EmbersEavan Boland

By: Miranda & Adrienne

Vocabulary•Whin-path: a place in Blackburn, a rapidly growing commuter town. that is located near Aberdeen, Scotland•Wretched: very unfortunate in condition or circumstances; miserable; pitiable.•Fianna: small, semi-independent warrior bands in Irish mythology and Scottish mythology (also known as the Fenians)•Spurned: to reject with disdain; scorn•Haggard: having an exhausted apperance, as from prolonged suffering, exertion or anxiety•Peat: a highly organic material found in marshy or damp regions, composed of partially decayed vegetable matter: it is cut and dried for use as fuel.•Burnished: gloss; brightness; luster

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Diarmuid(Dee-am-wood)is a son of Donn and a warrior of the Fianna in the Fenian Cycle of irish

mythology. He is most famous as the lover of Grainne, the intended wife of Fianna leader Fionn mac Cumhail. Aengus is Diarmuid's foster-father and protector. Aengus owned a sword named Moralltach. He gave this sword to his foster-son Diarmuid. There was also a sword named the Little Fury and two spears of great power that he gave to Diarmuid, that could inflict wound that none can recover from.

Diarmuid, while hunting one night, met a woman who was the personification of youth. After sleeping with him she put a magical love spot on his forehead; any woman that looked at the love spot fell instantly in love with him.

Gráinne, intended bride of Fionn mac Cumhail, fell in love with Diarmuid when she saw him in the wedding party. She laid a spell upon him to run off with her, with their long flight from Fionn aided by Aengus.

Eventually, Fionn pardons Diarmuid after Aengus intercedes on their behalf; the pair settle in Kerry and produce five children. Years later, however, Fionn invited Diarmuid on a boar hunt, and Diarmuid was badly gored by a giant boar. Water drunk from Fionn's hands had the power of healing, but when Fionn gathered water he would deliberately let it run through his fingers before he could bring it to Diarmuid. He had to be threatened by his son Oisin and grandson Oscar to play fair, but too late: Diarmuid had died. After Diarmuids death, Aengus took his body back to the Brugh (town) where he breathed life into it whenever he wanted to have a chat.

Color Marking CodeBlue: Words of rejection or

destruction

Green: Repetition

Orange: Relation back to title

*: When she is talking to us or someone, just not herself

Purple: Vocabulary

One night in winter when a bitter frostmade the whin-paths crack underfoot,a wretched woman, eyes staring, hair in disarray, came to the place where the Fianna had pitched camp.

*Your face is made of shadow. *You are reading.There is heat from the fire still. I am reading.

She asked every one of them in turnto take her to his bed, to shelter her with his body.Each one looked at her – she was old beyond her years.Each one refused her, each spurned her, except Diarmuid.

When he woke in the morning she was young and beautiful.And she was his, forever, but on one condition.He could not say that she had once been old and haggard.He could not say that she had ever … here I look up.

*You are turned away. *You have no interest in this.

I made fire from the first peat of winter.*Look at me in the last, burnished light of it.Tell me that *you feel the warmth still.Tell me *you will never speak about the ashes.

Inarguables•This poem is like Boland’s other works, such as “The Pomegranate”, because it is about a women and a struggle within her.

•Speaker: Boland herself Line 5 & 6 “…You are reading. [...] I am reading.” Narrator and 2nd Person perspectives

•S&S: a broken love story, one of secrets, hope, and “keeping the flame lit”

•Audience: the “significant other” or love interest

•Structure: 6 stanzas, 424414

Arguables•Puzzling Lines:• 5&6 - first time Boland speaks directly in 2nd person to us

– why is she addressing us in the middle of her story? – who is “you”??

• 14&15 – she does not finish her story and blames the reader, or infamous “you” of having no interest – very random and a jump to a conclusion

• 16-19 - this stanza she relates the story just told to something she is going through, possibly a relationship with someone, asking them if they still feel the same way about the relationship as of prior to this moment and to keep some kind of secret •Interpretations:

• Boland longing for a lost love back Winter fire concept – Line 16 “I made this fire from the

first peat of winter.” – began seeking when winter began

• Beauty and the Beast