In her poem Slips, Northern Irish poet Medbh McGuckian employs earthy language to create vivid imagery. There are bits of alliteration, assonance, and anaphora scattered throughout, as in the phrases "whitest wash" (line 3), "favourite fairytales" (line 8), and "my mother's slimness restored to her, / my own key slotted in your door" (lines 11-12). She reflects upon her childhood in terms of Irish history, and seems to refer to female suppression with the mentioning of her grandmother's death "as a piece of ice" (line 10). While the final meaning is not clear, the poem's general tone is that of miscommunication/misinterpretation.
Slips
The studied poverty of a moon roof,
the earthenware of dairies cooled by apple trees,
the apple tree that makes the whitest wash…
But I forget names, remembering them wrongly
where they touch upon another name,
a town in France like a woman’s Christian name.
My childhood is preserved as a nation’s history,
my favourite fairytales the shells
leased by the hermit crab.
I see my grandmother’s death as a piece of ice,
my mother’s slimness restored to her,
my own key slotted in the door –
tricks you might guess from this unfastened button,
a pen mislaid, a word misread,
my hair coming down in the middle of a conversation.
- Medbh McGuckian, "Selected Poems" (1997)
Posted by Katie
The poet seems to be really moved by her grandmother's death. She has been through lot of hardships it seems.
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