Paul Durcan

Paul Durcan

1. Nessa

   • The delights and dangers of falling in love.
     • "And I very nearly drowned"
   • Personal poem about the first time Durcan met his wife
     • "With Nessa"
   • She's in control from the beginning
     • "She took me by her index finger / And dropped me in her well"
     • "Would you care to swim? she said to me."
   • Love is thrilling, exciting, dangerous, uncertain.
     • "And that was a whirlpool, that was a whirlpool"
   • Wonders will it last. But we know it ends happily.
     • "Will you stay with me on the rocks?"

2. Wife Smashed Television Gets Jail

   • Dramatic title, tabloid-like, humorous.
   • Tv cannot be used as a positive influence on family life, the poem shows the society thinking the opposite.
   • Values of family being lost - American culture consuming our culture.
     • Kojak after shooting a dame
   • The whole poem is ironic, giving it dark humour.
     • And when as in this case wives expressed their preference in forms of violence Jail was the only place for them
   • Set in Ireland 1970's, we know this because of several references to Irish culture.
   • Theme of family dysfunction
   • Colloquial and uncomplicated language
     • Me and the kids were peaceably watching Kojak

3. The Difficulty that is Marriage

   • A complicated marriage
     • We agree to disagree, we divide, we differ
   • Tender and warm
     • How was it I was so lucky to have ever met you?
   • Honest about the difficulties
     • I have my troubles and I shall always ahve them
   • Personal poem
     • If it were with you, I should live for ever.
   • Confronts conflicting feelings

4. Parents

   • Relationship between parents and offspring.
     • "In her sleep she is calling out to them / Father, Father / Mother, Mother"
   • Parents can't control the future of their children.
     • "But they cannot hear her"
   • Is the child having a nightmare? Or is it their future. In both the parents are unable to help him/her.
   • Disturbing images, show fear, anxiety, nervousness, worry.
     • "Through the night, stranded, they stare / At the drowned, drowned face of the child."
     • "As if locked out of their own homes"
   • Metaphor of sea used to represent possible dangers or nightmares.
     • "She is under the sea / And they are above the sea"

5. Sport

   • Fractured relationship with his father
     • Seldom if ever again in your eyes was I to rise to these heights again.
   • Nostalgic tone
     • I was a patient in B wing. You drove me all the way down
   • Theme of disappointment
     • There were not too many fields in which you had hopes for me
   • Vivid comic imagery
     • Men with gapped teeth, red faces, oily, frizzy hair
     • Their centre forward...had castrated his best friend
   • Plain, direct language
     • More than anybody it was you I wanted to mesmerise
   • Personal poem - very poignant
     • Sniffing your approval, you shook hands with me. "Well played son".

6. The MacBride Dynasty

   • Written to commemorate his mother, Sheila MacBride
     • Mummy drove me out to visit my grand - aunt Maud Gonne
       • Sympathies clearly lie with the MacBride's as opposed to Maud Gonne
         • And Maud leaned forward, sticking out her claws.
   • The poem challenges the myth - both national and sexual
     • Maud Gonne was a disloyal wife
   • Personal poem and clearly fond of his mother
     • Mummy's eyes; Mummy's love