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10-1-2005 The oP et's Hymn Tyler Farrell Marquette University, [email protected]

Published version. Irish Literary Supplement, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Fall 2005): 29-30. Publisher link. © 2005 Trustees of Boston College. Used with permission. FALL 2005 IRISH LITERARY SUPPLEMENT PAGE 29

Muldooon who himself keeps circling the Frost's own work with those in Muldoon, work in that role, alert to themes that recur the indicative statement, "sucb memorial nest and nesting within poetic ouevres other hintii:^ even that the "moose or eland" on a across Shining Brow, Vera of Las Vegas, and verse is at one and the same time literal and poetic ouevres—^would either seek or believe cliff in "Yarrow" might hearken to the "great Bandanna, delineates artd clarifies the several figurative, the referent and the referred" it to be possible for a poet to achieve an buck" of "The Most of It." Redmond themes that operate on multiple levels in (176). The dismembered parts that are the "independent" or "fledged" selfhood. continues, however, that such "literary game- these works, from border crossing to cross- misremembered errata or slips of everyday life, lead, in fact, to a "multitude of bodily An elegantly writtsi investigation of a playing," such concession to wtmtever dressing. As is typically the case in renmins" vAose very multiplicity "postpone less obviom father figure for Muldooti is counters rigidity, can itself yield to Wheatley's erudite, inviting critical essays, the inevitability" of the elegist's resolution of oifered hy John Redmond, a scholar whose "pragmatic urgency" in such poems as Frost's the wide familiarity with cultures high and grief (lSl). Attentive to Muldoon's own modest manner has consistently belied the "Out, Out" where work requires absolute low in E\ffopean and American as well as circlings, gettings round, and other forms of cumulative power of the insights offered in focus if a home is to be wrested from a Irish sources provides a helpful, contrapuntal embracing the elusiw refea-ent, Campbell his -work. In his reading of how Frosl landscape where "the most intimate bass, as in his references here to Lorca imd concludes that "the resolutely lapsed mediated for Muldoon the pragmatism of relationship one can have to objects" such as Mayor Daley, Stravinsky and fhircell, Blind Muldoon's version of this is immortality as a WiiHam James, Redmond concludes that a machine tool, or for that matter a coulter, Lemon Je:^rson and Joyi^. recycling, a coming round again" (180), a pragmatism offras to the Irish poet a "foim "is to be possessed by them" (105). In Wisely, the editors chose to end this fine trope that is of course particularly inviting for of thinking about philosophy and poetry" that "Cows," Redmond concludes, Muldoon collection with Matthew Campbell's "Mul- scholars who hope there reinams more to say "steers clear of formulaic procedures and shows us ttiat we must work but, as Frost also doon's Remains," an extended musing on on a poet given, as he writes in a r«;ent and solutions, it evades rigid thinking" (99). admonishes in "Out, Out", we must also rest how nothing is ever quite buried in Muldoon, if we are to understand how work, and others' punning essay on Marianne Moore, to Observing how Muldoon "saturates his how grief never really gets worked through work, works on us. "more." • poetry with an impressive-sounding into a proper elegy. As Campbell cogently indecisiveness, constantiy pointing out the Rarely must poets work as cooperati\'ely defines the uncomfortable state between loss —Washington University danger of frtaning concepts too rigidly," with others as they do as librettists. David and surrender, between the conditional and Redmond keenly connects such moments in Wheatley's brisk introduction to Muldoon's Tke Poet's Hymn voice. Liddy tackles hts less formal even more wonder and excitement than the JAMES LIDDY helped to shape him. He is like a child again running through an encyclopedia of education by Kavanagh at McDaid's with a auUior even knew. The Doctor's House: An Autobiography memories. We glimpse his passionate icfve smattering of significant events and per- Part four of A Doctor's House is Salmon Press, 2004, €15 for his mother (a New York bom socialite soiKil recoUections. Here we see Bohemian enthralling and addicting. Liddy's tales of I^one to stories and drink) and res|Kct for Dublin told to us differently than John Ryan respect for fellow teachers like Janet Renewed by his father (a Dispensary docfor filled wifli or Anthony Cronin. Liddy's sense of Dublin Dunleavy, Nic Kubly, and Mel Friedman TYLER FARRELL constant work and opinion). We see Irish is respectfiil, but not as serious or ego- are balanced by his poems, memories and festivals, travels to Spain, readings, tistical. He tells tales of the opening of the tijnes in an America with a new pulse, a T THE MILWAUKEE BOOK, LAUNCH for adventures and American connections to Martello Tower, meeting Austin Clarke and time never to be duplicated. The !