POETRY THOMAS KINSELLAⒸ C ian Hogan Eng l ish Notes 2011

Thomas Kinsel la ranks among the most d ist inguished of modern I r ish poets. Whi le he may not be as wel l known outs ide l i terary c i rc les as some of h is contemporar ies, his work over the past 50 years has enr iched the poet ic landscape. Born in Dubl in in 1928, he attended Univers i ty Col lege Dubl in and entered the I r ish c iv i l serv ice but quick ly abandoned h is job in the Department of F inance in order to pursue a career as a poet. A l though he has l ived on and off in the Uni ted States for over 50 years, his work is for the most part rooted in the people and places of h is nat ive Dubl in. Yet despi te the essent ia l ly local nature of h is poetry, K insel la is now perceived as being at the vanguard of modern l i terature. The poems on the course by Thomas Kinsel la are ent i re ly representat ive of h is work as a whole in that they combine i n tense exp lo ra t ions o f se l f w i th soc ia l commentary and sat i re . H is poet ry dramat ises these explorat ions through the use of myth, h istor ica l narrat ive and elegy. Many of the poems by Kinsel la conta ined in th is anthology examine the or ig ins of the creat ive process. A l though Kinsel la can be perplex ing at t imes, c lose attent ion to h is poetry compensates the reader for any d i ff icu l ty encountered. The poems on the course by Kinsel la i l luminate the depth of the poet’s ins ight and the scope of h is art is t ic v is ion. In the words of the poet h imsel f , they ask us to share in his search for meaning and to fo l low h im ‘back to the dark | and the depth that I came f rom’.

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Mirror in February

The day dawns with scent of must and rain,Of opened soil, dark trees, dry bedroom air.Under the fading lamp, half dressed – my brainIdling on some compulsive fantasy –I towel my shaven jaw and stop, and stare, 5Riveted by a dark exhausted eye,A dry downturning mouth. ✶

It seems again that it is time to learn,In this untiring, crumbling place of growthTo which, for the time being, I return. 10 Now plainly in the mirror of my soulI read that I have looked my last on youthAnd little more; for they are not made wholeThat reach the age of Christ.

✶

Below my window the awakening trees, 15 Hacked clean for better bearing, stand defacedSuffering their brute necessities,And how should the flesh not quail that span for spanIs mutilated more? In slow distasteI fold my towel with what grace can, 20Not young and not renewable, but man.

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1 must – the condi t ion of being musty or

mouldy. The word adds to the overa l l

atmosphere of sta leness that dominates the

f i rst stanza.

4 compulsive – exert ing a powerfu l or 18

unstoppable at t ract ion.

14 the age of Christ – Chr ist is thought to

have been 33 years o ld when he d ied.

16 Hacked clean for better bearing – i t is

important to understand th is paradox. In order

for the t rees to bear f ru i t , they must be pruned,

or hacked.

17 brute – cruel or savage.

18 quai l – to t remble wi th fear.

20 grace – d igni ty.

g l o s s a r y

1. C o n t e n t

This short poem, which was included for study on the former Leaving Certificate English syllabus, is familiar to generations of Irish schoolgoers. The poem, which first appeared in the 1963 collection Downstream, is in many ways typical of Kinsella’s poetry in general. ‘Mirror in February’ opens with a highly memorable, if depressing, depiction of the dank and dreary February weather:

The day dawns with scent of must and rain, Of opened soil, dark trees, dry bedroom air.

The speaker has just woken and his mind, not yet fully alert, is ‘Idling on some compulsive fantasy’. The scene is an entirely familiar one. However, as he towels his ‘shaven jaw and stop[s], and stare[s]’, the poet experiences a moment of epiphany that rivets him to the spot. The source of this startling moment of revelation is his appearance. His ‘dark exhausted eye’ and ‘dry downturning mouth’ force upon him an acknowledgement of his own mortality. This in turn leads to the admission at the beginning of the second stanza that it is ‘again [...] time to learn’.

