Poetry of Ireland, The

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The cover of "The Poetry of Ireland" features photos of W.B. Yeats, Brendan Kennelly, Patrick Kavanagh, and Seamus Heaney, and it would be easy to assume that we might get voiceovers of these gentlemen reading their work while we were treated to a tour of the Irish countryside that inspired them. Like Yeats, they all have their Thor Balylees--refuges that allow them to write--but while their poems are here, the nine featured Irish poets are not.

This program, which aired on Irish television, was "presented and narrated by Kathleen Watkins," and it's Watkins who recites all of the poems, many of them while the camera trains on her face rather than the scenery that serves as a backdrop. It was intended as a sit-around-the-hearth style presentation of her favorite poems, and not the introduction to Irish poetry that it might seem to the casual consumer.

So who is Kathleen Watkins? Well, she's a renowned harpist in Ireland who also happens to be married to Irish TV talk-show pioneer and radio star Gay Byrne, who hosted the Irish version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" That means on the one hand it's like Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook--an indulgence of sorts--but on the other hand, if you read between the lines of Watkins' 40-minute program, you get a sense of just how much poetry means to the people of Ireland.

Yes, the purist in me would have loved to have had the poets reading their own work. There's something magical that happens when you hear an author perform his or her own poem. You feel a connection. You get a sense of how they intended the poem, what parts trip them up or choke them up, and when a line is supposed to be funnier or more resonant than it sometimes plays on the page. And so it's a little frustrating that we don't get that privilege--even when Watkins tells us (teases us?) that Brendan Kennelly is a wonderful reader of his work. Then we get her again, performing his poem. Sigh.

If you can get past this program's concept of being essentially a one-woman show and the fact that the selections have nothing in common except that they happen to be her favorites, there are nonetheless things to learn and enjoy. That a show like this even aired is something that just wouldn't happen in the United States, for example. Sure, we care about what Jessica Seinfeld cooks for her family, but her favorite poems? Get real! But in Ireland, poetry matters. Two of the poems read here are by Padraig Pearse, one of the executed leaders of the 1916 Irish revolt. Poetry and poetry-writing are more a part of Ireland's national fabric, and you really sense that as Watkins performs these poems. Each one is presented like a treasured quilt handed down from one generation to another.

Featured here are:

"Old Woman of the Roads" and "The Wayfarer" by Padraig Pearse
"In Memory of My Mother" by Patrick Kavanagh
"Wee Hughie" by Elizabeth Shane
"Mid-term Break" and "Death of Mother" by Seamus Heaney
"I See You Dancing, Father" and "The Stones" by Brendan Kennelly
"The Deserter" by Rita Ann Higgins
"The Lake Isle of Innisfree" and "The Cloths of Heaven" by W.B. Yeats
"If I were a Lady" by Percy French
"The Terrorist's Wife," by Angela Green

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