by Orna Ross | Dec 1, 2013 | FICTION |
The “god-shaped question” is the subject of W.B. Yeats' poem about The Magi, the three men variously called kings or wise men who came to Bethlehem on the night of Jesus’s birth to pay homage to a new saviour. For Yeats, they are trapped forever in that posture of...
by Orna Ross | Nov 27, 2013 | FICTION |
WB Yeats had a connection with many places across the country of Ireland, particularly the counties of Galway, Mayo and Dublin. If you're hoping to go on a trip to visit some of the locations that are linked to his life, click the link to this Google Map for some...
by Orna Ross | Nov 17, 2013 | Uncategorized |
From now until the Sunday after Christmas, the blog's Sunday poetry slot will be given over to a selection from Poetry for Christmas. This week, Anne Sexton's “Christmas Eve”, takes us into the searing heart of a complex mother-daughter relationship. The...
by Orna Ross | Nov 13, 2013 | FICTION |
On Saturday, I did an interview with Marese O'Sullivan, a young Irish student here in London who is fascinated by the Gonnes' relationship with WB Yeats and wanted to know more about my motivation for writing the trilogy. Marese had a lot of questions, so we're...
by Orna Ross | Nov 9, 2013 | FICTION |
In “A Memory of Youth” Yeats acknowledged how his poetic inspiration had dried until the intervention of “a most ridiculous little bird [who] Tore from the skies his marvelous moon.” The little bird was Iseult Gonne, who saw herself as both pupil and teacher to Yeats....
by Orna Ross | Nov 9, 2013 | FICTION |
Willie, Maud and Iseult, three of the most imaginative people who ever lived, never imagined the Internet or Twitter. If they were alive today, I imagine Maud would leap on Twitter for PR purposes, Iseult would shun it, and Willie would dismiss it for a time, with a...
by Orna Ross | Mar 17, 2024 | POETRY |
Maud Gonne was a formidable activist and generous philanthropist, whose feminism and nationalism altered the course of Irish history, but she is still best known as the muse of the first Irish nobel laureate for literature, the great poet WB Yeats. This post is about...
by Orna Ross | Nov 4, 2013 | FICTION |
I wrote last time about first hearing of the strange love triangle between WB Yeats, Maud Gonne and her daughter, Iseult. Iseult is less well known than her mother though her life story is equally dramatic, in a different sort of way. Born on August 6, 1894, she was...