Many readers find the next line, where Kinsella speaks of this ‘untiring, crumbling place of growth’, difficult to decipher. In order to understand this line, it is necessary to appreciate the full context of the poem. The awareness that Kinsella experiences is informed and directed as much by the natural world as by his own thoughts. Outside it is February and the natural world is slowly beginning to wake and renew itself. This fact is uppermost in Kinsella’s mind when he looks into the mirror. The ‘opened soil’ and ‘dark trees’ of the previous stanza are reminders of the natural cycle at work. In contrast to the renewal taking place outside his window, the poet confronts the uncomfortable reality that he is ageing. Looking ‘plainly in the mirror of [his] soul’, he understands that he has looked his last ‘on youth’. However, in the final lines of the second stanza, he acknowledges that despite having reached ‘the age of Christ’, or 33, he has not yet completed his life’s work. According to the Bible, Christ died having fulfilled the covenant between man and God, but the poet accepts that he has not yet been ‘made whole’.

In the f ina l stanza, the l ink between the poet’s a l tered percept ion of h is phys ica l state and the natura l cyc le is made expl ic i t :

Below my window the awakening trees, Hacked clean for better bearing, stand defaced Suffering their brute necessit ies,

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In order for the t rees to bear more f ru i t , they need to be pruned, or ‘Hacked c lean’. Such suffer ing is a necessary pr ice to pay for the t rees’ growth. The para l le ls between th is and human ex istence are obvious. In order for human beings to exper ience growth, suffer ing is not only inev i table, but perhaps necessary:

And how should the f lesh not quail that span for span Is muti lated more? [ . . . ]

In s low distaste at the rea l isat ion of th is fact , the speaker fo lds h is towel . I t is of course s igni f icant that he does not throw in the towel , choosing instead to put i t as ide with ‘what grace [he] can ’ .

The f ina l couplet of the poem is both an acknowledgement of the f ragi l i ty of the human condi t ion and a t r iumphant test imony to the power of the human spi r i t to endure:

I fold my towel with what grace I can, Not young and not renewable, but man.

2 . s t y l i s t i c f e a t u r e s

This deeply thought-provoking poem opens in a manner that recal ls a moment f rom I r ish l i terature. In the famous opening sequence of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses, Stephen Dedalus stares into the mirror as he shaves. Here in th is poem, the bedroom, which is normal ly associated with rest and comfort , becomes the locat ion for an extraordinary event. In the course of th is poem, the speaker exper iences an unsett l ing epiphany that a l ters h is understanding of h is p lace in the wor ld. The mirror into which the poet stares – ‘ the mirror of [h is ] soul ’ – is an appropr iate metaphor for the explorat ion of se l f that he undertakes. In many of Kinsel la’s poems, a male f igure is forced to reassess h is se l f - image whi le star ing at the actual image. Kinsel la is a f luent I r ish speaker and the cr i t ic Br ian John has asserted that i t ‘ is hardly coinc identa l , that the I r ish for mir ror (scáthán) and for shadow (scáth) are commonly der ived’. In other words, in th is poem the poet examines h is ref lect ion and is confronted by a shadow image of h imsel f . Mir rors ref lect and th is mir ror provokes a moment of intense ref lect ion. Looking in the mirror, he not only sees h is ‘dark exhausted eye, | A dry downturn ing mouth’ , but h is own soul :

Now plainly in the mirror of my soul I read that I have looked my last on youth And l i t t le more; for they are not made whole That reach the age of Christ.

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In other respects, th is poem is typica l of K insel la’s poetry in genera l . Many of Kinsel la’s poems take p lace at dawn, centre on the importance of se l f -awareness and se l f - reve lat ion and examine man’s p lace in terms of the broader natura l cyc le. Another interest ing aspect of the poem is that for the greater part of ‘Mir ror in February’ , K insel la employs rhyme in such a way as to re inforce the mirror metaphor. The uneven rhyme in the f ina l l ines of the f i rst two stanzas is resolved in the f ina l two l ines of the th i rd stanza, where ‘can ’ rhymes with ‘man ’ .

