Eva Gore Booth, poet and activist, was the sister of Constance Markievicz, one of the main instigators involved in the Rising. Markievicz was aformidable figure, leader of the Fianna (a youth army) who worked closely with Connolly's Irish Citizen Army. She was sentenced to death, but had the sentence changed to imprisonment due to the fact that she was a woman. Eva, her sister took the more pacifist route, but this poem by her expresses an unwavering affinity with her fellow rebels, including her sister. Its tone of defiance is a marked feature as well as its precise language.
#1916EasterRisingPoets
Eva left, Constance right
Comrades - Eva Gore Booth
The peaceful night that round me flows,
Breaks through your iron prison doors,
Free through the world your spirit goes,
Forbidden hands are clasping yours.
The wind is our confederate,
The night has left her doors ajar,
We meet beyond earth’s barred gate,
Where all the world’s wild Rebels are.
Breaks through your iron prison doors,
Free through the world your spirit goes,
Forbidden hands are clasping yours.
The wind is our confederate,
The night has left her doors ajar,
We meet beyond earth’s barred gate,
Where all the world’s wild Rebels are.
Recited by one of the boys in the wonderful ending to the movie ‘Song for a Raggy Boy’
ReplyDeleteHeard this short poem recited for the first time the other day - stirring stuff
ReplyDeleteJust saw an excerpt of the Raggy Boy film. Stirring stuff. I had to look up the poem.
ReplyDeleteI'm not very literary but would like to delve into the meaning etc.
Now and then you read or hear something that stirs you. This poem is one of those times.
ReplyDelete