University of St. Thomas (Center for Irish Studies)

Lough Gill: View of the Lake Isle of InnisfreeAuthor(s): Maura StantonSource: New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Winter, 2004), p. 42Published by: University of St. Thomas (Center for Irish Studies)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20646466 .

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Maura Stanton

Filiocht Nua: New Poetry

LOUGH GILL: VIEW OF THE LAKE ISLE OF I IS F R E E

I walked the shore path lined with tufted reeds,

swatting clouds of gnats, leap-frogging a pool

rippling with slime, repulsed, yet glad to be free of red-brick Sligo town. I was a fool

to ever call myself Irish! I was not?

my yellow hair and flat, Midwestern mumble

made me an alien here. Twice someone shot

"Guten Tag!" at me.

I hated gloom. I stumbled

over tangled roots, depressed by mist and dew

until it seemed I'd put on Yeatss knowledge from boyhood, as he struggled to subdue

memories of famished children in the village

by roaming this place, dreaming hollow cheekbones

into faery beauty, conjuring swans from groans.

NEW H I BERNIA REVIEW / IRIS ?IREANNACH NUA, 8:4 (WINTER / GEIMHREADH, 2OO4), 42-52

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