‘Mir ror in February’ opens in a dramat ic way that manages to capture both the physica l rea l i ty of h is surroundings ( the ‘dry bedroom air ’ ) and h is mood. Dawn is of ten associated with hope, yet any sense of hope in th is poem is obscured by the dark and g loomy atmosphere. St Br ig id’s Day, the f i rst of February, has t radi t ional ly marked the beginning of spr ing in I re land, but any sense of renewal that one would normal ly associate wi th spr ing is lessened by the sense of ex istent ia l mala ise that dominates the poem. Outs ide h is bedroom, there are reminders both of growth and the inev i tabi l i ty of decay. Whi le the ‘opened soil ’ may h int at the process of p lant ing and renewal , i t may a lso point to the ine luctabi l i ty of death or the certa inty of the grave. Furthermore, the long vowels coupled with the repet i t ion of the consonant d sounds create a heavy, p lodding and oppress ive effect .

Yet despi te a l l th is, the predominant mood in the opening stanza remains one of start led awareness. The short verb ‘Riveted’ captures the sudden jo l t that the speaker exper iences once he is confronted by the image of h is own morta l i ty. Yet the t r iumph of th is poem l ies in Kinsel la’s abi l i ty to overcome his own fee l ings of d istaste concern ing h is ageing. By the poem’s end, the speaker accepts the fact that he is no longer a young man and that change is unavoidable. This confers a certa in d igni ty not only on h im, but on the human condi t ion. The image of the poet fo ld ing and not throwing in the towel is a s imple yet profoundly thought-provoking one.

Ear l ier in the poem, the poet refers to hav ing reached ‘the age of Christ ’ and not being whole. I t is possib le to interpret the poet’s fa i lure to dwel l more deeply on Chr ist ian spi r i tua l i ty as a re ject ion of t radi t ional re l ig ion in favour of more humanist or secular so lut ions to the d i lemmas posed by l i fe and death. At the end of the poem, the poet re l ies on h is humanity, not some higher power, to prov ide h im with the strength necessary to carry on.

F ina l ly, the poem centres on a number of obvious contrasts. Throughout the poem there are impl ied contrasts between l ight and darkness, winter and spr ing, l i fe and death, ref lect ion and rea l i ty, s leeping and waking, renewal and decay and youth and ageing. These contrasts create tens ion and force the reader to th ink more deeply about the poem’s themes.

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3 . e s s a y w r i t i n g

I f you are going to inc lude ‘Mir ror in February’ in an essay, you may want to ment ion some of the fo l lowing points.

a. Nature and the natura l cyc le p lay a s igni f icant ro le in many of the poems by Kinsel la on the course. Here in th is poem, nature forms the backdrop to h is considerat ion of the human condi t ion.

b. The poem’s rhyming scheme re inforces the centra l metaphor of the mirror.

c. ‘Mir ror in February’ is constructed around a ser ies of powerfu l and thought- provoking contrasts.

Chrysal ides

Our last f ree summer we mooned about at odd hours Pedal l ing s lowly through country towns, stopping to eat Chocolate and f ru i t , t rac ing our vagar ies on the map.

At n ight we watched in the barn, to the lurch of melodeon music, The crunching boots of countrymen – huge and weight less 5 As the i r shadows – twir l ing and leaping over the ye l low concrete.

Sleeping too l i t t le or too much, we awoke at noonAnd were received with womanly mockery into the k i tchen, L ike calves poking our faces in wi th enormous hunger.

Dai ly we strapped our saddlebags and went to exper ience 10A to lerance we shal l never know again, confus ingFor the last t ime, for example, the l ic i t and the fami l iar.

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Our inst incts b lurred with change; a strange wakefu lness Sapped our energies and dul led our s low-beat ing hearts To the extremes of fee l ing – insensi t ive a l ike 15

To the unique succession of our youthfu l midnights, When by a window ablaze soft ly wi th the v i rg in moon Dry scones and jugs of mi lk awai ted us in the dark,

Or to last ing horror : a wedding f l ight of ants Spawning to i ts death, a mute perspi rat ion 20Gl istening l ike drops of copper, agonised, in our path.

g l o s s a r y

The t i t le , ‘Chrysal ides’ , refers to the gold-coloured pupa of a butter f ly.

1 mooned – wandered a imless ly.3  vagaries – an unpredictable or errat ic change, act ion or idea. 4  melodeon – a smal l reed organ that uses bel lows to draw a i r through i ts reeds.

