An Origin Like Water: Collected Poems 1957-1987

An Origin Like Water: Collected Poems 1957-1987The poems from Boland's first book, New Territory, show her to be, at twenty two, a master of formal verse reflecting Irish history and myth. This collection charts the ways in which Boland's work breaks from poetic tradition, honors it, and reinvents it. Poems like "Anorexic," "Mastectomy," and "Witching" have an intensity reminiscent of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. In later poems, her subjects become more personal, sequencing Boland's life as a

The poems from Boland's first book, New Territory, show her to be, at twenty-two, a master of formal verse reflecting Irish history and myth. This collection charts the ways in which Boland's work breaks from poetic tradition, honors it, and reinvents it. Poems like "Anorexic," "Mastectomy," and "Witching" have an intensity reminiscent of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. In later poems, her subjects become more personal, sequencing Boland's life as a woman, poet, and mother. Boland writes, "I grew to understand the Irish poetic tradition only when I went into exile with it," becoming, in effect, "a displaced person / in a pastoral chaos."

This collection demonstrates how Boland's mature voice developed from the poetics of inner exile into a subtle, flexible idiom uniquely her own.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 06/17/1997
ISBN: 9780393316018
Pages: 208
Weight: 0.57lbs
Size: 9.24h x 6.16w x 0.56d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 05/19/1997