PAUL DURCAN
5th Year Poetry
Born in 1944 in Dublin. His childhood was divided
between Dublin and Mayo where his father worked
as a circuit court judge and his mother was trained
as a solicitor.
• His childhood was characterised by a turbulent relationship
with his father who subjected Durcan to regular beatings
for trivial things, in particular his academic performance.
His relationship with his mother was much more
gentle and though he believes he was a
disappointment to her, she always supported him.
• Durcan was an extremely talented young sportsman but at
the age of thirteen his sports career was over when he
contracted a bone disease
PAUL DURCAN:
BIOGRAPHY
PAUL DURCAN: BIOGRAPHY
The hostility of Durcan’s father reached its peak when at the age of
19, after a breakdown of relations with his family, Durcan was
forcibly committed to a psychiatric hospital by his family. Against his
will he was committed to St John of Gods in Dublin and later a
hospital in London.
Over the course of nearly three years Durcan was needlessly
exposed to dozens of ECT sessions. He has described his fear that
the doctors would perform a lobotomy on him, as they did on many
other patients.
PAUL DURCAN: BIOGRAPHY
Durcan maintains that he did not suffer from mental illness as
his family alleged. However he says he has suffered from
depression and insomnia ever since the ECT treatments. He
said "Here were these authoritarian, cocky middle-aged men
telling me they knew everything about me. "They could inject
electricity and gas into you so as to make you conform."
In 1965 Durcan fled hospital and made his way to London
where he became friendly with the poet Patrick Kavanagh.
Kavanagh became a surrogate father for Durcan and he saw
him almost every day.
PAUL DURCAN: BIOGRAPHY
His first collection of poetry Endsville, which he co-authored with Brian Lynch,
was published in 1967. Soon after, Durcan met Nessa O’Neill at a wedding
Kavanagh had invited him to. They were later married and had two
daughters before returning to Ireland in 1970.
Durcan went back to education, studying archaeology and medieval history
at UCC after reportedly being informed by the English department he did not
understand English or poetry and “had no future in it”. Durcan describes this as
“one of the most traumatic moments” of his life.
PAUL DURCAN: BIOGRAPHY
He carried on writing, despite the lack of
encouragement, and received first class honours
in his degree as well as the Patrick Kavanagh
Poetry Award in 1974.
In 1984 Durcan and Nessa decided to end their marriage after sixteen years.
This painful and traumatic event is captured in his poetry as his response to his
father’s death in 1988. Durcan’s poetry deals with themes of love, marriage,
family and Ireland and its history.
WIFE WHO SMASHED TELEVISION GETS JAIL
This poem is unusual in that it takes the form of a
newspaper report. The poem reports how the woman’s
husband testified against her, telling the judge how “She
came home, my Lord, and smashed in the television”.
Midway through an episode of Kojak, his wife returned
from the pub and “marched” angrily into the living room.
She seems enraged by the fact that families spend all their
time watching television rather than engaging in
conversation.
WIFE WHO SMASHED TELEVISION GETS JAIL
He refuses to turn it off and she makes good on
her threat, using her boots as a hammer to smash
the appliance. “I didn’t turn it off, so instead she
turned it off ”.
Television sets, she suggests, have infiltrated
family life and now play the role of parents and
spouses: “I didn’t get married to a television”. In her
opinion, the family would be better spending their
time in the pub as it is at least a place of human
interaction.
WIFE WHO SMASHED TELEVISION GETS JAIL
The report switches from reporting the husband’s
testimony to describing the reaction of the presiding
judge. He suggests televisions should be considered
members of the families who own them: “the
television itself could be said to be a basic unit of the
family”.
The judge deems that any wife who shows a
preference to the pub rather than watching
television is a “threat to the family”. He sentences her
to an unspecified time in jail with no chance for an
appeal.
THEME: FAMILY
This poem highlights the negative impact of technology can have on family life.
The wife laments how the family sit stupefied in front of the screen while the old
traditions of eating together, talking, sharing news and opinions are all gone.
TV is portrayed as an insidious addiction – the husband’s response to his wife’s
attack on the TV is to rush off elsewhere so he and his kids don’t miss a moment of
Kojak. Though they have differing opinions on TV sets, both the wife and the
judge make clear that televisions have become part of the family.
