The Famine Road (Leaving Cert English): Revision Notes
The Famine Road
Overview
"The Famine Road" by Eavan Boland is a powerful poem from her 1975 collection 'The War Horse' that explores the Irish Famine through multiple narrative voices. The poem connects historical suffering with contemporary women's experiences, revealing how authority figures have consistently silenced and dehumanised the vulnerable.
Unique Narrative Approach
Notably, Boland keeps herself out of this poem - there is no "I" - but her strong feelings about the subject matter come through clearly in her choice of voices and imagery. This absence of the poet's voice allows the oppressive authorities to condemn themselves through their own words.
Historical Context
Charles Edward Trevelyan (1807-1896)
Understanding Trevelyan is crucial for grasping this poem's power. He was a British civil servant and colonial administrator who controlled food supplies to Ireland during the Famine. His role represents the intersection of bureaucratic indifference and colonial attitudes that made the disaster even more devastating.
Trevelyan's Controversial Attitudes
His attitudes were deeply controversial and reveal the mindset Boland critiques:
- He denied emergency relief to the Irish people
- He viewed the Famine as divine punishment for Irish Catholics' "superstitious ways"
- He was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1848 for his "work" during the Famine
- He wrote that "the greatest evil we have to face is not the physical evil of the famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the Irish people"
These attitudes show how he blamed the victims rather than addressing the systemic causes of suffering.
Boland's Perspective on 19th Century History
Boland sees the 19th century as when writers began engaging with defeat and formulating responses to trauma. She views the Famine as "a watershed: A powerful once-and-for-all disruption of any kind of heroic history." The most devastating aspect was how utterly defenceless people were against a disaster they couldn't control.
Poem Structure and Voices
The poem's power comes from its clever structural design that juxtaposes different time periods and authority figures.
Two-Part Narrative Structure
The poem uses two main narrative sections that deliberately parallel each other:
- Historical voices: Correspondence between Trevelyan and Colonel Jones discussing the Irish situation
- Contemporary voice: A doctor speaking to a female patient
This structure allows Boland to connect past and present experiences of powerlessness under male authority, showing how patterns of oppression persist across centuries.
Key Themes and Analysis
Dehumanisation and Authority
The poem opens with Trevelyan's dismissive attitude towards the Irish. He describes them using fishing terminology - "idle as trout in light" - suggesting they're lazy rather than starving. His language is both familiar and foreign, using archaic phrasing that distances him from the reality of suffering.
Worked Example: Trevelyan's Dehumanising Language
Key quote: "give them no coins at all; their bones need toil, their characters no less"
Analysis: This reveals Trevelyan's belief that starvation will improve Irish character through forced labour. Notice how he:
- Reduces people to "bones" (dehumanising)
- Claims suffering builds "character" (victim-blaming)
- Uses euphemistic language to avoid acknowledging starvation
The Cruel Absurdity of Famine Relief
The Relief Committee suggests making the Irish build roads "going nowhere" - a mixture of cruelty and ridiculous bureaucracy. These pointless roads mirror the pointless suffering, while ensuring the starving people work so hard they cannot threaten those in authority.
The image of the red wax seal "blooding" the deal table foreshadows the deaths that will follow these instructions, connecting bureaucratic decisions directly to human mortality.
Workers' Desperate Conditions
The description of famine workers reveals the devastating human cost of these policies. They are "sick, directionless" with primitive tools - "fork, stick were iron years away." The cruel irony appears when they must survive on "April hailstones for water and for food" - water in its harshest form becomes their only sustenance.
Worked Example: Dehumanisation Through Starvation
Key imagery: Workers eye each other "as cannibals might eye up a prime piece of meat"
Analysis: This shows how desperation reduces humans to animal survival instincts. Boland demonstrates that extreme oppression doesn't ennoble people - it strips away their humanity, exactly as the authorities intended.
Death and Isolation
One worker becomes "a typhoid pariah, his blood tainted" and dies alone. The comparison to snowflakes - "No more than snow attends its own flakes where they settle and melt, will they pray by his death rattle" - shows how suffering has dehumanised people until they're indifferent even to death.
The Doctor's Parallel Dismissal
The second narrative voice belongs to a doctor speaking to a female patient. His tone echoes Trevelyan's detachment - he discusses the woman's condition in terms of statistics and probabilities, treating her as just another case rather than an individual.
Worked Example: Contemporary Authority's Dismissal
Key quote: "You never will, never you know but take it well woman, grow your garden, keep house, good-bye."
Analysis: The doctor's advice is as pointless as the famine roads - keeping house and garden when you want a child and future is meaningless activity. Notice the parallel dismissive tone and the reduction of the woman to domestic functions.
Connecting Past and Present Oppression
The poem's final metaphor is striking: the childless woman views her body "like a famine road going nowhere." This connects:
- Famine victims forced to build purposeless roads
- Women reduced to reproductive function
- Both situations involving wasted potential and cruel authority
Literary Techniques
Juxtaposition
Boland places historical and contemporary voices side by side, showing how patterns of oppression continue across centuries.
Irony
- Hailstones (harsh weather) become sustenance
- "Relief" committees provide no relief
- Roads and garden work are presented as solutions but lead nowhere
Metaphor
The central metaphor comparing the woman's body to a famine road powerfully links personal and historical suffering.
Absent Narrator
By removing her own voice, Boland lets the oppressive authorities condemn themselves through their own words.
Language Register
The poem shifts between archaic official language (Trevelyan's era) and contemporary medical discourse, showing how authority figures use formal language to distance themselves from human suffering.
Key Quotes for Exams
Essential quotations to remember and analyse:
- "Idle as trout in light Colonel Jones these Irish, give them no coins at all"
- "roads to force from nowhere, going nowhere of course"
- "fork, stick were iron years away"
- "You never will, never you know but take it well woman"
- "what is your body now if not a famine road?"
Connection to Boland's Broader Themes
This poem exemplifies Boland's interest in exploring the intersection of personal and political experiences. Her work consistently examines how public policies affect private lives, particularly for those traditionally excluded from official historical narratives.
Womanhood and Irishness as Parallel Experiences
As Boland explains: "Womanhood and Irishness are metaphors for one another. There are resonances of humiliation, oppression and silence in both of them."
The poem demonstrates this through:
- Historical recovery: Giving voice to those traditionally silenced by official accounts
- Personal and political intersection: Showing how famine policy and medical authority both silence and dismiss their subjects
- Metaphorical connection: The famine road becomes a symbol for all forms of imposed purposeless suffering
Key Points to Remember
- Historical context matters: Understanding Trevelyan's role and attitudes is essential for appreciating the poem's power
- Structure creates meaning: The two narrative voices deliberately parallel each other to show continuing patterns of oppression
- Central metaphor: The "famine road" represents purposeless suffering imposed by uncaring authority
- Boland's technique: She lets oppressive voices condemn themselves rather than directly attacking them
- Universal themes: Though historically specific, the poem addresses timeless issues of power, gender, and human dignity
- Exam focus: Be able to analyse how the poem connects historical and contemporary experiences of oppression