by Sinéad Morrissey

Fertility, pregnancy, and the landscape of early childhood are themes explored in this collection of poems, which are by turns tender, exuberant, and unsettling. Pitched against envious dead, these diverse narratives of birth and its consequences are rooted in literary and historical contexts—from Aristotle’s theory of spontaneous generation to Lewis Carroll’s Alice—that amplify the depth of the collection. These selections are an examination of motherhood and infancy, which is the rich and contested territory in which what it means to be human in a precarious world is disclosed.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 2009

About the author

Raised in Belfast, she was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where she took BA and PhD degrees, and won the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award in 1990. She has published four collections of poetry: There Was Fire in Vancouver (1996), Between Here and There (2001), The State of the Prisons (2005), and Through the Square Window (2009), the second, third and fourth of which were shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize. After periods living in Japan and New Zealand she now lives in Belfast, where she has been writer-in-residence at Queen's University, Belfast and currently lectures.

Her collection, The State of the Prisons, was shortlisted for the Poetry Now Award in 2006. In November 2007, she received a Lannan Foundation Fellowship for "distinctive literary merit and for demonstrating potential for continued outstanding work". Her poem "Through the Square Window" won first prize in the 2007 British National Poetry Competition. Her collection, Through the Square Window, won the Poetry Now Award for 2010.

Reviews

[One Sassy Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for college and I will be copy+paste”ing” this review into all of her collections, as I have currently read everything from the 1st collection - “there was fire in Vancouver” - to the 6th and most recent - “on balance”.

I think Sinéad Morrissey’s poetry is among the best that I have ever read or had the pleasure to study. However, she isn’t a favourite of mine. I think that, personally, I like poetry that I can identify myself with/ poems that really resonate with me. It doesn’t mean that I won’t appreciate or bow down to the many beautiful poems she wrote about mythology/legends/travelling… Her poems about japan are absolutely incredible.

Nevertheless, I do appreciate autobiographical poetry more. I think I particularly tend to enjoy poetry from the 20th back more. So, it’s not surprising for me that I end up enjoying Eavan Boland’s poetry more, for example. There’s just something missing in most contemporary poetry for me. Some feeling that I get from “older” poetry that I don’t from poetry written post-90’s/ early 00’s.

[Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sinead Morrissey is my new favorite poet.

[Peter Longden · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sealey Challenge 2025
Day 25: ‘Through the Square Window’ by Sinéad Morrissey
Mix childhood and philosophers with architecture and Lewis Carroll and what do you get? You get this collection, her fourth, by Sinéad Morrissey, often vibrant, sometimes sombre, always realistic look at life, particularly early life and its consequences. ‘Vanity Fair’ is an amusing letter to William Dobbin from Amelia Sedley; while ‘York’ is a found poem of the York Mystery plays naming city guilds and the parts they put on in the plays. The collection is a fascinating study of the stages of life from birth to after-life to a soundtrack of fairground music, ‘The Clangers’ and a cathedral choir.
Extraordinary poetry.

[Malachy Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection. It reaches out and grabs you by the collar and doesn’t let go. Several of the poems almost brought me to tears. I can highly recommend. It really only receives 4 stars when compared to Sinead’s other work. While many of the poems are great, others are a bit meh. It lacks a little of that special something something found in her later collections.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

For it to simply pass them by—
Before they’ve memorised the hair, the eyes,

[Doralee Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy most the ambiguity in these poems which makes me a little crazy as I try to tease out readings of them. This is a book to discuss with others, very rich! I admire Morrissey's setting up of everyday domestic scenes and then undercutting them with word-choice and detail that suggest other possibly more intriguing or even sinister levels of meaning.

[Meagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's even better when read aloud by the poet!