The New Pastoral: Themes & Linking Poems

The New Pastoral: Themes & Linking Poems

Context

  • “The New Pastoral” is a compelling and thought-provoking poem authored by Eavan Boland.
  • The Irish poet is famous for regularly utilising motifs of identity, femininity, and the domestic scope to further enlighten on explicit issues such as nationalism and the position of women in society.
  • “The New Pastoral” is particularly cherished for its exposition on the ever-changing relationship between people and their surrounding environment.

Language Techniques

  • Boland’s utilisation of sensory language paints vivid images of the countryside in the readers’ minds, allowing them to feel as if they are within the poem itself.
  • Throughout the poem, first-person narration permits readers a glimpse into the speaker’s intimate thoughts and experiences. The use of ‘I’ not only grounds the poem in Boland’s own experiences but also grants a personal and introspective look to it.
  • There is an extensive use of juxtaposition in the poem, particularly between rural and urban landscapes; physical reality and memory; and nature’s authenticity against the banalities of modernity.

Symbolism & Themes

  • In “The New Pastoral,” nature, ultimately symbolises beauty and innocence. However, it’s soon tainted by modernisation arguably reflecting Boland’s fears of losing her connection to her homeland and its history.
  • The trees and wildflowers in the poem operate as symbols of the Irish countryside’s natural beauty. They epitomise an idyllic past that is gradually being lost under the process of urbanisation.
  • The poem reflects on the themes of nostalgia, environmentalism, cultural change, and memory. Boland contemplates the rural past’s nostalgic recollections, the progressing ecological crisis, the change in Irish culture due to urbanisation, and individual and collective memories rooted in the past.
  • The New Pastoral also links thematically to several other of Boland’s poems, including “The Black Lace Fan My Mother Gave Me” and “In a Time of Violence.” These all ruminate on nostalgia, preservation of memories, and the long-lasting effects of cultural change.