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Eamon Grennan

イーモン・グレナン

Eamon Grennan

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1941-11-13 （Dublin, Ireland）
Nationality
Irish
Languages
English
Residence History
United States (mainly since 1964) → Ireland (brief returns)

Career

Occupations
poet, translator, college professor
Active Years
1964-
Affiliations
Vassar College
Influenced By
Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, Modern Gaelic/Irish poetry

Education

University College Dublin
Faculty of Arts (English & Italian) / Department of English and Italian
Degree: BA, MA
Period: 1960年代初期
Year of Graduation: 1964
Country: Ireland
BA (1963) and MA (1964)
Harvard University
Country: United States
Attended Harvard University (details unspecified)

Awards

PEN Award for Poetry in Translation
1998
Work: Selected Poems of Giacomo Leopardi (translation)
Organization: PEN (PEN America)
Result: 受賞
Poetry Now Award
2008
Work: Out of Breath
Organization: Poetry Now
Result: ノミネート

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Wildly for Days

1983 poetry collection

Early collection exploring memory and the natural world through sensory detail.

naturememoryeveryday light

Out of Breath

2007 poetry collection

Collection addressing life, aging, and the body; nominated for the Poetry Now Award in 2008.

agingthe bodyexistential reflection

Matter of Fact

2008 poetry collection

Explores the relation of factuality and poetic language; notable for its attention to sentences and observation.

language transparencyeveryday observation

Plainchant

2020 poetry collection

A recent collection invoking voice, prayer, and silence through its titles and poems.

voiceprayersilence

Of Shards and Tatters

2024 poetry collection

Latest collection assembling fragmented memories and images into connective poems.

fragmentsmemoryconnection

Bibliography

  • Wildly for Days (1983)
  • What Light There Is (1987)
  • Cat Scat (1988)
  • As If It Matters (1991/1992)
  • So It Goes (1995)
  • Relations: New & Selected Poems (1998)
  • Selected & New Poems (2000)
  • Still Life with Waterfall (2001/2002)
  • The Quick of It (2004/2005)
  • Out of Breath (2007)
  • Matter of Fact (2008)
  • Out of Sight: New & Selected Poems (2010)
  • But the Body (2012)
  • There Now (2015/2016)
  • Plainchant (2020/2022)
  • Of Shards and Tatters (2024)

Translations by Author

  • Selected Poems of Giacomo Leopardi (translation, 1997)
  • Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus (co-translation, 2004)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
lyrical, observation-based styleconscious use of the sentence as a poetic unit
Recurring Motifs
lightnature (clover, crickets, etc.)memory and the body

Legacy

Eamon Grennan is widely respected for his lyrical intensity and observational skill, serving as a bridge between Irish and wider English-language poetry; he is also noted for his translations and influence among peers.

Archives

  • Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (Emory University)

Quotes

  • I have, it's a toothache quality, a kind of pain -- the ambition to make a sentence that is full, that has not gone limp, hasn't stopped while it still has some elasticity in it.
    Source: Interview with Timothy Cahill
  • Few poets are as generous as Eamon Grennan in the sheer volume of delight his poems convey, and fewer still are as attentive to the marvels of the earth. To read him is to be led on a walk through the natural world of clover and cricket and, most of all, light, and to face with an open heart the complexity of being human.
    Source: Billy Collins (poet)

Trivia

  • Born in Dublin in 1941.
  • Received BA (1963) and MA (1964) from University College Dublin.
  • Lived mainly in the United States since 1964; taught at Vassar College from 1974 and retired in 2004.
  • Won the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation in 1998.
  • Translated Giacomo Leopardi's poems.
  • Co-translated Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus with his wife Rachel Kitzinger.