Yeats Is Cool

The host is riding from Knocknarea

And over the grave of Clooth-na-Bare;

Caoilte tossing his burning hair

And Niamh calling, Away, Come Away.

-excerpt from The Hosting of the Sidhe by William Butler Yeats

Yesterday, we went to Kilmainham Gaol and the Yeats exhibit at the National Library.  Kilmainham is where the political prisoners of the Easter Rising were held and executed. We saw the cell where Eamon deValera was held, and the yard where Pierce (sp?), Connoly, and MacBride were executed. Pretty powerful.

So I think I mentioned before (somewhere around Thoor Balylee) that I am developing quite the admiration for Yeats. I'm failing to understand how I haven't discovered him before now. Most of you know that I memorise poetry. Tolkien is my favourite poet because the rhythm and the sounds are so beautiful that the lyrics just fall into my head. So easy to learn, and beautiful to say. Yeats poems have that same quality, that lyricism. I bought a book of his collected poems at the Tower, and I spent some time memorising The Hosting of the Sidh last night. That's pronounced "shee" for you silly people who don't know Irish;). Part of the exhibit was a place to sit and listen to recording of various people reciting his more famous poems, with the words projected on a screen. I sat while it looped through twice, and now I have many poems on the "to memorise" list. My immediate projects are reciting The Hosting of the Sidh every hour for maximum retention, and continuing work on The Stolen Child.

Tonight we are going to see The Weir at the Gate Theatre; pretty exciting. Tomorrow I am leaving for the North; Belfast and Giant's Causeway. I may not find time to blog for a bit.

Heh speaking of weekends... I was in Cork, Blarney, and Kinsale last weekend. Blarney Castle was pretty much amazing. It was a real castle, and we were allowed to go all the way up to the ramparts to look out... and kiss the stone, of course. You have to lean out backwards over the battlements to kiss it; they've installed iron bars to grip so it's a little less scary and there's a dude whose job it is to sit there and make sure you don't fall. I have now kissed the stone, which means I have received the Gift of Eloquence. Winston Churchill kissed the thing before all his great speeches, so maybe there's some truth to it.

We spent a while at Blarney. There was a pretty fun walking trail, Rock's Chase, with a dolmen and other remains dating back to the druids. Also under the castle were dungeons and escape tunnels to crawl through. We ate dinner in Blarney village at a really great Indian Restaurant. Very happy food.

The next morning we took the bus out to Kinsale, which turned out to be a lovely little town on the coast. The main attraction (that we had time for, anyway) was Charlesfort, a star shaped military fort. Beautiful view, and we got to walk all over and through the old stone buildings. I found a room that had once had a roof, and it had been left to grow wild with vines and bushes pushing their leaves up towards the sun. Very peaceful, and reminded me of the Secret Garden.

I go home in less than two weeks! Hard to believe. I haven't seen everything that I want to, and now I'm having to prioritise like crazy. Also, I have a couple essays due next week, so at some point I have to do homework. Ridiculous.

I'm devoting this afternoon to homework, I think. Maybe I can get some stuff done, and then it's off to the show for my reward! 

Cheers,

Grace