Eavan Boland

At first glance, the poem Anorexic written by Eavan Boland, may seem to be just a piece of literary work but with further exploration you can begin to understand the author's genuine message. Through her use of barbarous language, Boland exposes how tough it can be to be a confident and independant women through society's standards. The speaker feels vulnerable and uncomfortable with the world around her resulting in a state of destruction to the source of her problems. The poem starts with a tone of violence and straight from the first stanza, Boland reveals to her audience that her body does not exert any element of beauty to her. She does not feel worthy of what and who she is. She loses herself in the image that society has created. Being such a distorted view, it is nearly impossible to live up to but yet women try over and over again to achieve it. Bolands mentions her body in comparison to a “witch” and with further thought, witches are usually perceived as ugly, unholy…

Sylvia Plath has written poetry that fully explores the profound depth of the human psyche. Through her use of confessional poetry and psychic landscape, her poetry delves into the multifaceted layers of the human condition. Plath herself came across as a very complicated and perplexing individual, and in her style of writing, she conveys the inner state of her mind. To read her poetry without the context of her mental state, few readers could comprehend the intensity and compelling suffering…

inspire authors to produce works of literature that capture the essence of the time period. Eavan Boland, a popular Irish author, has produced many works of literature that shed light on both history and culture. Born in 1944 in Dublin, Ireland, Boland was the daughter of a diplomat and a painter. At a young age, Boland and her family moved to England, where she was rejected by many people because of her Irish background. Her struggle to gain acceptance sparked an even stronger appreciation…

struggled to free themselves of systematic oppression that prevents them from achieving and succeeding in society. In the poem “It’s a Woman’s World”, Eavan Boland is an examination on the status of women in society. The title, which is an allusion to the James Brown song “It’s a Man’s World”, suggests that Boland believes that women are superior to men regarding status in society. However, the content of the poem promptly proceeds to contradict the title. Throughout Boland’s poem, the speaker…

Eavan Boland’s “ It’s a Woman’s World” illustrates that the stereotypical nature of women has not changed over time. Boland presents this idea by using imagery, effective diction, and symbolism. Boland explains that women’s “ way of life has hardly changed” since a wheel first whetted a knife.” The imagery presents to us how long women “ way of life” started:a wheel whetting a knife has not been known for for centuries. Boland also elaborates the noted fact of women having too much thoughts in…

Comparison between “The Black Lace Fan my Mother Gave me” and “An Amish rug” Eavan Boland and Michael Longley “The Black Lace Fan my Mother Gave me” and “An Amish rug”, by Eavan Boland and Michael Longley respectively, both revolve around the common themes of love as well as the sentimental bonds that tie family together. On the one hand, through “An Amish rug”, the poet imparts the simplicity of love: Michael Longley appears to be writing to his wife, for his wife. Through the poem and the…

Although Boland does not refer to this issue in her poem directly, it could be supposed that self-starvation is not released only by the fact that Catholic church views men as superior what results in the speaker’s desire of mirroring male body and rejection of the derogatory and sinful female flesh. Biologically, “female fat is closely related to menstruation and pregnancy; they are both indicative of a woman’s biological maturity” (González-Arias, “Foodless, Curveless, Sinless: Reading the…

“There is a way of making free with the past”: W.B. Yeats’s “A Prayer for My Daughter” and Eavan Boland’s “The Pomegranate” as allegories for poetic legacy Throughout his long career as a writer, William Butler Yeats established a legacy as perhaps the most influential Irish poet of the twentieth century. He was an advocate for Irish Nationalism and one of the leaders of the Celtic revival movement. Through Yeats’s pastoral, mythic imagery and, later, his explorations of the country’s political…

In addition to using myth to empower women and to be a witness for their ordeals, Boland has also used myth to explore personal family relationships—an important part of the female experience. In particular, she has used the Ceres myth often in her poetry. She uses it again in her 1990 poem "The Making of an Irish Goddess" to illustrate the complexities of motherhood. She begins her revision of the myth almost as a passive observer: Ceres went to hell with no sense of time. When she looked back…

Eavan Boland’s poem “It’s a Woman’s World” focuses on the sensitive subject of gender roles and equality. She speaks on the tradition lifestyle many women find themselves trapped in and what it would take from them to escape. Boland encourages women to embrace their true strength in order to overcome the limits placed on them from society. The poem talks about several different aspects of womanhood, but all are stated as a means to portray an image of strength in women, in addition is makes a…