EAVAN BOLAND
Eavan Boland was born in Dublin in 1944 and lived in Ireland until she was six
years old. At the age of six, she and her family moved to London, where Boland
had her first experiences of anti-Irish sentiment. Dealing with this hostility
strengthened Boland's identification with her Irish heritage. She speaks of this
time in her poem "An Irish Childhood in England: 1951."
I came to in nineteen fifty-one:
barely-gelled, a freckled six-year-old,
overdressed and sick on the plane,
when all of England to an Irish child
was nothing more than what you'd lost and how:
was the teacher in the London convent who,
when I pronounced "I amn't" in the classroom
turned and said-- "you're not in Ireland now." (Outside History 107)
She later returned to Dublin to attend school and self-published a pamphlet of
poetry (23 Poems) after her graduation. Boland received her BA from Trinity
College, Dublin in 1966. Since that time she has held numerous teaching
positions and published poetry, books and journal articles. Boland married in
1969 and has two children. Her experiences as a wife and mother have influenced
her to write about the beauty and importance of the common, as she describes in
a quote taken from Contemporary Authors. I was there with two small children in
a house and I could see what was potent and splendid and powerful happening
every day in front of me and I wanted to express that. (Contemporary Authors
1997)
Eavan Boland was born in Dublin in 1944 and lived in Ireland until she was six
years old. At the age of six, she and her family moved to London, where Boland
had her first experiences of anti-Irish sentiment. Dealing with this hostility
strengthened Boland's identification with her Irish heritage. She speaks of this
time in her poem "An Irish Childhood in England: 1951."
I came to in nineteen fifty-one:
barely-gelled, a freckled six-year-old,
overdressed and sick on the plane,
when all of England to an Irish child
was nothing more than what you'd lost and how:
was the teacher in the London convent who,
when I pronounced "I amn't" in the classroom
turned and said-- "you're not in Ireland now." (Outside History 107)
She later returned to Dublin to attend school and self-published a pamphlet of
poetry (23 Poems) after her graduation. Boland received her BA from Trinity
College, Dublin in 1966. Since that time she has held numerous teaching
positions and published poetry, books and journal articles. Boland married in
1969 and has two children. Her experiences as a wife and mother have influenced
her to write about the beauty and importance of the common, as she describes in
a quote taken from Contemporary Authors. I was there with two small children in
a house and I could see what was potent and splendid and powerful happening
every day in front of me and I wanted to express that. (Contemporary Authors
1997)