Paul Durcan: Revision Ms. Donohoe

Poems Studied Parents Sport Wife Who Smashed Television Gets Jail En Famille, 1979 Father’s Day, 21 June 1992 Ireland 2002

Themes Mental Health Fragile father/ son relationship Childhood Family life Marriage Society

What makes Durcan unique? Autobiographical approach, journalistic style of writing, narrative account. Dating of poems. Use of humour to explore serious issues Conversational, colloquial tone Personal, confessional poet

Wife Who Smashed Television Gets Jail The poem reports how the woman’s husband testified against her, telling the judge how “She came home, my Lord, and smashed in the television”. This poem highlights the negative impact of technology can have on family life. The wife laments how the family sit stupefied in front of the screen while the old traditions of eating together, talking, sharing news and opinions are all gone.

Sport Sport is autobiographical poem, despite elements of humour, the underlying tone is one of sadness and disappointment. ‘Sport’ recalls a memory from Durcan’s difficult period spent inside institutions. As he turned twenty-one, the poet was being held in Grangegorman Mental Hospital: “I was a patient / In B Wing”. The poet was determined not to disappoint his watching father: “I was fearful I would let down / Not only my team but you”. In fact, he wanted to captivate or “mesmerise” him with the quality of his performance.

Parents Durcan compares sleep to an ocean. When we fall asleep we slip beneath the surface and “drown” in its depths. He depicts (image) parents looking down on their child who is lost in the swirling reaches of unconsciousness: “A child’s face is a drowned face” The ocean of sleep separates or “estranges” those who slumber from those who are awake. The parents long to connect with their child but the impassable barrier of deep sleep prevents them from doing so.

Father’s Day, 21 June 1992 The poet describes the scene: he is rushing to catch a train, the taxi is waiting outside, and his wife asks him to bring an axe down to her sister who has an overgrown tree that needs tending. Axe can be read on two levels – surface and symbolic.

Ireland 2002 Comical couplet that takes a question and answer format. Durcan ridicules the rich society that Ireland turned into during the Celtic Tiger.

En Famille, 1979 Durcan expresses a wish to return to childhood, but he doesn't portray this as a place of happiness and tranquillity, but rather as ‘the dark school’.