White Hawthorne in the West of Ireland: Themes & Linking Poems

“White Hawthorn in the West of Ireland”: Themes & Linking Poems

“The past is an empty cafe terrace”: This metaphor underscores Boland’s perspective that history—misremembered, forgotten, or suppressed—is like an abandoned place. It suggests a feeling of detachment and melancholy.
“The hawthorn tree remembered”: The personification of the hawthorn tree reveals it as a potential symbol of witches, evoking a past of superstitions, beliefs, and myths.
Link to “The Making of an Irish Goddess”: In both poems, Boland explores Irish mythology and history, linking the domestic with the national, the human with the non-human, and the present with the past.

“As though the only secret the soil could keep was the true nature of a hawthorn tree”: Boland effectively uses the soil and the hawthorn tree as metaphors to explore the layers of history and tradition embedded in the Irish landscape.
**“white hawthorn blossom” : This motif recurs throughout the poem, symbolising Ireland’s pain, history, resilience, and beauty.
Link to “The War Horse”: Like the hawthorn tree, the war horse also becomes a symbol of Ireland’s turbulent history—revealing how nature can bear witness to human conflict.

“Both a gift and wound”: Boland’s paradoxical phrase indicates the duality of identity—especially for those intertwined with Ireland’s complex history. The ‘gift’ could represent the heritage, culture, and resilience, while the ‘wound’ represents the pain, struggle, and conflict experienced in the process.
“The wind is blowing from the west”: Western wind is often regarded as symbolising change and transition, hinting towards a shift in Boland’s personal and national identity.
Link to “An Irish Childhood in England: 1951”: Both poems deeply explore the theme of identity, especially as it relates to Boland’s experiences as an Irish woman in different contexts and places.

“I could hear clear, distinct: / the lost river / a woman’s praise / nothing is, / but is remembered”: The auditory imagery and the rather surreal memory here emphasises Boland’s exploration of the relationship between memory, perception, and reality.
“And I remembered”: Boland often uses such repetitious phrases to underscore the key role of memory in shaping and re-shaping personal history and perceptions.
Link to “Night Feed”: Boland incorporates the theme of memory in both poems, though in different contexts—”White Hawthorn in the West of Ireland” explores collective memory and historical perceptions, while “Night Feed” delves into personal memory and the motherhood experience.