Irish Poetry for the Leaving Cert

roberth

Hello! This might me a bit much to ask but can anyone please summarise in english the poems: "Colscaradh" and "Mo Ghra-Sa", my teacher didn't really tell us what was going on in them! :P Help would be greatly appreciated, thank you so much in advance!

Chuchoter

In colscaradh, the first part is all about the man. He's very traditional, thinks women should be at home minding the house etc. He is portrayed as wanting a life thats warm and family oriented.

The second part is about the women, who is portrayed as being very cold, but really she is just much more modern and independent. She values status and wealth, and having an equal say in decisions. At the end of the day, neither of them really know who their partner is, just picked eachother thinking of the life they wanted, to later find out their plans were totally dissimilar.

As for mo ghra sa, the whole thing is her criticizing society's/ seannos poems habit of valuing beauty above all else (she compares him to streams and flowers, much like seannos poems). The man she is in love with isn't attractive at all, but is kind, generous and will give her what she wants in life and thats what matters.

Canard

Chuchoter said it for the most part, but I'd say (and my book says this too or something similar) that Colscaradh is more about the man wanting simple things, like a wife, kids and a home, but she wants things like holidays abroad, the respect of thousands and is generally being a bit OTT, so in the end they just seperate.

ruthintootin

hey Im repeating this year and im having trouble getting decent notes on the poems and pros. if anyone could pm some notes it would be greatly appreciated

Luno

ruthintootin wrote: »

hey Im repeating this year and im having trouble getting decent notes on the poems and pros. if anyone could pm some notes it would be greatly appreciated

Pick up a copy of Fiúntas, the notes aren't too bad for the poems and pros!

Coeurdepirate

Colscaradh


1. Main thoughts of the poem
Lines 1-6: when the man got married he wanted the following things: a woman who'd settle down among his family, a woman who'd sit by the fire with him, a woman who'd rear his family with him.
Lines 7-end: When the woman got married she wanted: a man who'd give her half the authority, shelter and love, half of his wealth, holidays abroad.
Things didn't work out and they seperated eventually.

2. Theme of the poem
Conflict between married couples is the theme on this poem. The couple weren't suited for eachother. Faded love and lack of understanding between the two are also themes. The man is a traditional man and the woman is modern, they divorced in the end.

3. Meter of the poem
Some people think that this is a freeverse poem. Other people say that it's a 'rosc' (sorry, dunno what that is in english!) poem. That means that there are 2 stresses in each of the lines. There is assonance the end of the odd lines.

4. Feelings of the poem
(i) Fading love - the couple must have loved each other once, but they both had different desires. Now there is a lack of love and understanding to keep the marriage together.
(ii) Disappointment, despair and unhappiness are to be felt in this poem. I'd say that the couples felt despair when they realised that they weren't suited for each other and when the marriage ended.

5. Speech and Literary Techniques
(i) Speech - The poet uses simple, natural and concise speech in this poem. He creates an image of the problems that men and women face when they get married. The words he chooses in the first verse are suitable to show the attitude of the traditional person: "nead a chine" "leac a thine".
He uses appropriate speech again in the second verse to show the modern attitude of the woman: "taobh den bhríste" "leath den chíste"
(ii) Atmosphere: He uses images in the first verse to create an atmosphere of a cosy house and of traditional family life. Because of that, the reader is startled at the end when they seperate.
(iii) Repetition: The word "shantaigh" is repeated at the start of every verse. "Shantaigh" is a very strong verb. It shows that both the husband and the wife wanted to get their own way one way or another. Repetition is effective because it emphasises the conflict between the two.

6. Mentality and attitude of the poet
The poet shows that he understands the difficulties that the couples have to overcome in this poem. It's up to the reader to take the man's side or the woman's side. Experts think that the poet is biased towards the man but I think it's up to the reader to make their own decision.





There ya go! I know it's very detailed but it should give you a good idea of the poem. I have to go now for a bit but if you found it helpful, I'll type up stuff on the other poem for ya in a few hours!

ruthintootin

M&S* wrote: »

Pick up a copy of Fiúntas, the notes aren't too bad for the poems and pros!

i have the book, just look for some other notes to help write a more varied answer on questions