An Dán is fearr le Muintir Mhaigh Eo | Mayo's Favourite Poem
D'fhógraíodh an dán is fearr le muintir Mhaigh Eo ag léamh filíochta le Louis De Paor i Leabharlann an Chontae, ar ndóigh bhí an bua ag Cill Aodáin
During the course of September last Mayo County Library ran a competition to try to find Mayo’s Favourite Poem. All month the emails and letters have being flooding in each arguing why their choice is best. The range of entries has been truly wide ranging, from hoary old favourites learned in National School to song lyrics, war poetry, poems about life and death and how to cope with both. Some poems have been nominated for deeply personal reasons, because they evoked a time and place in an individuals life when they were happy or because it was the favourite poem of a now dead parent. Some were be beautiful in their structure and shape while others were more sentimental conveying a yearning for times past.
For some the poem was the only one they still remembered from their school curriculum! So “The old Woman of the Roads” by Padraic Colum was popular with its lovely opening lines “Oh to have a little house/to own the hearth and stool and all.” Also popular were Yeat’s “The Lake isle of Inisfree”, Blake’s “Tiger tiger, burning bright.” and Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan”. Shakespeare’s sonnets and soliloquies were also prominent.
Irish poets naturally featured most strongly the most popular being Yeats and Kavanagh. The poetry of Seamus Heaney was very popular with younger people. We are still a rural county in our hearts despite the Celtic Tiger years. Living Irish poets were also popular with Paul Durcan leading the field with his tales of tea boys and haymakers. Brendan Keneally was also popular especially his inspirational poem “Begin” which was read on RTE at the start of the new millennium.
There were a number of beautiful discoveries including some works by local poets. Modern popular poets included Raymond Carver (“Beloved”), Stevie Smith (“Not waving but drowning”). Jarlath Cunnane of Northabout fame sent in a wonderful poem called “Christmas at Sea by” Robert Louis Stevenson which captures the spirit and courage of seamen of all generations.
One of the surprises was the amount of submissions in the Irish language perhaps reflecting a generation that learned poems as gaeilge by rote in school. Our own Rafteri featured strongly as did Cill Chais and Dónal Óg with its poignant closing lines:
You have taken the moon, you have taken the sun from me
And my fear is great that you have taken god from me
Another beautiful discovery was Subh Millis, a poem Seamus Ó Néill about a mothers anger at jam prints on a door handle until she remembers that day will soon come when the handle will be clean and the tiny hand gone.
Song lyrics were also popular reminding us that once we leave school most of the poetry we hear is through music. There were a number of entries of Bob Dylan Lyrics which is no surprise. Also very popular was Leonard Cohen, perhaps in part due to his hugely successful concerts in Ireland earlier this year.
We have discovered that poetry can mean many things to many people and that even those who say they do not really read poetry, when pressed, can in fact remember a favourite poem and let us know what it has meant in their life. Poetry is often viewed as an esoteric pleasure, something only a few can enjoy, but this competition has proven beyond doubt that Mayo people at least view poetry as an integral part of their every day lives.
So what were the most popular poems? In third place was “He wishes for the clothes of heaven” by WB Yeats – this was mainly submitted by women who still love the wonderfully romantic closing line “Thread softly because you thread on my dreams”
In second place was a poem that is from an English poet. It is “If” by Rudyard Kipling. This is one of those inspirational poems that people pin up on their wall to give them strength to go on. And perhaps its use the TV add for the GAA (being read by Sean Boylan) has helped it to get to second place on the list.
And Mayo’s favourite poem is – surprise, surprise - Cill Aodáin by Antoine Raifteirí the blind poet who lived by playing his fiddle and performing his songs and poems in the mansions of the Anglo-Irish gentry.
Lá Náisiúnta Filíochta 2008 | National Poetry Day
National Poetry Day was organised this year to celebrate 30 years of Poetry Ireland and to draw attention to the wealth and diversity of contemporary poetry, and to give the public an opportunity to get involved and enjoy poetry.
Louis de Paor ag léamh a chuid filíochta i Leabharlann an Chontae - Lá Náisiúnta Filíochta
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