The poem, then, presents a conflict between human interaction on one hand and
machine interaction on the other. This is especially clear when the wife declares
she’d rather have her children in the pub than in front of the television. Pubs may
be considered inappropriate for children but she feels at least there people
engage with each other.
THEME: MARRIAGE
Durcan’s poetry often presents a gritty and realistic view of
marriage. However the relationship presented in this poem is likely
the most dysfunctional of all.
The wife comes to feel so ignored and marginalised that she’s
provoked into the violent attack on the television set.
This surely is marital breakdown in the extreme. Then to make
matters even worse, the husband appears to report the wife’s
action to the police, testifies against her in court and effectively
gets her locked up.
THEME: THE STRENGTH AND POWER OF WOMEN
Durcan’s poetry is full of strong and impressive
women. Yet among these women, the woman who
smashed the television stands out.
This is a woman not afraid to rebel. She has been
ignored in favour of the television for long enough. She
has watched the television destroy family life across the
country for long enough. She responds with her own
small but unforgettable act of rebellion.
It’s unsurprising then that she is compared with Queen
Maeve, who in Irish legend was the fierce and powerful
ruler of Connaught, and the equal of any king.
THEME: IRELAND AND IRISH HISTORY
This poem presents Ireland as an oppressive place – especially towards women. The role of
women is to maintain the stability of the family unit, and thereby the stability of society itself.
In such an environment women must function as loyal and obedient wives who look after the
household and their husbands needs. Any women who rebel against this role, like the wife in
the poem, will be regarded as a social menace and dealt with severely by the authorities.
Tellingly, there is no mention in the report of the wife’s testimony. Perhaps the judge felt her
husband was the only one worth listening to and was happy to convict on his evidence alone.
Or perhaps she was invited to speak but the reporter felt her words were not worth sharing.
Either way, her silencing reflects the marginalised status of women in Ireland at that time.
The bias against women is also suggested when the husband describes how Kojak shoots a
woman who happens to share his wife’s name: “After shooting a dame with the same name as
my wife”. We’re left with the impression that this is a world where women are controlled and
oppressed.
STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC.
Form:
 The poem’s most notable feature is its
presentation as a newspaper report. The
title is written in the style of a
newspaper headline, while the body of
the poem mixes quotes and reportage
just as a real court report would.
The husband’s testimony is quoted
verbatim, while in the last six lines
Durcan skilfully captures the clipped,
neutral style of the court reporter.
STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC.
Tone:
 Durcan brilliantly captures the tone of the
husband’s speech as he gives his testimony. There is
something very realistic about the way he moves from
a casual style of conversation (“me and the kids”, “my
mother’s place”, “my mother has a fondness”) to a
more formal one (“peaceably”, “my Lord”,
“whereupon”).
We are left with a vivid impression of a man used
to speaking in a casual manner who throws in a few
big words to try to impress the judge and win his
favour.
STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC.
Language:
 It’s important to look at the words used
by the husband to describe his wife’s
behaviour.
He frames her outburst in emotionally
charged language, designed to make
her actions seem violent and
unreasonable and uses words like
“marched”, “smashed”, “declared”,
“disappeared”.
STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC.
Humour:
 This poem is rich in the surreal humour the flavours much of Durcan’s poetry .
We see this in the wife’s attack on the television and the husband’s equally
bizarre response as he rushes his kids to his mother’s place to catch the end of
Kojak.
We also see it in the judge’s overreaction as he imprisons the wife for
breaking what is, after all, her own appliance.
Durcan uses this bizarre scenario to make a serious point, attacking bot the
destructive influence of television and the oppression of women in the Ireland
of the day. Although the poem is very quirky, it is also a powerful piece of
social criticism.
PERSONAL RESPONSE
This poem was written at a time when
televisions were the only form of electronic
entertainment. Yet its message is even more
relevant today in our world of smart phones,
laptops and games consoles. We now have so
many different screens to get lost in – so many
different ways to ignore each other.
QUESTIONS
1. The wife feels it is better for a family to drink in the pub
together than watch television together. Why do you
think she believes this? Do you feel that she has a point?
2. Given that this poem was written in the 1970’s is it still
relevant to the Ireland of today? Give a reason for your
answer.
3. Write a personal response to this poem. (Use SMILES to
help structure your answer)
PARENTS
Durcan compares sleep to an ocean. When we
fall asleep we slip beneath the surface and
“drown” in its depths.
