Reading Poetry. Answer the following questions and hand in as your critical analysis of the poem you have selected By Míchéal ÓMáille

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1 Reading Poetry Answer the following questions and hand in as your critical analysis of the poem you have selected By Míchéal ÓMáille Men and women of the Gael, you've been duped for years By self-serving propaganda that's fallen on your ears For the conqueror wrote the history books, which were doctored just to say That the world might understand it in the proper English way. In 1838 the Irish Poor Law said That you must stay put in Ireland and pay tax on corn for bread And you mustn't gather seaweed or fish in streams or lakes And the "Landlords own the coastline" where the Irish ocean breaks. Now this wondrous law was authored to break the Irish race By the same bloodline at Cromwell, who despised an Irish face Or better still to force them off the land forever more To wander up and down the roads, throughout all Province four. Now we all know what a famine is, at least we think we do We've seen, in Ethiopia, a definition true With no water, grain or living thing on the parched desert floor And every blade of scrub picked clean and not a chance for more. What we've been told of Ireland is thus it was the same But anyone who's been there must cringe at this dread claim A land so lush in greenery, where fish and fowl abound With fields of golden corn and wheat the entire country round. But, a 150 years ago, the Landlords taxed them well Then sent the tax to England to help the coffers swell Forcing the tenant farmers to subside on "spuds" alone And nothing else in their green land were they allowed to own. Then, in 1845, came the first potato blight Which began 4 years which have been called "Ireland's Darkest Night" And as the English watched this crop rotting in the fields They forbade the Gael from living on the other harvest yields.

2 And it wasn't just the Irish crop that failed, despite their claim But the French and Dutch and German spuds were rotted just the same But they didn't starve, they just switched their staple by the rood While the English troops denied the Gael all but this one food. And while the people starved to death because of poisoned spuds The shipping lanes to England were packed with Irish goods There were tons of wheat and barley, oats and beets and more Being unloaded onto English docks from bulging holds galore. Up above the grains and greens that left the Irish coast Were pigs and sheep and cattle plundered from the starving host To say nothing of the hens and eggs and butter by the pound While the only food they left us was rotting in the ground. Relief supplies were sent from America in '47 Believing that a famine had plagued our island heaven They, too, had fallen victim to this greatest English lie That let the English eat our food and watch the Irish die. And still you call it "famine" tho' we know you're not to blame For when we say what we've been told, we hide the English shame Remember all the "coffin ships", then cast the word aside And call it what you know it was...call it GENOCIDE. / " ", le Mícheál O'Maille, Míchéal ÓMáille accessed on 20/11/2014

3 Who is the speaker? What does the poem reveal about the speaker's character? Who is the speaker addressing? Does the poem have a setting? Is the poem occasioned by a particular event?

4 Is the theme of the poem stated directly or indirectly? (Some poems use language in a fairly straightforward and literal way and state the theme, often in the final lines. Others may conclude with a statement of the theme that is more difficult to negotiate because it is made with figurative language and symbols.) From what perspective is the speaker describing specific events? Is the speaker recounting events of the past or events that are occurring in the present? If past events are being recalled, what present meaning do they have for the speaker?

5 Does a close examination of the figurative language of the poem reveal any patterns? Identify the structure of the poem? Since narrative poems represent a high degree of selectivity, it is useful to ask why the poet has focused on particular details and left out others. Can you identify anything that might have been left out of this poem? What do sound and meter contribute to the poem? (Alexander Pope said that in good poetry "the sound must seem an echo to the sense," a statement that is sometimes easier to agree with than to demonstrate. For sample analyses of the music of poetry, see the section on music).

6 What was your response to the poem on first reading? Did your response change after a close study of the poem or class discussions about it? How and Why?

7 How does this poem present opportunities to engage with the concept of discovery? Identify aspects of the discovery rubric that can be used with this poem?