The Swineherd by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

When all this is over, said the swineherd,
I mean to retire, where
Nobody will have heard about my special skills
And conversation is mainly about the weather. 

Acclaimed poet, translator and editor Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin is the author of numerous poetry collections, including The Mother House (2020); The Boys of Bluehill (2015); The Sun-fish (2010); Selected Poems (2009); The Magdalene Sermon (1989), which was selected as one of the three best poetry volumes of the year by the Irish Times/Aer Lingus Poetry Book Prize Committee; and Acts and Monuments (1966), which won the Patrick Kavanagh Award.  Awarding Ní Chuilleanáin the 2010 Griffin Prize for The Sun-fish, the judges noted, “She is a truly imaginative poet, whose imagination is authoritative and transformative. She leads us into altered or emptied landscapes. … Each poem is a world complete, and often they move between worlds, as in the beautiful A Bridge between Two Counties. These are potent poems, with dense, captivating sound and a certain magic that proves not only to be believable but necessary, in fact, to our understanding of the world around us.”

From her 1972 collection Acts and Monuments, (perhaps) inspired by the Odyssey, The Swineherd is a poem of familiarity and disconcerting newness – we think we know the story until we don’t. With an unreliable narrator and dream-like descriptions of a more peaceful future, The Swineherd is full of strange music to consider and explore.

JOINING DETAILS:

• Facilitated by Caroline Hammond
• Single meeting study, Wednesday 3 July 2024, 6.00-8.00 pm (UK)
• The Swineherd can be read online here
• £30 to include background materials and opening notes