He depicts (image) parents looking down on their
child who is lost in the swirling reaches of
unconsciousness: “A child’s face is a drowned face”
The ocean of sleep separates or “estranges”
those who slumber from those who are awake.
PARENTS
Sleepers stay on one side of the ocean’s surface,
waking people on the other. The surface of this
ocean, then, is like a barrier separating the
parents from their child: they are “Estranged from
her by a sea”. Durcan reinforces this point by
repeating it almost exactly in line 16 and 17.
The parents long to connect with their child but
the impassable barrier of deep sleep prevents
them from doing so. Durcan uses a wonderful
simile to describe this comparing the parents to
people who have been “locked out of their own
home”.
PARENTS
 Sleep is also compared to a pane of glass separating
the parents from their child in the metaphor: “Their big
ears are fins behind glass”.
But it is a twisted or distorted pane that makes the
parents ears resemble huge fish-like fins. It seems to
suggest that even if the sleeping child could somehow
sense what was happening around her it would seem
bizarre, distorted and incomprehensible.
This is a strange but powerful image that reinforces our
sense of the great divide between the waking and the
sleeping worlds.
PARENTS
We sense however that this is no ordinary
sleep, that this particular child may be very ill.
After all, the parents seem highly anxious and
concerned about their child, staying up all
night to watch over them: “And through the
night, stranded, they stare”
Their foreheads are “furrowed” with lines of
worry. Durcan’s choice of language highlights
the parents’ fear and suspense. Their clenched
and puckered foreheads are compared to the
mouths of fish: “Pursed-up orifices of fearful
fish”
PARENTS
We sense also that the child may be experiencing some kind of
fever that brings vivid, unpleasant and chaotic dreams. Even though
she is unconscious she knows something is wrong.
In her dreams she longs to connect with her parents: “And in her
sleep she is calling out to them / Father, Father / Mother, Mother”. But
of course her parents can’t hear what she shouts in her dreams.
If she woke she would see her parents standing over her but she is
lost in her fevered sleep and cannot do so. The repetition of the
word “drowned” in the poem’s last line reinforces our sense that the
child is sick: “At the drowned, drowned face of their child”.
THEME: FAMILY
The poem highlights how far away our loved ones seem while they are sleeping.
Sleep is likened to a barrier or pane of glass that leaves us “locked out” or
“stranded”.
When our loved ones sleep beside us we experience a strange kind of
loneliness because they are lost in another world where we cannot reach them.
Durcan is a poet who presents an honest and rounded view of family life,
celebrating the joys of family life but also its difficulties. This poem seems to deal
with the agonies of having a sick child, highlighting the stress and worry
experienced by parents in that awful situation. We sense the tension as they stay
up all night watching over their child, their foreheads “furrowed” with worry.
STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC.
Metaphor and Simile:
This poem uses an extended metaphor that compares sleep
to an ocean. Sleepers slide into this ocean and “drown” within
its depths while waking people remain “stranded” above its
surface. The ocean’s surface is presented as an unreachable
barrier between sleep and waking.
Other metaphors are used to describe the parents’ faces as
they watch their sleeping child. Their ears are compared to
fins. And in a bizarre comparison their clenched brows are
likened to the mouths of fish.
A fine simile is used to describe the distance between the
waking parents and the sleeping child, with the parents
compared to people locked out of their home.
STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC.
Language:
Durcan choice of language
illustrate the worry and stress
the parents are experiencing.
Words such as “estranged”,
“furrowed”, “pursed-up” and
“stranded” highlight the
feeling of isolation and
anxiety they are feeling.
QUESTIONS
1. What does the poem suggest about what it is like to be a
parent? Refer to the poem in your answer.
2. The poem features a number of similes and metaphors. Describe
three and say which one found most effective.
SPORT: BACKGROUND
o In this poem the poet addresses his father, with whom he had a
very difficult relationship.
oAs Durcan himself describes it: “When I was ten, he began to be
somewhat problematic. When I think about it there were gratuitous
beatings and he was incredibly severe about things like
examinations. If I hadn’t got second or third place it was bad news,
and sometimes he would take the strap off his trousers and beat me.
A man has to be so very complicated if he takes a school report for
a ten-year-old that seriously.”