14 Sapped – dra ined.17 virgin moon – new moon.20 Spawning – germinat ing or g iv ing r ise to. 20 mute – s i lent .21 Glistening – sh in ing br ight ly.

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1. Content

Cr i t ica l Commentary: Chrysal ides

This short narrat ive poem centres on the poet’s recol lect ions of a b icyc l ing hol iday dur ing what he descr ibes as h is ‘ last f ree summer’ . In the opening stanza of the poem, the speaker descr ibes how he and h is companion pedal led s lowly throug‘country towns, stopping to eat | Chocolate and f ru i t ’ . In the second stanza, the poet descr ibes how later, at n ight, they watched the ‘crunching boots of countrymen’ to the backdrop of ‘melodeon music ’ . In the speaker’s imaginat ion, these men appeared ‘huge and weightless ’ as they twir led and leapt over the ‘ye l low concrete’ .

The poet’s carefree depict ion of th is hol iday cont inues in the th i rd stanza, where he descr ibes how they ‘awoke at noon ’ and were mocked by the i r f r iends when they poked thei r faces into the k i tchen. There is a s l ight change in tone in the fourth stanza, when the poet s ingles out the ephemeral or f leet ing nature of th is happiness, descr ib ing the carefree joy as a happiness and a ‘ to lerance’ that they would ‘never know again ’ . According to the poet, dur ing th is per iod of the i r l i fe , both he and h is partner confused the ‘ l icit ’ , or what was lawfu l , wi th ‘the famil iar ’ . As the couple grew c loser, the speaker c la ims that the i r ‘ instincts blurred ’ and that ‘a strange wakefulness | Sapped [their] energies’ . Dur ing these intensely passionate moments, the couple was brought into the ‘extremes of feel ing ’ . In the penul t imate stanza, the imagery of h igh romance dominates the poet’s recol lect ion of those ‘youthful midnights ’ When by a window ablaze soft ly wi th the v i rg in moon Dry scones and jugs of mi lk awai ted us in the dark,

There is a sharp change in the poem’s tone in the f ina l stanza. As with so many of Kinsel la’s poems, h is memor ies of the past are c louded by a rea l isat ion of morta l i ty. Here in the f ina l stanza, the beaut i fu l images of romance that have dominated the prev ious s ix stanzas are replaced by a sense of ‘ last ing horror ’ . On the face of i t th is sense of horror is provoked by a mass death of a ‘f l ight of ants ’ , which d ie in such numbers that they

g l is ten ‘ l ike drops of coppe r ’ in the path of the young lovers.

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2. Sty l is t ic Features

This poem f i rst appeared in Kinsel la’s 1962 col lect ion, Downstream. As with so many of the other poems in th is co l lect ion, ‘Chrysa l ides’ cons ists of a short narrat ive that is interspersed with moments of intense meditat ion. The t i t le of the poem is p ivota l to our understanding of i ts centra l message. A chrysal is is the stage between the larva and the adul t in an insect. More than anyth ing e lse, th is poem is about change, growth and the inev i tabi l i ty of death. Whi le the poem centres on the speaker’s memor ies of a summer of innocent joy and passionate d iscovery, i t is the speaker’s awareness of how much he has changed s ince that summer that rea l ly interests h im. The idy l l ic scene that Kinsel la presents to us forms l i t t le more than the backdrop to h is shudder ing rea l isat ion later on in l i fe that death is the ine luctable lot of a l l l iv ing th ings.

I f one looks c losely, i t is possib le to see that Kinsel la qual i f ies h is recol lect ion of that carefree summer. In the opening l ine, we are to ld that th is was to be the ‘ last free summer ’ , which suggests the inev i table changes that are about to occur in the speaker’s l i fe . As a younger man he was ‘ insensit ive ’ to both the extraordinary g i f t of that ‘unique succession of our youthful midnights ’ and to the s igni f icance that lay beyond h is d iscovery of the dy ing ants. The use of the adject ive ‘unique ’ is suggest ive of the precious nature of t ime that th is couple spent together. However, i t is important to bear in mind that i t is the mature speaker who qual i f ies the exper ience. At the t ime, the young couple was bl issfu l ly unaware of the s igni f icance of the i r t ime together. This lack of sensi t iv i ty or awareness is a lso ref lected in the manner in which they fa i l to see any rea l s ign i f icance in the death of so many f ly ing ants. The mature narrator, however, has the capaci ty to see these ants as act ing as a metaphor for the inev i tabi l i ty of death and decay:

Or to lasting horror: a wedding f l ight of ants Spawning to i ts death, a mute perspiration Glistening l ike drops of copper, agonised, in our path.

