Blog Post #11

When you first read them, it seems like Araby and Dark Rosaleen are both poems about girls that the subjects have strong feelings for. Of course you find out that Dark Rosaleen is actually about the subject’s war-torn homeland, but he writes to her with the same love as a man for a woman. This allows for several connections between the poem and the story.

For example, in Araby, the girl the subject loves is sad because she can’t go to the bazaar on Saturday. “She could not go, she said, because there would be a retreat that week in her convent.” p. 17. She is disappointed to miss out on the bazaar. The subject is excited for the chance to try to make her feel better, and promises to bring her something from the bazaar as a gift. It is important to him to make her happy.

In Dark Rosaleen, Mangan also describes the country as sad and without hope and shows how much to subject wants to help ease the pain. “O my dark Rosaleen, Do not sigh, do not weep!” He goes on to describe how the subject has traveled across the land to try to ease the pain. “Over hills, and thro’ dales, Have I roam’d for your sake; All yesterday I sail’d with sails On river and on lake.” Both the story and the poem describe a person who wants to do something to ease the pain of the one he loves.

Another connection is how the authors show the beauty of the girl and the country. The boy in Araby describes the beauty of the girl he loves - he can’t take his eyes off her! “The light from the lamp opposite our door caught the white curve of her neck, lit up her hair that rested there and, falling, lit up the hand upon the railing.” p. 17. In Dark Rosaleen, Mangan also describes the beauty of the country by comparing it to a woman’s hand. “Your holy delicate white hands Shall girdle me with steel.” Both authors describe the woman’

Another connection between the story and poem is that they both end with disappointment and sadness. In Araby, the boy finally gets to the bazaar, but is too late to find the right gift to take the girl. He leaves empty-handed and full of regret. “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” p. 19. In Dark Rosaleen, Mangan describes the pain and regret of war with “Oh, the Erne shall run red. With redundance of blood,The earth shall rock beneath our tread, And flames wrap hill and wood.”