SPORT: BACKGROUND
o Durcan’s father was a high-ranking judge, and in the poet’s account
emerges as nearly a stereotype of that profession – stern, severe and
uncompromising. A man to whom discipline was everything.
oHe could make no sense of his son’s sensitive personality and artistic
tendencies. To him these seemed like signs of mental disorder or insanity.
oOver the poet’s teenage years the relationship between father and son
became increasingly tense and then broke down completely. Finally, when
Durcan was nineteen, his father had him committed to a psychiatric hospital.
SPORT
o‘Sport’ recalls a memory from this difficult period spent inside institutions.
As he turned twenty-one, the poet was being held in Grangegorman Mental
Hospital: “I was a patient / In B Wing”.
oHe’s selected to play in goal for the hospital’s Gaelic-football team in a
match against Mullingar Mental Hospital – both teams it seems are made up
of inmates rather than of staff members.
oThe poet provides a vivid portrait of the opposing team. He emphasises the
great size and bizarre appearance of the Mullingar players, describing
them as “big country men” who had “gapped teeth, red faces / Oily, frizzy
hair, bushy eyebrows”.
SPORT
oThe poet stresses the enormity of the Mullingar fullforward line, which was “over six foot tall / Fifteen
stone in weight”. The three full-forwards were all
schizophrenics, while the centre half-forward was
rumoured to be an alcoholic solicitor locked up for
castrating his best friend.
oYet the poet held his nerve and bravely defended
his goal against the intimidatingly crazy Mullingar
attack: “To my surprise / I did not flinch in the goals”
He plays far better than he expected, “leaping
high” and “diving full stretch” to deny the Mullingar
team.
SPORT
oThe poet credits his impressive display to the fact that
his father was present at the game. So keen was he to
“observe” his son’s performance that he drive all the way
from Dublin to Mullingar.
oThe poet was determined not to disappoint his watching
father: “I was fearful I would let down / Not only my team
but you”. In fact, he wanted to captivate or “mesmerise”
him with the quality of his performance.
oHis father’s presence gave him the “will to die”, the
motivation to ignore pain, risk and potential injury that
are “essential” to all sportsmen and artists, according the
poet.
SPORT
oThe poet suggests that both artists and sportspeople
share a particular mentality. According to the poet,
both require a “will to die”, a willingness to do
whatever it takes to achieve their goals.
oAthletes train long after they have passed through
the pain barrier, throw themselves heedlessly into
tackles and keep fighting long after their bodies
start aching.
o The artist also needs to take risks but they are with
their mental health rather than physically. The artist
must expose themselves to mental suffering, probe
the darkest corners of their minds, explore all kinds
of painful memories and memories in the creation of
art.
THEME: FAMILY
o This may seem like a funny and light-hearted poem but it provides
a moving portrait of a complicated father-son relationship.
oThe father comes across not as loving and supportive but as
severe, critical and judgemental. He seems to have a low opinion of
his son and is dismissive of his talents and abilities: “There were not
many fields / In which you had hopes for me”.
oThe use of the word “observe” in the first stanza indicates the
father’s cold and critical manner.
THEME: FAMILY
o The poem also highlights the personality clash between
father and son. The young poet was a sensitive, talented
and artistic individual. But to his father they meant
nothing. The father regarded his son’s only success as
playing on a “winning team” for Grangegorman Mental
Hospital: “In your eyes I had achieved something at last”
oThe poet would go on to be come a famous and
successful poet (a feat remarkably difficult to achieve)
but these achievements would mean little compared to his
performance in goal on his twenty-first birthday: “Seldom
if ever again in your eyes / Was I to rise these heights”
THEME: FAMILY
oThis is a highly dysfunctional family relationship. However, we also
sense that some affection or love exists between the two.
oThe father turns up to support his son, travelling fifty miles to watch
an obscure football match between two mental institutions. At the
end of the game he seems to take genuine pride in his son’s
performance: “Sniffing your approval, you shook hands with me. /
Well played, son”
oPerhaps he felt that at last his son was doing something he could
understand, something manly and physical.
THEME: FAMILY
oThe poet’s twenty-first birthday should have been an occasion of
family celebration, yet it turns out to be a grim parody of
togetherness, the father shaking hands with the son he’s had
incarcerated.
oHowever, the poet too displays a kind of affection towards the
father who had him locked up. He is desperate to impress or
“mesmerise” him, and terrified of letting him down.
oWe are left then with the agonising sense of what might have
been, that this father-son pair could, under different circumstances,
have had a healthy and happy relationship.
