Poetry and other Stuff!

Poetry and other Stuff! 

Grave of F.R. Higgins
Laracor Co. Meath.

Got my hands on a copy of the discovery module circa 2010 for the Leaving Certificate Higher and Ordinary Level. A loan of, sort of, and just for the "day" and went for a wander down "The Famine Road" and a few others to boot. Actually it wasn't circa at all it was! I liked the idea of  the guidelines and the questions that follow which suggest some framework for interpretation  but an "any other thoughts" to allow for a personal take wouldn't go amiss. You can argue with poets all you like about what they put in or leave out but it is only for entertainment to suggest what they are thinking and not always obvious and even the experts get it wrong. I was in Newgrange a few years back and the girl said the only poets they really want to read are Yeats and maybe a little Kavanagh and leafing through the pages of this I would be inclined to agree. But maybe that's because I'm really not too familiar with most of what's included. Reading something of the quality of  "In Memory of Eva-Gore Booth and Con Markiewicz" though puts everything else in perspective and that's just one example. Looking through the guidelines for Kavanagh's " On Raglan Road" I'd say close but not close enough. And as for the definitive version? I'd argue for two.Close to the end of the book there is a poem by William Carlos Williams called "The Red Wheelbarrow" and I can remember Tommy Murray bringing it into a  meeting in Dunshaughlin as an exercise that I had a little fun with. Maybe I'll post next time!