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Eavan Boland

イーヴァン・ボーランド

Eavan Boland

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1944-09-24 （Dublin, Ireland）
Died
2020-04-27 （Dublin, Ireland） age 75
Nationality
Irish
Languages
English
Residence History
Dublin (lifelong) → London (childhood) → Palo Alto / near Stanford University (residence during professorship)

Career

Occupations
Poet, Author, Professor
Active Years
1962-2020
Affiliations
Stanford University, Department of English, Trinity College Dublin, Carcanet Press (primary UK publisher)
Memberships
Royal Irish Academy (Honorary Member), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected)
Influenced By
W. B. Yeats (influential Irish poet), Modern and contemporary Irish poets and women poets
Influenced
Paula Meehan (contemporary Irish poet), Younger women poets (those engaging with Irish diaspora and women's history)

Education

Trinity College Dublin
Faculty of Arts and Humanities / English Literature
Degree: BA (First Class Honours)
Period: 1962–1966
Year of Graduation: 1966
Country: Ireland
Published a pamphlet of poetry ('23 Poems') while at Trinity (1962)

Awards

Jacob's Award
1976
Work: The Arts Programme (involvement)
Organization: RTÉ (radio)
Result: Winner
Lannan Literary Award for Poetry
1994
Work: In a Time of Violence (collection)
Organization: Lannan Foundation
Result: Winner
PEN Award (creative nonfiction)
2012
Work: A Journey With Two Maps: Becoming a Woman Poet (essays)
Organization: PEN
Result: Winner
Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award (Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards)
2017
Organization: Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards
Result: Winner
Elected Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy
2018
Organization: Royal Irish Academy
Result: Elected
Irish PEN Award for Literature
2019
Organization: Irish PEN
Result: Winner
Costa Book Award for Poetry (posthumous)
2020
Work: The Historians (final collection)
Category: Poetry
Organization: Costa Book Awards
Result: Winner (posthumous)

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

New Territory

1967 Poetry collection

Early collection that shows the beginnings of her focus on everyday life and women's experience.

IdentityDomestic lifeMemory

Night Feed

1982 Poetry collection

Focuses on motherhood and domestic experience, foregrounding the ordinary life from a woman's perspective.

MotherhoodThe ordinaryWomen's voice

In a Time of Violence

1994 Poetry collection

Addresses historical violence and personal loss, interrogating relations between nation and individual.

ViolenceHistoryMemory

Against Love Poetry

2001 Poetry collection

Engages critically with traditions of love poetry, layering everyday experience with historical perspective.

LoveCritique of traditionWomen's perspective

The Historians

2020 Poetry collection

A late collection that interweaves personal and family memory with public history; critically acclaimed as a final work.

HistoryMemoryFamily

Bibliography

  • 23 Poems (1962)
  • New Territory (1967)
  • The War Horse (1975)
  • In Her Own Image (1980)
  • Night Feed (1982)
  • In a Time of Violence (1994)
  • Against Love Poetry (2001)
  • Domestic Violence (2007)
  • A Journey with Two Maps: Becoming A Woman Poet (2011)
  • New Selected Poems (2013)
  • A Woman Without A Country (2014)
  • The Historians (2020)

Translations by Author

  • After Every War: Twentieth-Century Women Poets (translations/ed., 2004)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Restrained lyricismClear and economical languageJuxtaposition of history and personal experience
Recurring Motifs
Motherhood and domesticityMemory and lossIdentity and emigration

Legacy

Eavan Boland is highly regarded for centering women's experience in modern Irish poetry. As an educator she was influential, internationally recognized for bridging poetic and women's histories.

Academic Societies

  • Royal Irish Academy
  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Archives

  • Collections and archives at Trinity College Dublin and affiliated libraries

In Popular Culture

  • In 2008 former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern quoted a passage of her poem to the US Congress
  • In 2016 President Obama quoted lines from her poem at a White House St. Patrick's Day reception
  • Trinity College Dublin renamed its main library the 'Eavan Boland Library' (announced 2024, made official 2025)

Quotes

  • Our future will become the past of other women
    Source: Commissioned poem for the Royal Irish Academy (centenary commemorations of women gaining the vote, 2018) (2018)

Trivia

  • Trinity College Dublin announced in 2024 the renaming of its main library after Eavan Boland (made official in 2025).
  • From 1996 she held a professorship at Stanford University and divided her time between Palo Alto and Dublin.