This sense of the inev i tabi l i ty of t ransformat ion and, of course, decay is what lends the poem i ts t i t le . This is an interest ing and thought-provoking poem that, l ike so many of the other poems in Downstream, forces the reader to acknowledge the f ragi l i ty of l i fe and the ephemeral nature of a l l human exper ience.

3. Essay Wr i t ing

I f you are th ink ing of referr ing to ‘Chrysal ides’ in any essay on Kinsel la’s poetry that you may be asked to wr i te, t ry to bear the fo l lowing points in mind.

a. The t i t le of the poem is centra l to our understanding of Kinsel la’s themat ic intent

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a. In another poem, ‘Downstream’, which is not on the Leaving Cert i f icate sy l labus, Kinsel la speaks of h is ‘ last ing horror ’ of morta l i ty. At the heart of th is poem is an attempt by the adul t narrator to come to terms with h is f i rst int imat ion of morta l i ty.

b. There is a dual i ty to th is poem. The beauty and youthfu l pass ion that dominate most of the poem are replaced by the darker imagery in the f ina l stanza.

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His Father’s Hands

I drank f i rmlyand set the g lass down between us f i rmly. You were say ing.

My fatherWas say ing. 5

His f inger prodded and prodded, marr ing h is point . Emphas- emphasemphasis.I have watchedhis father’s hands before h im 10

cupped, and t ightening the b lack Plug between kni fe and thumb,carv ing off l i t t le cur l icuesto rub them in the dark of h is palms,

or cutt ing into new leather at h is bench, 15 lever ing a groove open with h is thumb,ins inuat ing wet spr igs for the hammer.

He kept the spr igs in mouthfu lsand brought them out in s i lveryuni ts between h is l ips. 20

I took a p inch out of the i r holeand knocked them one by one into the wood, br ight points among hundreds gone black, other chi ldren’s – cousins and others, grown up.

Or h is bow hand scarcely moving, 25 scraping in the dark corner near the f i re,h is p lump f ingers sh i f t ing on the str ings.

To h is deaf , inc l ined headhe hugged the f iddle’s bodywhisper ing with the tune 30

with breaking heartwhene’er I hearin pr ivacy, across a b locked void,

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the wind that shakes the bar ley.The wind . . . 35 round her grave . . .

on my breast in b lood she died . . . But b lood for b lood without remorse I ’ve ta’en . . .Beyond that. 40

*

Your fami ly, Thomas, met wi th and helpedmany of the Croppies in h id ing f rom the Yeosor on the i r way home af ter the defeatin south Wexford. They shel tered the Laceyswho were later hanged on the Br idge in Bal l ing len 45 between T inahely and Anacorra.

From hearsay, as far as I can te l lthe Men Folk were e i ther Stone Cutters or masons or probably both.In the 18 50

and late 1700s even the farmers had some other t rade to make a l iv ing.

They l ived in Farnese among a Colonyof North of I re land or Scotch sett lers le f t there

in some of the d ispers ions or migrat ions 55

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which occurred in th is Area of W ick low and Wexford and Car low. And some years before that t imethe Fami ly came f rom somewhere around Tul low.

Beyond that.

*

Li t tered uplands. Dense grass. Rocks everywhere, 60 wet underneath, reta in ing memory of the long cold. F i rst , a prow of landchosen, and wedged with t racks;then boulders chosenand s loped together, stabi l ized in menace. 65

I do not l ike th is p lace.I do not th ink the people who l ived herewere ever happy. I t fee ls ev i l .Terr ib le th ings happened.I fee l af ra id here when I am on my own. 70

*

Dispersals or migrat ions.Through what evolut ions or accidents toward that peace and pat ienceby the f i res ide, that b locked gent leness . . .

That serene pause, wi th the s lashing kni fe, 75 in k indly mockery,as I busy mysel f wi th my l i t t le na i lsat the rude block, h is bench.