THEME: FAMILY
oWe sense the poet’s anger at being locked up, at being
misunderstood, dismissed and disregarded by his father.
oThere is perhaps also a sense of anger at his younger self for
trying so hard to impress the man who had him incarcerated.
oYet there is a real sense of sorrow here, as if the poet
acknowledges the residual love that continues to exist between them
even after he had been committed. We sense him lamenting his
father’s own mental and emotional issues, and the terrible impact
they had on their relationship.
STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC.
Tone:
In this poem we get a real
sense of the young poet’s
state of mind and
personality. We sense his
vulnerability as he stands
between the goalposts but
also his hope and
determination to impress
his watching father.
STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC.
Imagery:
Like much of Durcan’s poetry ‘Sport’ features imagery
that is memorable strange and surreal. In particular
the depiction of the Mullingar players with their
“gapped teeth” and “bushy eyebrows”, of their centre
half-forward who was rumoured to be an alcoholic
solicitor locked up for castrating his best friend
STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, STRUCTURE ETC.
Humour:
This poem is filled with the zany humour for which
Durcan’s poetry is so often celebrated: the bizarre setup of the match between two mental hospitals, the
almost cartoonish depiction of the Mullingar team, the
farcical final scoreline: “Having defeated Mullingar
Mental Hospital / By 14 goals and 38 points to 3 goals
and 10 points”. There is also the fact that one of the
players allegedly castrated his best friend but “meant
well” in doing so.
NESSA
 The poet remembers how he first met Nessa O’Neill, the
woman who would become his wife. The couple were
introduced at a wedding in the Shangri-La Hotel in Dublin.
Because they are by the sea in summertime, they decide to
leave the wedding and go to the sea: “I hopped into the Irish
sea”. On their way back to the hotel they lie down together in
a field. He describes how he could have happily lain beside
her in the field for the rest of his life: “I’d have lain with her in
the grass all my life / With Nessa”
The poet is clearly immediately smitten with Nessa; he feels
intoxicated, out of control, overcome by emotion. He uses a
wonderful metaphor to capture these sensations describing how
Nessa “took me by the index finger / And dropped me in her
well”
NESSA
 As well as the sexual connotations present, these
lines powerfully suggest his sense of being out of
control, of falling helplessly towards something new
and unknown. This is reinforced by the refrain that is
repeated in some form at the end of each stanza:
“And that was a whirlpool, that was a whirlpool, / And I
very nearly drowned.” The intensity of his emotions are
almost too much, he feels as is he is drowning in them.
Nessa is portrayed as an energetic, carefree and
spontaneous young woman. She seems confident and
self-assured as she takes the lead in her budding
relationship with the poet: “She took me by the index
finger”.
NESSA
 The final stanza clearly takes place
sometime after the memorable first meeting,
shifting from the past to the present tense.
The poet and Nessa are still together.
However, now the poet’s feelings are
fraught with uncertainty, dread and
desperation. Perhaps their relationship has
entered a rocky period, or perhaps the poet
feels as if Nessa is about to leave him. Or
perhaps he simply feels insecure – aware of
how vulnerable loves makes us, of the
devastation he’ll feel if Nessa ever chooses
to leave him.
NESSA
The poet uses images from their first meeting to describe his current dark
state of mind. He describes himself on the rocks of Dalkey, where he and
Nessa went swimming on that first day. This hard and desolate shoreline
serves as a powerful metaphor for his bleak mental state.
He pleads with Nessa to relieve the feelings of dread and uncertainty that
grip him regarding their relationship. He asks her to “stay with [him] on the
rocks”, to promise herself to him and relieve his fear and insecurity.
He asks her to “come for [him] into the Irish Sea” as if he longs for her to
rescue him from the waves of dread and doubt that threaten to overwhelm
his mind.
THEME: ROMANTIC LOVE
oIn some respects ‘Nessa’ highlights the heady
excitement that marks the beginning of a new
relationship. We sense the energy and passion of this
first meeting, the exhilaration that fills them as they
begin to fall in love.
oYet the poem also deals with what might be
described as love’s darker side. The poet might feel
excitement on this first meeting but he feels like his life
is spinning dangerously out of control. He compares
this feeling to that of falling down a well or being
sucked into a whirlpool. The poet is keenly aware that
falling in love leaves us exposed and vulnerable.
