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jazzy_daveMajella Kelly "The Speculations of Country People" (Penguin)
Majella Kelly's debut collection of poems deals with various aspects of life in contemporary Ireland — the shifting roles of women, changing relationships with the land and with myth, the island's flora and fauna. Many of these poems reckon with the sordid history of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home and the women and children incarcerated there in the mid-20th century—particularly moving and saddening to read in the week when the excavations at the Home's mass grave begins.
Kelly's imagery is lucid and beautiful, and I found myself unexpectedly entranced by the poems where she shows us her young self, trailing her grandfather and his High Nelly around his farm. There were a handful of places where she fell into the easy cliché — the matriarchal pagan power of pre-Christian Ireland and Brigit the Goddess being displaced by Patrick and yadda yadda; I know these are still ideas with a lot of popular sway but on the whole I really enjoyed this. I will keep an eye out for more of Kelly's work in future.
Majella Kelly's debut collection of poems deals with various aspects of life in contemporary Ireland — the shifting roles of women, changing relationships with the land and with myth, the island's flora and fauna. Many of these poems reckon with the sordid history of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home and the women and children incarcerated there in the mid-20th century—particularly moving and saddening to read in the week when the excavations at the Home's mass grave begins.
Kelly's imagery is lucid and beautiful, and I found myself unexpectedly entranced by the poems where she shows us her young self, trailing her grandfather and his High Nelly around his farm. There were a handful of places where she fell into the easy cliché — the matriarchal pagan power of pre-Christian Ireland and Brigit the Goddess being displaced by Patrick and yadda yadda; I know these are still ideas with a lot of popular sway but on the whole I really enjoyed this. I will keep an eye out for more of Kelly's work in future.
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