SOURCE: "The Delirium of the Brave," in New York Review of Books, Vol. 41, No. 10, May 26, 1994, pp. 25-7.

In the following review, Donoghue analyzes several of Boland's poems and asserts, "Eavan Boland's best poems seem to me those in which she writes without apparent fuss or political flourish."

Like everything else in Ireland, poetry is contentious. There is always an occasion of outrage. Two or three years ago the choice of poems in The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing made women poets feel yet again neglected, suppressed. Eavan Boland was their most vigorous speaker. With notable success she made the dispute a public issue and set radio and TV programs astir. But she is not only a campaigner. Within the past few years and after a precocious start she has emerged as one of the best poets in Ireland. When she published her first book of poems, New...