Normandie

Publication Instance Details #547

Publication Overview

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

Details

Human Rights Issues	War
War / Genocide Referenced	War: Second World War
Languages	Irish
Genre	Lyric Sequence
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	The speaker of the poem visits a World War II commemorative cemetery in Normandy. This is a short poem with three sections in which he reflects on the humanity and individuality of the soldiers who have fallen during World War II - the speaker is quite probably referring to the American cemetery in Normandy. The speaker acknowledges that he hadn't appreciated the extent of the death and suffering of war until he saw the size and scope of the war cemetery. The second section of the poem makes reference to the speaker's childhood at his uncle's farm in which he saw clean water pouring, dredging up the silt and dirt to the surface of the water. This might refer to the young soldiers who died in the World War - i.e. the clean water represents the American soldiers, the silt and filth of the well represents the Axis powers.