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Publication Instance Details #1661

Publication Overview

Translation	Is Multilingual	Explicit Irish Context?	Ekphrasis	Has Paratext?	Reference to News, Media or Technology
No	No	Yes	No	No	No

Details

Human Rights Issues	Displacement/Forced Migration War
Irish Context	Other
Languages	English
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	The first-person speaker of this poem is confronted with a scene of death on her door-step; the white feathers of a dead pigeon killed by a sparrow hawk in her garden. This prompts a strong sense of foreboding and a meditation on death. There is an explicit reference to refugees displaced by war. Although not specified, this may be an allusion to war in Iraq as 'cold bread-ovens' is an image that Brennan also uses in the poem 'Oícheanta Arabacha' / 'Arabian Nights', which explicitly responds to the invasion of Iraq and condemns the destruction of cultural heritage.