SOURCE: “Dodging Around the Grand Piano: Sex, Politics, and Contemporary Irish Women's Poetry,” in Canadian Woman Studies/Les Cahiers de la femme, Vol. 17, No. 3, Summer/Fall, 1997, pp. 76-85.

In the following essay, Smyth examines feminist issues as presented in the poetry of several contemporary Irish female poets.

The preoccupation with Irishness as the primary terrain of criticism has disturbing repercussions for poetry, because poems which do not nourish these critical concerns are considered as either not really Irish, or not really poems.

L'auteure examine les représentations sexuelles et la sexualité dans la poésie féminine de l'Irlande contemporaine et remet en question l'éternelle assomption chez les critiques littéraires que la poésie irlandaise est prioritairement préoccupée par les mythes, l'histoire et l'identité nationale et culturelle.

She told the one who was beyond saving to have a nice day (she said it twice...