THEME: ROMANTIC LOVE
oThis is especially evident in the last stanza where the poet seems
gripped with fear and uncertainty about the status of his
relationship with Nessa. We get the sense that he fears for the
relationship’s future and worries whether Nessa loves him with the
same intensity.
oThe images of the poet on the rocks, drowning in the Irish Sea and
riding in the dust-wrapped taxi all convey his misery as he struggles
with the feelings of doubt and insecurity that threaten to overwhelm
him.
THEME: THE STRENGTH AND POWER OF WOMEN
oDurcan’s poetry contains many portraits of strong women. Nessa,
his former wife, certainly falls into that category. She takes the lead
in the new relationship and leads him on an intense romantic
journey. Again and again she takes the initiative, suggesting that
they go for a swim and lying beside him in the field.
oShe comes across as the more self-assured, confident and assertive
of the two. This vivacious, spontaneous young woman is portrayed
almost as a force of nature – a whirlpool whose powerful energy
threatens to overwhelm the poet.
STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, TECHNIQUES ETC.
Tone:
We get a sense of the poet’s
personality and character.
He seems far less selfassured than Nessa and is
led by her. He’s reluctant to
enter the water, suggesting
he’s less carefree than his
new love. In the end he is
unable to resist her or her
invitation into the sea.
STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, TECHNIQUES ETC.
Imagery:
 Like many of his poems ‘Nessa’ features strange and surreal
imagery. The image of the couple riding “in a taxi-cab wrapped
up in dust” is unexpected and unsettling. It recalls the image of
their first meeting but now the poet envisages a taxi surrounded
by a dust cloud, as if this cloak of dust represents the doubts
and uncertainties that blur the poet’s mind.
It is a memorable, unusual image and the feelings of insecurity
it conveys are heightened by the poem’s refrain: “Oh you are a
whirlpool …”
STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, TECHNIQUES ETC.
Metaphor:
 The poet uses several fine metaphors in this poem. He compares the
sensation of falling in love to that of falling down a well into a pool
of dangerous swirling water: “And dropped me in her well”. This
powerfully captures the dizzying, headlong feeling of excitement that
accompanies a new relationship.
A similar effect is created when he compares Nessa to a whirlpool.
In the third stanza this powerfully captures the force of her
personality and the effect she has on the poet. In the final stanza
however, the metaphor takes on a darker quality, suggesting the poet
is on the verge of being overcome with feelings of doubt and
insecurity.
NESSA: QUESTIONS
1. What do the first three stanzas suggest about infatuation and
the beginning of a relationship?
2. Consider the various images and metaphors associated with sea
and water. Why do you think the poet decided to use these?
What do they suggest both about the relationship and his state
of mind?
THE DIFFICULTY THAT IS MARRIAGE
 The poet lies in bed beside his wife.
She’s “curled up” fast asleep but he lies
awake beside her. The poet describes how
she seems “faraway”, capturing the sense
of distance we sometimes feel when we lie
beside a sleeping loved one. (A feeling
also dealt with in ‘Parents’)
As he lies there the poet thinks about his
marriage and his life.
THE DIFFICULTY THAT IS MARRIAGE
It is clear the poet and his wife have had their fair
share of arguments over the years. They “differ” or
disagree with each other a lot. Other people involved in
an argument might ‘agree to disagree’ – neither can be
convinced of the other’s point of view so they agree to
stop fighting put the issue aside.
 However, the poet and his wife cannot even manage
this. Instead of agreeing to disagree, they “disagree to
disagree”. It seems as if they argue even about the
possibility of taking a break from the arguing. Durcan’s
honesty about he and his wife’s spats is quite humorous.
THE DIFFICULTY THAT IS MARRIAGE
 Yet despite their many differences, the poet loves his wife deeply. He
cannot believe his luck that this woman come into his life and fell in love
with him: “How was it I was so lucky to have ever met you?”
The closeness they share is evident when he describes her as “my sleeping
friend”. He knows that his wife must have flaws and denies idolising or
worshipping her: “I do not put you on a pedestal or throne”. Yet he simply
cannot see any faults that she might possess: “You must have faults but I do
not see them”. To him, she seems almost perfect.
