Once Was a Boy by Theo Dorgan, Dedalus Press (2023) and The Solace of Artemis by Paula Meehan, Dedalus Press (2023)
Once
Was a Boy by Theo Dorgan, Dedalus Press (2023) and The Solace of Artemis by
Paula Meehan, Dedalus Press (2023)
Theo Dorgan is a writer
from Cork who has written a narrative poem organised in three sections which
moves from home to church (or convent) to school. The material suggests the world of Stephen
Dedalus in James Joyce’s novel The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
However, the handling is quite different
here because Joyce went to Clongowes, a Jesuit boarding school though structured
on the lines of an English public school.
The school described in the book seems to be a traditional, Catholic state
school. The narrative drive of the
material is presented in lines that depend on situations from childhood. The writer has dispensed with rhyme and
(almost entirely) with rhythm. Instead,
lines have the directness of spoken language, and their prose origins imply a sentient
yet naïve consciousness struggling to comprehend his surroundings. Events merely occur almost senselessly, and linguistic
connections are more striking even when intellectually devoid. For instance,
Mrs. Ryan calls her
Sister Angela.
The bell at twelve
o’clock is called the Angelus.
We have to stand up when
we pray.
(Nuns)
The raw physicality of
smells, sounds, sensations is not so carefully enacted leaving a feeling of
flatness that permeates the work, but this is also because the language is flat
too, lacking character, undemonstrative as if to intimate an emerging yet
undeveloped mind. This is an ambitious
work but sometimes the tone seems unsure of itself because the author possesses
an awareness beyond that of the character, an earlier self, that he seeks to
depict. Surprisingly, there is not much
humour either, this might have served to bridge the gap between the worldview
of the character and the author. There
seems to be an inherent lack of confidence when connections between thematic
material and formal means do not quite add up, but this is still an engaging
work.
Where the book succeeds
is in the focus on building a world which is really the consciousness of a boy
struggling to comprehend an alien, impinging scene that often confounds or
confuses him. External events, some
notorious, impinge on this consciousness:
Sister Magdalene has been
teaching us a hymn. Now she signals
And we stand up, she
counts to four by chopping her hand
And we all begin to
sing. The nuns join in, the women too.
It makes the hair stand
up on your neck when everybody sings.
I think these must be the
women who work in the laundry.
(Quarant’ore)
New words occur or arise like anseo, terrazzo, quaranta’ore, snatches of Latin, depicted as a dead language, or Italianate things like the pseudo-marble floor. The book depicts the arrival of the need for language, the dawning awareness of an author, its spirit is closer to Wordsworth’s depiction of childhood in The Prelude than to James Joyce.
By contrast, The Solace
of Artemis by Paula Meehan is a big bag of poems, anything and everything
is stuffed in, postcards from abroad, travelogues, anecdotes, snatches of Irish,
mentions of the Holocaust, of science, politics, history. The poems are variously successful, strong
material that is powerful and direct alongside other work that struggles to
impinge or effect the reader strongly. The
language deployed is often populist “golden” state of the art diction that
seems to betray the writer’s purpose.
The writing can be vapid, pretentious but often valid and engaging, such
as this from The Solace of Artemis:
It has been a long hot
morning with the children of the machine
Their talk of memory, of
buying it, but I
Memory keeper by trade,
scan time coded in the golden hive mind
Of eternity.
Some of the lines appear
to be culled from some second-rate science fiction novel, strangely opposed to
fresher diction that appears in later poems.
Unusually this poem was chosen to open the collection and echoes the
title of the collection too. This
appears to be a real lapse of taste and judgement on the author’s part. At times Meehan struggled to maintain a
focussed coherence which was also often present such as this example from the Island,
A Prospect:
The mitochondrial tug of
eternity,
That slow pulse of
evolutionary regard
From deep within the
ancient reptilian brain,
Seat of instinct
This inconsistency sums up a collection in
need of further editorial engagement, in fact it seems that the editor has
passed everything without comment. Sometimes
there is just word salad, every possible reference to politics, science,
whatever thrown in, possibly in the hope that something will stick. Although it is a scientific concept, the phrase
‘ancient reptilian brain’ seems more David Icke than Charles Darwin, it
features among other putatively scientific language that harms the case the
author is making which is to be taken seriously. The poet should stick to what she knows best
rather than forays into spurious mysticism:
The moon was gibbous and
my spirit baby rocked
As I cast her off from
shore into the current.
(A Netchke for Barbara
Korun)
I am unsure what a
‘spirit baby’ is, perhaps the poet ought to explain?
This book was written
during the Covid time and reflects on the triumphs and tragedies of the Irish
Free State:
The Republic was young
then,
We thought at last we
were free.
With hindsight I write
this down,
The convent closed, the
Magdalenes
Still without justice or
peace:
They turn in their
unmarked graves
Or take their cause to
the streets.
(Seven Stanzas for the
Magdalenes)
The fact that not
everything in the Republic has turned out the way it ought to be is also presented
in Theo Dorgan’s book but there the Magdalenes, so-called fallen women and
single mothers given a form of shelter or more likely imprisonment in a
convent, are more subtly implied. In
fact, they are mentioned everywhere in Ireland now, just as they were
previously brushed under the carpet and its unsurprising to find them present
in these two collections.
Meehan’s collection,
although not without its deficiencies, is clearly the more significant. The author’s composure and handling of
different verse forms, as well as diverse thematic material which points
towards a larger coherence, is often impressive. Theo Dorgan’s collection is impressive in its
narrowly autobiographical focus and unwavering intention to pare away the outer
surfaces of experience to grasp the deeper, more substantial meanings.
Paul Murphy, Belfast,
February 2025
- Dear Paul,I've just been looking through the review now. It is quite a disjointed review, and I struggled to get much sense of the two books, other than some fairly strong moments of dislike from you, particularly with regard to the Meehan. In some ways, this seems unfair to the poet, as you tend to cite lines you don't enjoy, rather than the ones that you imply are stronger elsewhere. I don't think we would feel comfortable publishing this as is. Please give some thought as to what you'd like to do – you are welcome to keep the books and publish your thoughts elsewhere as necessary. But at present, this isn't really an academic review that we would publish in the journal. I appreciate that reviewing poetry collections is no easy task.Best wishes,NicolaDr Nicola Presley (she/her)Managing EditorIrish Studies Review
- Fri, 11 Apr at 13:36Dear Nicola,I have no personal animosity towards Meehan because I've never met her and have no axe to grind. However, I did notice strong contrasts in her work, poems that were sophisticated and coherent, other work that seemed naive and incomplete. I thought the reason for this might be a lack of critical engagement on the part of her editor. Dorgan's work seemed plainer, less ambitious, yet there was evidence of structure that seemed to make the individual parts of his work cohere.If you like I'll revise the material that I've got and try to address the things you mention and return the review over the Easter holiday. Is this alright?regards,Paul MurphyMA English Lit, BA (Hons), Film and Lit, Trinity certTESOLEAP Teaching FellowBirmingham International AcademyUniversity of BirminghamB15 2TT
Comments