The blood advancing– gorging vessel af ter vessel – 80 and a l ter ing in themone by one.

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Behold, that gent leness a l readymodulated twice, in others:to earnestness and i terat ion; 85 to an offhandedness, repress ing var ious impulses.

*

Extraordinary . . . The b ig b lock – I found i t years af terward in a corner of the yardin sunl ight af ter ra inand stood i t up, wet and black:i t turned under my hands, an ax isof l ight f lashing down i ts length,and the wood’s soft f lesh broke open, count less l i t t le na i lssqui rming and dropping out of i t .

11 Plug – p lug tobacco. A hard form of

tobacco that is cut or shaved so as to be

smoked by p ipe.

13 curl icues – an ornamenta l twist that is

of ten used in ca l l igraphy or design.

17 ins inuat ing – h int ing at or imply ing

something.

42 Croppies – the derogatory n ickname

given to the I r ish rebels who took part in

the 1798 rebel l ion.

42 Yeos – members of the mi l i tary.

49 masons – someone who works with

stone.

62 prow – the f ront part .

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g l o s s a r y

Cri t ica l Commentary: His Father’s Hands

1. Content

In th is long poem, Kinsel la evokes fami ly t radi t ions. The poem centres on the poet’s recol lect ion of h is father’s hyperbol ic narrat ion of the Kinsel la fami ly l ineage. Taking the form of a conversat ion between the poet and h is father, the poem opens with the narrator te l l ing us that he ‘drank f i rmly | and set the g lass down [ . . . ] f i rmly’ . The poet stresses h is father’s hyperbole when he says that :

His f inger prodded and prodded, marring his point. Emphas- emphasemphasis.

At th is point in the poem, the poet is reminded of the fami ly s imi lar i t ies that ex ist between the generat ions. The manner in which the speaker’s grandfather used to cup and t ighten ‘the black Plug ’ of tobacco ‘between kni fe and thumb’ is recal led by the s ight of h is father’s hands.

In the course of the next three stanzas, the narrator prov ides us with instances of h is grandfather’s sk i l l as an art isan. Kinsel la’s grandfather, who or ig ina l ly worked for Guinness, became a cobbler in h is ret i rement. I t is the poet’s memor ies of th is per iod in h is grandfather’s l i fe that dominate th is sect ion of the poem:

carving off l i t t le curl icues to rub them in the dark of his palms,

or cutt ing into new leather at h is bench, lever ing a groove open with h is thumb, ins inuat ing wet spr igs for the hammer. He kept the spr igs in mouthfu ls and brought them out in s i lvery uni ts between h is l ips. These v iv id recol lect ions of h is grandfather’s sk i l l as an art isan cause the poet to recognise the connect ions that ex ist between the generat ions of the wider Kinsel la fami ly.

In the n inth stanza, the poet recal ls h is grandfather’s sk i l l as a music ian. Such was h is abi l i ty as a f iddle p layer that i t seemed as i f ‘his bow hand [was] scarcely moving ’ . The poet then te l ls us that whenever he hears fo lk songs such as ‘The Wind That Shakes the Barley ’ , h is memor ies of h is grandfather are so strong that they manage to br idge the ‘void ’ of t ime and even death.

A dist inct sh i f t in the poem occurs in the th i r teenth stanza. The poet’s memory of the lyr ics of ‘The Wind That Shakes the Barley ’ causes h im to delve fur ther back into h is fami ly h istory. This famous bal lad, penned by Robert Dwyer Joyce, is wr i t ten f rom the perspect ive of a doomed young Wexford rebel . In the song, th is young man’s involvement wi th the 1798

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Rebel l ion causes h im to turn h is back on h is re lat ionship wi th a young woman. As the poet moves beyond h is grandfather’s generat ion, he is brought back through the years to a t ime when members of h is fami ly ‘met with and helped | many of the Croppies in hiding from the Yeos ’ . The Croppies were so cal led because many of the rebels wore the i r ha i r in a c losely cropped fashion. This ha i rsty le was an act of def iance, as i t was seen by the author i t ies as sympathis ing with the ant i -wig and consequent ly ant i -ar istocrat French revolut ionar ies. According to the narrator in th is poem, h is fami ly ancestors shel tered such Croppies as ‘the Laceys’, who were ‘ later hanged on the Bridge in Ball inglen | between Tinahely and Anacorra ’ .

