This Week I am Reading ... Ms Jackie Irving

Ms Jackie Irving is one of our Kindergarten teachers at Elmfield. Jackie shares her review of Pillars of the House: Anthology of Irish Women’s Poetry collected by A.A Kelly below

An appropriate choice following on from International Women’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day, and a book that holds fond memories for me of my time living in Ireland in the 90s.

One poem in particular stands out with its strong imagery powerfully portraying the importance of women.

ANY WOMAN by Katharine Tynan (1861-1931)

I am the pillars of the house;
The keystone of the arch am I.
Take me away, and roof and wall
Would fall to ruin utterly.

I am the fire upon the hearth,
I am the light of the good sun.
I am the heat that warms the earth,
Which else were colder than a stone.

At me the children warm their hands;
I am their light of love alive.
Without me cold the hearthstone stands,
Nor could the precious children thrive.

I am the twist that holds together
The children in its sacred ring,
Their knot of love, from whose close tether
No lost child goes a-wandering.

I am the house from floor to roof,
I deck the walls, the board I spread;
I spin the curtains, warp and woof;
And shake the down to be their bed.

I am their wall against all danger,
Their door against the wind and snow,
Thou who a woman laid in a manger,
Take me not till the children grow!

I find the first verse so powerful in its representation of the house being physically held up by the woman’s strength and determination, moving on to how she also imbues it with warmth and love:
‘At me the children warm their hands; I am their light of love alive,’ such a beautiful image

The poet then depicts the woman as the house itself and everything in it:
‘I am the house from floor to roof,’ ………… ‘I am their wall against all danger.’

I feel that nothing will defeat this woman in her mission to protect and nourish those within her home.
She finally turns to the only thing that could thwart her and offers a prayer to request she be spared to see her work done: ‘Take me not till the children grow.’

Sad to say, in those days, not all women were so fortunate as to have this prayer answered.

I never tire of reading this poem, simply written but with such depths of emotion.

Katharine Tynan wrote this poem in 1911, originally titled ‘The Mother,’ she wrote extensively and was a champion of women’s rights. The book is a bounty of poems showing many aspects of Irish life over time, the challenges, joys and sorrows are all here seen through the eyes of women.

A good book for dipping in and out of. I might also add that when writing this my mind was full of the Ukrainian mothers shown daily on the news shepherding their children to safety. My thoughts are with them.