QUARANTINE

Quarantine

Quarantine by Eavan Boland

This poem is written by Eavan Boland. She is an Irish poet. Her publications of poetry include household Violence (W. W. Norton & Co., 2007), Against Love verse (W. W. Norton & Co., 2001), The Lost Land (1998), An Origin Like Water: assembled Poems 1967-1987 (1996), In a Time of aggression (1994), out-of-doors History: Selected Poems 1980-1990 (1990), The Journey and Other Poems (1986), evening Feed (1982), and In Her Own likeness (1980). In supplement to her books of verse, Boland is also the scribe of Object courses: The Life of the Woman and the bard in Our Time (W. W. Norton, 1995), a capacity of prose, and co-editor of The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms (W. W. Norton & Co., 2000).

This poem reflects Boland's insistence on feminism as well as her Irish nationalism. Consequently, the daughter and mother have several roles symbolically. In terms of feminism, the mother states how the daughter is becoming stronger, wiser, more assertive, and most importantly, more independent. Therefore, the mother's metaphor of “winter [being] in store for every leaf on every tree…” regarding to how she was ready to “make any bargain to keep [the daughter]” foreshadows her daughter's gateway into adulthood and independence as she is able to survive by eating a pomegranate.

Likewise, the daughter and mother symbolize Ireland and its motherland, England. Consequently, the mother laments about her daughter's feminism and independence. This in turn, symbolizes the national tension and constant struggle between Ireland and England over the Irish's attempts to gain independence. The mother, also known as England, acknowledges how “the legend will be hers as well as mine. She will enter it. As I have. She will wake up.” Thus, England admits to the inevitability of Ireland's passion for freedom, happiness, and ...