«d,ion AJ^nes Liddy's new memoir. The Ireland, He looks fondly on his links to conversing with John Jordan, Anthony recounts friendships, encounters and Doctor's House, the author stood before Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh, John Kerrigan or Liam Miller, but doesn't dwell observations from an Iri^ bom poet (now a friends and colleagues at a local and Jtffdan, Michael Hartnett, Liam Miller and on therh ad nauseam. The poetic diction is teacher in America) and signals a new frequented Irish pub to proclaim, Richard Riordain. He fills the reader v«th a not verbose. It moves quickly and remains breath in places like San Francisco, New "Autobiography is a way of going home. sense of adventure in midTcentury Dublin, evocative and confident while relaying Orleans and later Wisconsin, it seems in And tonight I am not homeless." With such 196O's SSn f'rancisco. Hew Orleans and its recurrent visiom of middle youth as we see this passage that Liddy hits his stride. He is a sentimrait the writer announPatrick Kavanagh, vacationing inquisitiveness. His influences begin to account of his Irish upbringing, his Dublin with Michael Hartnett in Spain or the show and in San Francisco his love for education, his American journeys, and his stories have a flow and lucidity that send making of The Dolmen Miscellany. The his- writes like the Beat Generation begin to poetic sensibility. Straight from the mouth the leader into an enthralling world torical aspects of the memoir are impec- peak out from behind his language. He lives of the poet we see Liddy's sense of fim, described with a distinctly charming wit and cable and ruthlessly revealing w^ile also like those writers once did, drinking, developmwit, and intellect spill onto the a poetic and proud tone. writing in a small apartment, going out to page through small vignettes and quick The description that begins the book is being careluUy presented in a fluid and meet friends and writers, simply loving life. anecdotes told with an artistic diction of Liddy's childhood home in Coolgreany effortless manner. Liddy's characterization drowned with people and places, pubs and Co. Wexford. It is a youthful tale told with of an age says the most for Dublin at this He meets many people recailing a writers, reflections and recordings. innocence. There are visions of the time and does so in a tender and expressive friendship with Jack Spicer and cronies at surrounding gardeais, flowers, white stones, manner worthy of all previous writing on the White Rabbit Press, talks with Louis The Doctor's House is a poetic trees and a tennis court. It s^ms rather the subject. Zukovsky and George Stanley, has autobiography, (somewhat unconventional) magical, somewhat opulent, in a simple These descriptive memories leave Utfle encounters with Robert Duncan and Richard but not unlike Austin Clarke's or Geoi^e light colored by the author's hand. There doubt that Liddy is praising the Dublin of Brautigan. Then he hears of the dtaUv ot" Moore's autobiographical writings of are blissfiil, small tales of his mother in the his youth, an inspiring city in all its glory, It Patrick Kavanagh back in Ireland and upbringing, formation, and humanizing kitchen, his father and mother at a world's is almost mystical when we read of everything slows. Althou^ Liddy is sad at description. Liddy s historical placement fair, echoes of religion, childhood, up- Kavanagh's jaunts through the alleys or the the passing of his .mentor, he gives his falls in with the new generation of Irish bringing. These are followed with stories ^ost of Oscar Wilde haunting Liddy's respect and remembers where he has been writers, poets of gathering and gossip, poets and thoughts of friends, relatives, psyche and hanging over his shoulders. His placed at this time in his life. "My captain is influenced by previous generations, but poetic style is lucid and joyous, capturing dead though I am among the captains and poets who also wanted their own time and neighbors. It reads as a bygone era of the sights and sounds of a time told the kings" (119). voice. Both Clarke and Moore tend to poke gatherings placed in a historical context. uniquely by a writer whose perspective is Liddy wanders further into the United fim at themselves (as well as their