A Formalist Approach to Eavan Boland’s The River :: Boland River Essays

A Formalist Approach to Eavan Bolands The River Over the years many different ways of analyzing poetry have been developed. One such hail is the New Critical, or the Formalist, which is based on the writings of Coleridge. The formalist approach is useful because it takes the poems form, which may be overlooked, and analyzes it to descry what its effect is on the kernel of the poem. There are other aspects taken into consideration, like who the speaker is and how the author incorporates ironic awareness into the poem. Eavan Bolands message in The River comes across best when facial expression at the poem with the formalist approach, taking into consideration the speaker and the speakers situation, the organic form, and the use of irony. Some aspects may have more importance than others, however all need to be looked at, beginning with the speaker. Using the hints within the poem, I see the speaker as possibly being an adult writing or talking to a parent or some unspecified figure about her early childhood. The speaker could be looking back at a time when someone took her to a river, and she is reporting what she saw. There is textual evidence to support all of these claims. The possibility the speaker is looking back at a childhood experience is shown when she writes, I remember how strange it felt- not having anynames for the red oak and the railand the slantways plunge of the osprey. (6-12)I see the speaker as possibly being a child because the speaker remembers not knowing the actual names of what she saw. A young child wouldnt know rail or the ospreys dive, probably using a word such as birdie. The other choice for the speaker is an adult, who is discourse about a time spent at a river in a foreign land. This is the choice I see as most in all likelihood possible because the speaker says it feels strange to not know the names, yet as a child I never felt odd because I didnt know a type of bird.