In the course of the next two stanzas, the poet cont inues h is potted h istory of h is fami ly ancestors. We learn that they worked as ‘Stone Cutters | or masons’ and then in the ‘18 | and late 1700s ’ they became farmers. Tracing h is fami ly h istory even further back, the poet suggests that h is ancestors or ig ina l ly l ived in ‘Farnese among a Colony | of North of Ireland or Scotch sett lers ’ .

In the th i rd sect ion of the poem, a sh i f t occurs in the temporal perspect ive of the narrator. As in the prev ious sect ion, th is movement fur ther back in t ime is s ignal led by the words ‘Beyond that ’ . As the poet moves further back in t ime, we are brought to a pr imeval , even hel l ish landscape. This is a threatening p lace:

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Li t tered uplands. Dense grass. Rocks everywhere, wet underneath, reta in ing memory of the long cold.

F i rst , a prow of landchosen, and webbed with t racks;then boulders chosenand s loped together, stabi l ized in menace.

The speaker te l ls us that he is f r ightened by th is p lace and inst inct ive ly fee ls that ‘Terr ib le th ings happened’ here.

In the fourth and penul t imate movement of the poem, the poet contemplates the interconnect ions that have been created by the var ious ‘Dispersals or migrat ions’ . He c i tes the evolut ions or accidents that eventual ly resul ted in h is grandfather p lay ing the f iddle ‘by the f i res ide’ . In the next stanza of the fourth sect ion of the poem, as the speaker works on the very bench h is grandfather used, he recal ls the o ld man at work as a cobbler :

That serene pause, wi th the s lashing kni fe, in k indly mockery,

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In the f ina l two stanzas of th is sect ion of the poem, the speaker meditates on the l inks that ex ist f rom generat ion to generat ion. The blood that advances f rom fami ly member to fami ly member carr ies wi th i t s imi lar i t ies that are modulated or changed s l ight ly in the succeeding generat ions.

In the f ina l stanza, the speaker focuses h is at tent ion on h is grandfather’s ‘b lock’ . The s ight of th is ‘Extraordinary’ ‘b ig b lock’ has g iven r ise to the intense meditat ion on the poet’s fami ly h istory. This wooden instrument is t ransformed in the speaker’s imaginat ion into an organic l iv ing th ing:

i t turned under my hands, an ax isof l ight f lashing down i ts length,and the wood’s soft f lesh broke open, count less l i t t le na i ls

squi rming and dropping out of i t .

2. Sty l is t ic Features

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In h is personal account of h is own fami ly h istory, K insel la inc luded the fo l lowing preface to ‘His Father’s Hands’:

I t was later in l i fe , when I was on equal terms with my father, that something e lse important out of that ear ly t ime became c lear: the d igni ty and quiet of h is own father, remembered as we ta lked about h im. W ith an awareness of the generat ions as they succeed each other. That process, wi th the accompanying awareness, recorded and understood, are a v i ta l e lement in l i fe as I see i t now.

This complex poem draws heavi ly on the poet’s uncle Jack Brophy’s handwr i t ten h istory of the Kinsel la fami ly. According to Brophy, the menfo lk in the fami ly were e i ther:

Stone Cutters or Masons or probably both. in the 17 and late 1800s even the Farmers had some other t rade to make a l iv ing. The Kinsel las l ived in Farnese ( i t ’s now White Rock) among a colony of North of I re land or Scotch sett lers le f t there in some of the d ispersals, or migrat ions which occurred in th is Area of W ick low, Wexford and Car low. [ . . . ] The Kinsel las met wi th and helped many of the Croppies in h id ing f rom the

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Yeos or on the i r way home af ter the defeat in south Wexford. And some years before that t ime the Fami ly came f rom somewhere round Tul low.

In the course of the poem, Kinsel la moves f rom a conversat ion over dr inks between father and adul t son through a ser ies of v iv id remin iscences of h is grandfather cutt ing tobacco, work ing as a cobbler and play ing t radi t ional music, to an examinat ion of the fami ly h istory, and f ina l ly to a meditat ion on the nature of generat ional and even race memory.