THE DIFFICULTY THAT IS MARRIAGE
The poet says he is not “a brave pagan”, one of those
atheists convinced that nothing waits for us beyond the
grave. Such people are almost “proud of [their]
mortality”. They accept or even celebrate that this life is
all they have and concentrate on living it to the full. But
the poet cannot join them in this, he believes in an
afterlife beyond death.
 Durcan makes the contrast between the heaven that he
believes awaits us and earth very clear. Heaven is a
“changeless kingdom”, an eternal and constant state of
being where nothing ever changes. This world, on the
other hand, is a “changeling earth”, a site of flux and
motion where nothing ever stays the same.
THE DIFFICULTY THAT IS MARRIAGE
In heaven our existence would be free of acres and worries.
During our earthly existence, however, we will always be faced
with troubles: “I have my troubles and I shall always have them”.
The poet, however, would gladly sacrifice heaven if he could
live here on earth forever with his wife: “Yet gladly on this
changeling earth I should live for ever / If it were with you my
sleeping friend”.
He would swap an eternity in this troubled and changing
world, provided he could spend it with his wife: “But I should
rather live with you for ever / Than exchange my troubles for a
changeless kingdom”.
THEME: MARRIAGE
 This poem presents an honest and deeply moving portrait of a
marriage. The complexity of married life is suggested not only by
the poem’s title but also by the fact that the poet lies awake at
night pondering the questions that arise from his relationship. The
poet’s marriage – like any other – has both positive and negative
aspects.
 It is clear from Durcan’s poetry that his relationship with his wife
he fairly intense and tempestuous. They argue a lot, disagreeing
and differing about many things. In fact there are times they
cannot even agree to disagree, yet ultimately their relationship is
a happy one.
THEME: MARRIAGE
 The poet would sacrifice heaven to spend eternity on earth with
his wife. The poem, then, is a realistic and unflinching; it highlights
the ups and downs of any long-term relationship.
There’s almost a sense that the poet loves his wife too much. His
love for his wife makes heaven seem downright unappealing.
Perhaps, this is the “difficulty” referred to in the poem’s title. The
world is place of change and trouble but loves makes the thought
of leaving it unbearable, even if we believe that heaven is waiting
for us.
STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, TECHNIQUES ETC.
Sound Effects:
 The opening line features repeated ‘d’ sounds, creating a
somewhat jarring effect that seems to correspond with the fractious
nature of the relationship: “We disagree to disagree, we divide, we
differ”.
 The third line also features alliteration, with the poet using
repeated ‘m’ sounds. Here, the effect is softer hinting at the love the
poet feels: “I array the moonlit ceiling with a mosaic of question marks”
STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, TECHNIQUES ETC.
Metaphor:
 The pet describes the thoughts that crowd his mind when he lies
awake at night as a “mosaic” of question marks upon the ceiling.
Humour:
 The poet is quick to use self-deprecating humour when describing
his own life, especially when it concerns a problem he is facing. In this
poem he tells us that is no “brave pagan” to convey the fact that he
would not find it easy to live with the thought that there is no afterlife.
MADMAN
 The poem begins with the statement:
“Every child has a madman on their street”.
This can be understood to mean that there is
in fact a madman living on every residential
street.
But, it is more likely that the poet is saying
that children will always regard someone as
mad on their street, regardless of whether
or not there is an actual “madman” present.
MADMAN
There is always someone labelled ‘mad’ by children (try to
think if there is one in the area that you grew up).
 Unfortunately for the poet, the person marked as the
“madman” in his neighbourhood was his own father: “The only
trouble about our madman is that he’s our father”
THEME: FAMILY
 This brief poem touches on the very difficult relationship Durcan
had with his father. It gives us a sense of how hard it must have
been growing up in the house of a “madman”.
 The term “madman” suggests a volatile and violent temperament.
Living with such a person must have been extremely difficult. The
poem also suggests that everyone on the street was aware of the
poet’s fathers behaviour and that the other children also identified
with him as a “madman”. This must have been vey awkward and
unpleasant for the young poet.
STYLE: LANGUAGE, TONE, TECHNIQUES ETC.
Humour and Tone:
 The impact of the this poem seems to very much depend on
the tone in which it is read. Read in one way, it can seem like
the kind of thing we might hear a comedian say on stage – the
first line setting up the joke and the second line delivering the
punch-line. However, the poem can also be read in a very
sombre and sad tone, rendering it much more tragic and
painful.