Review of "Amethyst Beads" by Eavan Boland

"Amethyst Beads" by Eavan Boland was offered by Poets.org's Poem-A-Day on December 24, 2013.  A link to the poem, including the poet's notes, may be found here:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/23815

Eavan Boland was born in Dublin in 1944 and is currently a professor of English and director of the creative writing program at Stanford University.  She was educated in Dublin, London, and New York.  In London, she experienced anti-Irish bigotry.  Additional biographical information may be found here:

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/153?utm_source=PAD%3A+Amethyst+Beads+by+Eavan+Boland&utm_campaign=poemaday_122413&utm_medium=email


"Amethyst Beads" pushes the boundary between free verse and prose with its regularly irregular rhythm and wildly varying line lengths.  The beads are presented literally as jewelry in the opening of the poem, but later they become metaphor for the hidden secrets of the earth and even for the fear within a sick child.