The t i t le conta ins the dominant metaphor running throughout th is poem and indeed much of Kinsel la’s poetry. The hands that the t i t le speaks of are symbol ic of the physica l s imi lar i t ies that ex ist between generat ions. However, hands are a lso symbol ic of the way we communicate wi th each other. They imply touch, t rust and symbol ise the sk i l ls that men such as h is grandfather pass down to succeeding generat ions.

Perhaps the most remarkable sty l is t ic feature of th is poem is the manner in which Kinsel la manages to b lend h istory wi th intense meditat ion. A l though the poem moves across the span of t ime, i t is ne i ther sent imenta l nor nosta lg ic. In a ser ies of f ragmentary sentences, Kinsel la presents the reader wi th a succession of tact i le images that eventual ly lead to a complex and thought-provoking abstract ion. However, even as the poem draws to a c lose and reaches i ts most abstract point , K insel la never loses touch with the pr imary tact i le rea l i ty that provoked h is meditat ion. The poem ends in a profound epiphany:

Extraordinary . . . The b ig b lock – I found i t years af terward in a corner of the yardin sunl ight af ter ra inand stood i t up, wet and black:

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i t turned under my hands, an ax isof l ight f lashing down i ts length,and the wood’s soft f lesh broke open, count less l i t t le na i ls

squi rming and dropping out of i t .

According to Donate l la Abate Baddin, th is is a ‘ luminous moment of wr i t ing in which imaginat ion ass imi lates the past and sets i tse l f up as the basis of the emergent se l f ’ . Th is poem f i rst appeared in the 1979 col lect ion One. Throughout th is col lect ion (and indeed Kinsel la’s wider body of work) , the mot i fs of the phoenix and the snake shedding i ts golden sk in appear. These are obviously metaphors for renewal and regenerat ion. As the speaker l is tens intent ly to ta les of h is fami ly f rom back in the day when they worked as ‘Stone Cutters’ or he lped f lee ing ‘Croppies’ , he is led back beyond th is point to a pr imeval imagin ing of h is or ig ins. In th is sense, Kinsel la’s a im in th is poem is to at tempt to understand the process of generat ion and regenerat ion and how i t cu lminates in h imsel f . The cold and threatening p lace that the poet imagines as being the locat ion for the genesis of h is fami ly l ine g ives way to the peace and ‘gent leness’ that he associates wi th h is grandfather. In the words of Br ian John, ‘despi te h is sense of ev i l , the poet has been brought to peace, pat ience and gent leness, which a lso const i tute the inher i tance and have moulded h is se l f ’ .

His grandfather’s wooden block, which forms the centre of the f ina l powerfu l and epiphanic stanza, symbol ises the poet’s profound sense of h imsel f as an indiv idual l inked but separate f rom the prev ious generat ions. The form and structure of these f ina l l ines, wi th the i r re l iance on dacty ls (st ressed sy l lab les fo l lowed by unstressed sy l lab les) , create a sense of the moment’s importance. Closely resembl ing embryonic ce l ls or spermatozoa, the nai ls break f ree of the womb-l ike b lock and begin the i r ex istence separate f rom but a lways l inked to the wood that housed them. In th is manner, they resemble the poet’s own ex istence and journey towards se l fhood, indiv iduat ion and independence. Thus, whi le the poem acknowledges the powerfu l in f luences that p lace and shared h istory have on forming our ident i t ies, i t ends with a compel l ing assert ion of the very human need for indiv idual ident i ty.

3. Essay Wr i t ing

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I f you are th ink ing of making reference to ‘His Father’s Hands’ in any response to Kinsel la’s poetry that you may be asked to make, t ry to bear the fo l lowing points in mind.

a. Once again, Kinsel la draws on the people and places of h is nat ive Dubl in for inspi rat ion.

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b. The poem manages to combine concrete imagery wi th complex and abstract not ions concern ing ident i ty and race memory.

c. In more than one poem, Kinsel la examines h is emerging sense of h is own ident i ty. As such, i t may be usefu l to compare and contrast th is poem with ‘Hen Woman’.

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