Graeme and Glen: This would be the same Fenian poet who features in
"Van Diemen's Land," a song covered by U2 on _Rattle and Hum_ (right?).
Bono says in the liner notes that O'Reilly was deported for being such
a bad poet, so I'd be interested to hear how you guys rate his work.
Thanks--Candice
>I'll have a
>look for John Boyle O'Reilly's poem.
>
>It hadn't occurred to me when posting the first one that a reference to
>dugites may be a bit esoteric for those outside Western Australia.
>
>Cheers,
>Graeme
>
>>From: Glen Phillips <[log in to unmask]>
>>Reply-To: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry and
>> poetics <[log in to unmask]>
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Re: bios, poems, and poetics
>>Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 17:01:55 +0800
>>
>>Dear Graeme
>>I must compliment you on the poems you posted. One of the first poets of
>>any
>>renown
>>to write about the snakes of Western Australia was John Boyle O'Reilly, one
>>of
>>the Irish Fenians
>>transported from Dartmouth prison to WA in the late 1860s. He later
>>achieved
>>fame in the USA
>>as an Irish patriot and organised the escape of other Fenians from Perth.
>>He
>>used 'dukite' for
>>'dugite' but the poem is quite interesting, though I prefer yours on the
>>basis
>>of personal
>>experience. Your other poem has some adventurous syntactic and imagic
>>leaps.
>>Glen Phillips
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