Identity in the Works of Eavan Boland and Seamus Heaney Essay -- Lava

Identity in the Works of Eavan Boland and Seamus Heaney Many times poetry is reflective of the author’s past as well as their personal struggles. One struggle that poets write about is of identity and the creation, as well as loss, of individual identities. Using a passage from the essay Lava Cameo by Eavan Boland, I will show how two poets use their craft to describe their struggle with identity. Eavan Boland and Seamus Heaney both write poems which express an internal struggle with roles of identity and how they recreate their roles to fit their needs. Through retrospection and reflection, both poets come to realize that the roles they led as well as those they reinvented have created their own personal identities. Boland, in her essay Lava Cameo, touches on several emotions (loss, despair, etc) and episodes in her life which capture the essence of her identity. It is this notion of individual identity that is a central theme throughout Boland’s essay and some of her poems. Boland, through retrospection and hindsight, has been able to recognize the roles that society has dictated that she follow. These roles were not necessarily created for any rational reason (ex: female role as subordinate and even as marital property). One passage in particular captures the internal struggles Boland has endured. This passage runs from pages 27 to 29 in Boland’s Object Lessons. It begins by saying, "It may not be that women poets of another generation†¦" and ends with "†¦but because of poetry." The passage begins by discussing how Boland may be experiencing some unease that female poets before her time may not have experienced nor have even considered for a fleeting moment. Boland claims that she had stumbled upon a realization, one tha... ...s the possibility of reinvention of those roles for self betterment. Both Boland and Heaney show internal struggles with identity, particularly in feeling like a follower and then reinventing themselves into the role of a leader. Although Heaney chose to be a follower whereas Boland felt she was forced to be, their struggles are similar as are their resolutions. Works Cited Boland, Eavan. "Object Lessons: the life of the woman and the poet of our time." Lava Cameo. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1995. 3-34. Boland, Eavan. "An Origin Like Water." An Irish Child in England: 1951. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. 190-191. Boland, Eavan. "An Origin Like Water." Fond Memory. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. 192. Heaney, Seamus. "Opened Ground, Selected Poems 1966-1996." Follower. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998. 10.