The world's literature has more than enough love poems, so a good hate poem is always welcome.
When addressing the Woman of Three Cows, the poet properly uses the vocative participle "O." But he also uses that word in lines 2 and 17, where the interjection "oh" is intended. The distinction between the two words is often lost nowadays, but was it lost even when Mangan wrote? Or perhaps he uses an Irish-English variant of usage? I don't know.
While know English history relatively well, Irish has so far escaped me. For then would know the names, the reasons for their fame, and why despite their ends, their presence still remains.
What a great poem, and a great introduction, Justin. I know just enough about Irish history to recognize some of the names and to understand why the criticism. I much prefer this to the darkness of Swift's satire -- it does the same job, but instead of feeling you should die of despair when you finish it, you want to go shout it out somewhere.
The world's literature has more than enough love poems, so a good hate poem is always welcome.
When addressing the Woman of Three Cows, the poet properly uses the vocative participle "O." But he also uses that word in lines 2 and 17, where the interjection "oh" is intended. The distinction between the two words is often lost nowadays, but was it lost even when Mangan wrote? Or perhaps he uses an Irish-English variant of usage? I don't know.
While know English history relatively well, Irish has so far escaped me. For then would know the names, the reasons for their fame, and why despite their ends, their presence still remains.
What a great poem, and a great introduction, Justin. I know just enough about Irish history to recognize some of the names and to understand why the criticism. I much prefer this to the darkness of Swift's satire -- it does the same job, but instead of feeling you should die of despair when you finish it, you want to go shout it out somewhere.