audience) Liddy is never too far from letting his new and startling, young and enchaiting. States making moves througji New Orleans and create subtle patterns and textures. reader know the time frame, the in^)Uca- and the fairy tale French Quarter with small Liddy does the same, but expresses a fond- tions of subjects such as Roosevelt's Liddy writes, "Ireland is one pub, and sfories of being mugged (truly a symbolic ness for his subjects that are comic and statements to Ireland during World War 0 fiiendship is one lounge. No one is ewr sptmtaneous, ne\«r savage. Liddy's sense of or even the celebration at O'Rafferty's pub there without a drink in hand. A melody of yam) and the beauty, flowers and simplicity style and tone is not unlike the Irish on the feast of SS. Peter and Paul. Liddy is lights and brills. Buzz in a labyrinth....We of living in the Crescrait City in a seemingly autobiographies before him, but where exalted by history and religion, an all thought the Baggot Street summer would magical time. Liddy bounds with eas& Clarke and Moore leave off with true tales inquisitive mind even as a child that leads be widlessly renewed. There would be nods through these passages until he reaches of Ireland and the Hteraiy md religious him to his next stop: Litraary Dublin. fo libations and gods" (57). Liddy is many conclusions about life, ait and worlds, Liddy's picks up with description The stfflies of mid-century Dublin are friendly in his gossip, true to the form of fiiendship teaching the reader a few lessons that adds more gaiety, light discussion, Liddy's evocation of the eveiyday, the tales heard in a pub. His stories of Michael along the way. reverie, delight, and gossip. We see writers, sights and sounds of a tim? that Hartnett are flattering and personal, por- When his movements begin fo peak we fractured tales of bar stools, literary figures defined a second literary Ireland. His traying the poet with respect and candor. finally teach his ultimate destination of and a company that has had a keen impact personal style is honest and Hmny, a Soon we come to the end of Liddy's Dublin Wisconsin where the language becomes on the author. reminiscence dotted with dialopie and wMidra: city to see a glimpse of the more flattering and inquisitive about his poetry, names and tales. Dublin represents Ramstown Arts festival before moving into love for poetry, his adoraticm of young Liddy jumps back and forth between the the middle and fonnative years that seem the final section. Liddy's historic crossing poets and his simple wanderings and "exile" influfisice

countiy of Ireland. He turns more rellectivc backlash" (133). There are many things that and artists. The writer is happy. The mood is physically and menially. More descriptive and inward in this last section still making remmd the poet of home, including respectfiil. times written for all to hear. Hopefiiliy this quips about the very notion of the wandering Wisconsin poet Lorinc Niedecker, whose Then the memoir closes its once opened will not be the only installment of Liddy-iams. and exiled poet. "Ihc spirit wandereth notion of the sacred Liddy compares to Yeats. doors. The journey culminates on a favorite There is always room for another poetic whence it is employed or patroned. The artist He writes of taverns and etiquette, nightlife, street comer in Milwaukee and we are left memoir, especially one w ith this much history type is outside the first social force of friends and findii^s all within Milwaukee, a wanting more. More of Liddy's stories and and joy-' Mammy and friends; distance beckons new town filled with a surprising amount of poets memories. More of the poet traveling interruptions, and maybe memory spins into Tne Golaen A^e or Irisn-American Teacners JANET NOLAN examination of Irish public education starting hiring male "experts," administrators who the School Committee twenty years earlier Servants of the Poor. Teachers and with the Dublin Society for Promotion of the controlled curriculum and instruction. . when he was responsible for getting William Irish Poor (1812), the forerunner Irish Mobility in Ireland and Irish America Nolan includes a number of examples of Swinton's anti-Catholic The Outline of the National School, the first British experiment University of Notre Dame Press, 2004, Irish-American teachers who worked for World's History removed from the schtxil with state funded schools. The curriculum $45.00, $18.00 equity. Her most memorable was Margaret system's list of approved textbooks. emphasized literacy, numeracy and the Flaiey of Chicago, the woman Nolan has While it IS common to assume that the inculcation of time and work disciplines, called "the Patrick Henry of the classroom Reviewed by urban Irish were educated in parish schools, Nolan considers the pedagogy and the teacher movement" for her leadership of the MAUREEN MURPHY Nolan points out that in Boston, during the curriculum of the system as it evolved into the Chicago Teachers' Federation. While episcopacies of Bishops Benedict Fenwick slate-supported, non-dencaninational National Battleground: The Autobiography of ANET NOLAN'S Servants of the Poor. and William H, O'Connell, Irish and Insh- Schools, (They were de jure noi de facto non- Margaret A. Haley was published in 1982, Teachers and Mobility in Ireland and American families were encouraged to send denominational and sectarian,) Nolan pays one hopes that Nolan might be tempted to JIrish America follows Ourselves Alone- their children to public elementary schools particular attention to the content of National ftirther study this urban educator whose ideas Women's Emigration from Ireland, 1885- which they supported as tax payers, (lhe School textbooks, the readings that prepared about social justice were shaped by her Irish 1910 (1989), her pioneering study of Irish diocese built secondary schools for the schoolgirls for domestic life or domestic heritage, her Catholic education and contact women's emigration that demonstrated that children of the Catholic middle-ciass,) service. To Nolan's survey, one might add with Irish-American Dominican sisters in the economic self-sutHciency of young Irish Chicago Irish and Irish-Americans, on the The Girb'Reading Book (1887) lessons in Chicago. She might also consider taking on a women immigrants to the United States other hand, sent their children to Chicago's kitchen fire-safety, a sobering reminder of the biography of another Irish-American provided mobility, a choice of marriage parochial schools; however, Nolan American newspaper accounts of Irish Chicagoan, Amelia Dunne Hookway sister of partners and other options which meant demonstrates that those students later taught domestic servants injured or killed in fire- "Mr, Dt«)ley," Peter Finley Dunne, (Nolan independence. Her research revealed that Irish in city's public schools, (The work of Sucllen related accidents. has written the Margaret Haley entry for girls attended local National Schools in Hoy and Ellen Skcrritt documents the Irish Women Building Chicago 1790-1990: A greater numbers and for longer periods that Nolan's studyon Irish-American teachers and Irish-American lay and religious Bibliographical Dictionary, the Hookway their brothers. Believing with Bishop focuses on three cities which had high contributitms to education and social weliare entry for The Encyclopedia of American Moriarty of Kerry that "The National Schools concentrations of Irish-Americans at the turn of Chicagoans in Catholic institutions,) Catholic Women, and "St, Patrick's Daughter: have replaced the crowbar" (1868), Nolan of the century and where teachers with Irish Nolan's metliodology combines archival Amelia Dunne HookwEiy and Chicago's argued that their greater literacy led to higher surnames made up a large part of the teaching research: census returns, public school Public Schools" for At the Crossroads: Old expectations, and those expectations en- force: Boston, San Francisco and Chicago. By records, Irish National School records, St. Patrick's and the Chicago Irish (1997). couraged young women to aspire to lives with 1910, Irish-American teachers were one of the textbooks, official reports, studies ol' more opportunities in America., (David largest ethnic groups in Boston (Iwenty-livc Beyond the Irish-American teachers pedagogy and curriculum, A specialist in oral Fitzpatrick also noted the same connection percent) ; they accounted for one-third of the themselves, Nolan's study considers the history (Chicago public health, public spaces, between education and emigration in his teachers in Chicago public schools and forty- contribution of Irish-American women to neighborhoods, parishes and schools) as well essay, '"A Share of the Honeycomb': nine percent of San Francisco teachers, Nolan urban school boards and school committee.s, as in Irish and Irish-American history, a Education, Emigration and Irish Women.") finds that while Irish-American teachers J ulia Harrington Duft' elected on her platform particular strength of Servants of the Poor is Nolan's new book Servants of the Poor. found some discrimination in terms of "Boston Schools for Boston Girls," served the oral history that she includes: detailed life Teachers and Mobility in Ireland and Irish ethnicity and religion, they challenged those one tenn on the Boston Scliool Committee histories from her