“An Example of Dissidence”: A Reflection on Eavan Boland’s Reading of Patrick Kavanagh

Abstract

This article provides insight into the creative and intellectual nexus between Eavan Boland and Patrick Kavanagh, one of the many Irish poets referred to in Boland’s critical and autobiographical prose. While acknowledging that her intellectual relationship with the older poet, in some respects, is “an example of dissidence,” Boland found that it was her earlier intimacy with him that made her an object-becoming-author. Additionally, in terms of poetry composition, this article sheds light on Boland’s interest in Kavanagh’s use of the sonnet form in “Epic” and discusses her updated version of the historical form. Their encounter, examined in the article, reveals that both poets sought to redefine the “tradition” from within and rearticulate it in their own circumstances.

Keywords

• eavan boland
• patrick kavanagh
• a matter of tradition
• sonnet form