Eamon JR Grennan (born 13th November 1941) is an
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
born in
Dublin, Ireland
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 cen ...
. He attended
University College Dublin
University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...
where he completed a BA 1963 and an MA 1964. He has lived in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, except for brief periods, since 1964. He was the Dexter M. Ferry Jr. Professor of English at
Vassar College
Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...
until his retirement in 2004.
Biography
Though his
Irish roots are clear in his poetry, Grennan has an international sense of literary tradition. He has cited as influences American poets including
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...
and
Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American people, American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the N ...
(herself an international poet with ties to the U.S.,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, and
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
). In addition to writing poetry, he has translated
Giacomo Leopardi
Count Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi (, ; 29 June 1798 – 14 June 1837) was an Italian philosopher, poet, essayist, and philologist. He is considered the greatest Italian poet of the nineteenth century and one of ...
and—with his wife, Vassar
classicist
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
Rachel Kitzinger—
Sophocles
Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or co ...
's
Oedipus at Colonus
''Oedipus at Colonus'' (also ''Oedipus Coloneus''; grc, Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ, ''Oidipous epi Kolōnōi'') is the last of the three Theban plays of the Athenian tragedian Sophocles. It was written shortly before Sophocles's d ...
.
Grennan studied English and Italian at
University College, Dublin
University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...
, where he met poets
Derek Mahon
Derek Mahon (23 November 1941 – 1 October 2020) was an Irish poet. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland but lived in a number of cities around the world. At his death it was noted that his, "influence in the Irish poetry community, lite ...
and
Eavan Boland
Eavan Aisling Boland (24 September 1944 – 27 April 2020) was an Irish poet, author, and professor. She was a professor at Stanford University, where she had taught from 1996. Her work deals with the Irish national identity, and the role of w ...
, and at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, and began teaching at Vassar in 1974. He returned to Ireland fairly briefly, first in 1977 and later in 1981, and began writing poetry there. His first book, ''Wildly for Days'', was published in 1983.
Gaelic poetry
The Goidelic or Gaelic languages ( ga, teangacha Gaelacha; gd, cànanan Goidhealach; gv, çhengaghyn Gaelgagh) form one of the two groups of Insular Celtic languages, the other being the Brittonic languages.
Goidelic languages historically ...
became an important influence, particularly, he has said, on the sound of his poems. At the same time, he is interested in the sentence as a poetic unit as well as a prose unit. In an interview with Timothy Cahill, Grennan said:
: I have, it's a toothache quality, a kind of pain -- the ambition to make a sentence that is full, that has not gone limp, hasn't stopped while it still has some elasticity in it.
Grennan's career has been long, productive and distinguished, and he has earned from fellow poets a reputation for lyrical skill and psychological intensity. Former U.S.
Poet Laureate
A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...
Billy Collins
William James Collins (born March 22, 1941) is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York (retired, 2016). Collins ...
said of Grennan:
: Few poets are as generous as Eamon Grennan in the sheer volume of delight his poems convey, and fewer still are as attentive to the marvels of the earth. To read him is to be led on a walk through the natural world of clover and cricket and, most of all, light, and to face with an open heart the complexity of being human.
He received the
PEN Award for Poetry in Translation The PEN Award for Poetry in Translation is given by PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to honor a poetry translation published in the preceding year. The award should not be confused with the PEN Translation Prize. The award is one of many ...
in 1998. Grennan was nominated for the 2008
Poetry Now Award
The Poetry Now Award is an annual literary prize presented for the best single volume of poetry by an Irish poet. The €5,000 award was first given in 2005 (reduced to €2,500 in 2013) and is presented during annual Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown ...
for his collection, ''Out of Breath''.
Works
* ''There Now.'' Minneapolis, MN: Graywolf, 2016.
* ''But the Body.'' Gallery Books, Ireland, 2012.
* ''Out of Sight: New & Selected Poems.'' Minneapolis, MN: Graywolf, 2010.
* ''Matter of Fact.'' St. Paul, MN: Graywolf, 2008.
* ''Out of Breath.'' Gallery Books, Ireland, 2007.
* ''The Quick of It.'' Gallery Books, Ireland, 2004.
* ''The Quick of It.'' St. Paul, MN: Graywolf, 2005.
* Sophocles, ''Oedipus at Colonus.'' Trans. with Rachel Kitzinger. Oxford, 2004.
* ''Renvyle, Winter.'' Philadelphia: Pointed Press, 2003.
* ''Still Life with Waterfall.'' Gallery Books, Ireland, 2001.
* ''Still Life with Waterfall.'' St. Paul, MN: Graywolf, 2002.
* ''Selected & New Poems.'' Dublin: Gallery Press, 2000.
* ''Provincetown Sketches.'' Aralia Press, 2000.
* ''Facing the Music: Irish Poetry in the Twentieth Century''. Omaha: Creighton University Press, 1999.
* ''Relations: New & Selected Poems.'' St. Paul, MN: Graywolf, 1998.
* ''Selected Poems of Giacomo Leopardi.'' Trans. Princeton: Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation, Princeton University Press, 1997.
* ''So It Goes.'' Gallery Books, Ireland, 1995.
* ''So It Goes.'' St. Paul, MN: Graywolf, 1995.
* ''As If It Matters.'' Gallery Books, Ireland, 1991.
* ''As If It Matters.'' St. Paul, MN: Graywolf, 1992.
* ''What Light There Is.'' Gallery Books, Ireland, 1987.
* ''What Light There Is and Other Poems.'' New York: North Point Press, 1989.
* ''Twelve Poems.'' San Francisco: Occasional Works, 1988.
* ''Wildly for Days.'' Dublin: Gallery Press, 1983.
* ''Cat Scat.'' North Point Press, 1988.
Individual poems
* "Soul Music: The Derry Air" ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' 60/48 (14 Jan 1985) : 32
References
External links
Interview with Timothy CahillBiography from Branching OutThree Poems in
Narrative Magazine
''Narrative'' is an online magazine and website that is dedicated to advancing the literary arts in the digital age and publishes fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and art. It was founded in 2003.
History and profile
Founded in 2003, the l ...
(Fall 2008).
*
*
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grennan, Eamon
1941 births
Living people
Irish poets
Harvard University alumni
Vassar College faculty
Alumni of University College Dublin