collection of thirty-six America continues her investigation of the barriers armed with their education, the where she worked to protect Irish-American retired Chicago teacher who had Irish way that National School education prepared normal school training and their success in teachers' access to positions in the city school mothers or grandmothers. The collection is young Irish women for emigration. In this passing ^e examinations introduced to limit system. The reformer also saved Boston part of Nolan's larger project Life Histories: study, it is the model of National School their access into the public school system. Normal, ^e teacher-training institution that Mothers and Daughters in Ireland's National teachers: their financial independence, their Servants of the Poor also traces the role educated Irish-American women. DufT was and American public schools which involved intelligence and their style that inspired of Irish-American teachers in the campaign defeated for a second term by a combination interviews with informants in Boston and in immigrants' aspirations for their American- for job security, pensions, better teaching of forces in the city's urban politics that San Francisco. born daughters who entered the teaching conditions and the rights of women teachers opposed her reforms: the PubUc School Nolan hay promised a further study of profession in extraordinary numbers between in matters of gender equity in pay and Association that opposed reform which was Irish-American teachers thatwill follow their 1880 and 1920, the "golden age" of the Irish- opportunity. Here again there was an Irish supported by Boston's Demixiratic mayor history for another generation: Minds to American urban teacher. Nolan examines the model, the Irish National Teachers John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald. The teacher, Hands: Teachers at the End of a Golden Age, connection between those Irish-American Organization founded in 1868. Despite the journalist, poet and peace activist Mary 1920-1935, Then, she can consider the legacy teachers and the growing prosperity and attempt to raise the bar with required Elizabeth McGrath Blake ran unsuccessfully of the Irish-Anierican teacher: their students respectability of the Irish community during additional training and/or professional for the Boston School Conimittee in 1901, whose • education prepared them to take those years when Irish-American women examinations, Irish-American teachers were The Public School Association partisans who advantage of the G,l, Bill alter the second entered the white-collar workforce a prepared to make the sacrifices to stay in the opposed her candidacy no doubt remembered World • generation ahead of their brothers. Blake's husband Dr. John Blake's tenure on classroom. Still, the opportunities for teacher —Hofstra University mobility became limited by the policy of Servants of the Poor begins with an

Press; University of Wisconsin Press, 2004, to Irish Studies since 1958, New Riverside Editions, Selling for under Under tne Radar $19.95), has a catchy title. It was the name of " Irish Studies Review, the journal of the $20 a volume, the series includes, inter alia, Northern Ireland a high level British FRU (Force Research British Association of Irish Studies, is Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels and • Joe Cahill, A Life in the IRA, by Brendan Unit) operative working inside the IRA. published by Routledge Joumals UK. One of Other Writings, edited by Clement Hawes Anderson (O'Brien Press; University of Apparently there were a lot of agents, the latest numbers, February 2005, features an (Penn State University) and Two Irish Wisconsin Press, 2005, $45,00, $19.95), journals eclectic collection of essays on history, National Tales. Maria Edgeworth Castle sheds light on his sixty year life with the the • A new journal in the field is An Sionnach, a politics, literature, and drama, along with two Rackrent and Sydney Owenson (l.ady IRA. Most interesting is his account of the rifl Journal of Literature, Arts, and Culture, from dozen book reviews. Morgan) The Wild Irish Girl, edited by James between the Provisionals and Official IRA, Creighton University Press. The twice-yearly For Your Classrooms M, Smitli (Boston College), with an • Stakeknife, British Secret Agents in Ireland, first issue, edited by David Ciardiner, is " Teachers of Irish literary studies will be introduction by Vera Kreilkamp (Pine Manor by Martin Ingram and Greg Harkin (O'Brien dedicated to the words of Irish poet James heartened to hear of aftbrdable reprints of College). Liddy- The journal publishes essays relating classics from Iloughton MifRin's series of