Thoughts: “Recent Irish Poetry and the Ontology of Space” seminar by Professor Lucy McDiarmid

22 March 2023

Today’ s talk titled “Recent Irish Poetry and the Ontology of Space” by Professor Lucy McDiarmid set upon exploring whether the settings described in a variety of Irish poems are real, poetic fantasies or merely illusions.

The professor skillfully divided those spaces into three categories in order to examine them. First, as being unmagical or anti-magical, second as being slightly magical and third as quintessentially magical.

As an unmagical space, the space of the bakery in the poem “9 A.M.” (2000) by Dennis O’Driscoll seems to be a good example. The routine followed by both customers and workers in the bakery deprives that space – at least in the eyes of the speaker – from any magical element that would have made this place less bleak. Here is an excerpt from this poem:

“‘the usual’ for a bakery customer means

a roll and butter, a tea-break muffin

Bacon, egg, sausage in a coffee shop.

A newspaper, a slice of toast.

9 o’clock and all goes well.

Everyone is present and correct.”

A slightly magical space now can be seen in Derek Mahon’s poem “A Clearing” (2018):

“A clearing in the wood

beyond technology, with two

car doors disintegrating in a ditch;

a listening light, domain of fox and witch

[…]

What on earth shall we do

with this silent conventicle?

Install a picnic table, a building site?

No, this is where the angel will alight.

Just let it be, let be, until

the avatar is due.”

Here the speaker depicts a slightly magical space by interweaving elements of nature with those of technology; everyday, contemporary elements mingle with images taken from fairytales and myths. The clearing stands out as a liminal space where the real and the unreal, the unmagical and the magical can meet. Finally, this space cannot be subjugated or claimed by none of them.

Finally, a poem that makes apparent the magical elements in it is Thomas McCarthy’s “A Celtic Miscellany” (2019):

“Magic rain magic mist magic dew magic hail

Magic darkness magic sea magic waves magic

River magic fountain magic well magic spring

That bursts forth when a magic speaker pierces

Rock magic oak tree …”

The profusion of magic fragments (with the word magic being repeated 65 times in the entire poem!) classifies this poem’s setting into the category of the magical. It does not make the reader question the magical elements in it because simply everything around the speaker seems to be imbued with magical properties.

Spaces in those three poems differ in relation to their reality, their unreality, or their portrayal of a space in which those two notions blur. Space seems to be hovering between the logical and the magical in the slightly magical poems, while definitive magical poems seem to be defying the laws of the familiar universe.

Whether a poem can be classified as slightly magical or magical, the conclusion seems to be that magic is still around…