An Origin Like Water Collected Poems, 1967-1987
An Origin Like Water Collected Poems, 1967-1987 by Eavan Boland is a significant compilation of the poet’s early work, published by W.W. Norton in 1997. This edition spans 205 pages and presents poetry from Boland’s five early volumes: New Territory, The War Horse, In Her Own Image, Night Feed, and The Journey. The collection showcases her mastery of formal verse, reflecting on themes of Irish history and myth while also exploring the evolution of her poetic voice.
Readers will find a diverse range of poems that chart Boland’s journey as a woman, poet, and mother, with early works demonstrating a break from tradition while honoring it. The intensity of poems such as “Anorexic,” “Mastectomy,” and “Witching” echoes the emotional depth found in the works of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. As the collection progresses, it reveals Boland’s development into a unique voice that navigates the complexities of identity and displacement, offering insights into her personal experiences and the broader Irish poetic tradition.
Official synopsis Publisher
Here, from one of our major poets, is the collected early work that has been long unavailable in this country. Included in this volume is the work from Eavan Boland’s five early volumes of poetry: New Territory, The War Horse, In Her Own Image, Night Feed, and The Journey.
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.
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