Agnes Walsh
Biography
Agnes Walsh was born in 1950 in Placentia, Newfoundland. Named Newfoundland’s first Poet Laureate in 2006, her work is focused in poetry and theatre. Walsh is an avid traveler, spending time in Ireland, Iceland, Portugal, and the United States. Her work has gained an international presence, being translated into Icelandic, Portuguese, and French.
Walsh has had two poetry volumes published: In the Old Country of My Heart (1996) and Going Around
with Bachelors (2007). Walsh is co-founder of the Tramore Theatre Troupe, serving as both playwright and director. In 2011, Walsh released Answer Me Home, a drama collection featuring her work at Tramore. Walsh also lent her voice as narrator to the 1997 documentary Seven Brides for Uncle Sam, a film which tells the stories of seven Newfoundland women who housed and married American soldiers from World War II through the Cold War.
Steeped in her roots as a Newfoundlander, Walsh continues to write poems and scripts celebrating and preserving her home’s rich culture. She spends most of her time in either St. John’s or St. Patrick’s. A third poetry collection, Oderin, will be released in 2018, co-authored with Stan Dragland.
Walsh has had two poetry volumes published: In the Old Country of My Heart (1996) and Going Around
with Bachelors (2007). Walsh is co-founder of the Tramore Theatre Troupe, serving as both playwright and director. In 2011, Walsh released Answer Me Home, a drama collection featuring her work at Tramore. Walsh also lent her voice as narrator to the 1997 documentary Seven Brides for Uncle Sam, a film which tells the stories of seven Newfoundland women who housed and married American soldiers from World War II through the Cold War.
Steeped in her roots as a Newfoundlander, Walsh continues to write poems and scripts celebrating and preserving her home’s rich culture. She spends most of her time in either St. John’s or St. Patrick’s. A third poetry collection, Oderin, will be released in 2018, co-authored with Stan Dragland.
Nights like this you could forget
you had a wife, kids, a town,
the sky so big, the ocean always there,
man alone to think about mortality.
Inside, the smell of tobacco, dirty hair,
rubbed-in cod guts, and diesel grease,
margarine, and burnt wool, stale rum sometimes,
grunts and nods enough, curses to punctuate.
Women want more: curtains, salt shakers,
nightclothes, verbs, wildflowers, french safes.
Here it’s stove, bunks, table, chairs.
A grin though going back on Saturday,
always enough fish, it’s Cape St. Mary’s.
A grin in my lapel and, make no mistake,
glad to be back to civilization
one mile up the road.
Published in Going Around with Bachelors. Brick Books, 2007.
Republished here with the author’s permission.
you had a wife, kids, a town,
the sky so big, the ocean always there,
man alone to think about mortality.
Inside, the smell of tobacco, dirty hair,
rubbed-in cod guts, and diesel grease,
margarine, and burnt wool, stale rum sometimes,
grunts and nods enough, curses to punctuate.
Women want more: curtains, salt shakers,
nightclothes, verbs, wildflowers, french safes.
Here it’s stove, bunks, table, chairs.
A grin though going back on Saturday,
always enough fish, it’s Cape St. Mary’s.
A grin in my lapel and, make no mistake,
glad to be back to civilization
one mile up the road.
Published in Going Around with Bachelors. Brick Books, 2007.
Republished here with the author’s permission.
Critical Analysis: A Hard Man to Figure Out
Jamie Kitts (ACPA Managing Editor, 2018) and Dana P. MacDonald (English 3101: Advanced Poetry Workshop)
Agnes Walsh’s “The Tilts, Point Lance” from the collection Going Around with Bachelors is a snapshot of life narrated by a male protagonist. Through a sociological lens, the narrator’s view of his world lends itself to male vs. female constructivist rhetoric. But what is ambiguous is whether these views are truly held by Walsh’s narrator, or if they are adopted temporarily to fit the norms of other men.
In the first stanza the male voice muses about the peacefulness of being away from his family. The vast and constant presence of nature are primary, but “wife, kids, a town” on the fringe of memory (Walsh ll. 1-2). We are then directed in the second stanza to an interior setting. Even though the speaker notes a peaceful solitude in the first stanza (Walsh l. 4), the speaker is implied to be among cohorts inside. Walsh’s character notes how discussion is conducted minimally, “grunts and nods enough, curses to punctuate” (l. 8). We can assume this setting is a boat on a fishing trip thanks to various scents, including “cod guts” (ll. 5-6).
In these first two stanzas the narrator appears to be following a hegemonic masculinity script for Newfoundland fishermen. The masculinities across persons theory posits that there are multiple masculinities which exist in a society, and that each masculinity has its own ideas of how to correctly be a man and woman (Spector-Mersel 69). Other poems in Going Around with Bachelors introduce readers to other Newfoundland masculinities. In “Love,” the reader sees one man pressured into a celibate life because of his family home’s association with their community’s church (Walsh pp. 31-32). Readers are also given glimpses of American influence in several poems, such as “Contacts” (Walsh p. 43), and “Homecoming to the End” (Walsh pp. 18-20). These groups of men have their own behavioral patterns, but the focus is on how they treat women.
In the third stanza of “The Tilts, Point Lance,” the narrator portrays his masculine desires as needs, inherently conflicting to feminine wants (Walsh ll. 9-10). These wants include things like curtains and salt shakers, but also verbs, or more complex forms of conversation than the punctuational curses the men communicate through. Women are portrayed as over-complicating the simple – tyrannical rulers with frivolous desires who create an unnatural domicile instead of considering the place they have been given. They isolate the salt from the ocean into a tiny glass jar and shake it to create a controlled storm.
But the objects wanted in stanza three lend insight into the absent women’s worldview. The term “french safes” means condoms, which throws items like the phallic salt shakers, the concealing curtains and nightclothes, and certain obscene verbs into a sexual partnership context. Fishing is not only a matter of catching the fish but also preparing it for trade, a job traditionally reserved for on-shore housewives (McCay 116). The narrator may contemplate his place in the world, but the women are aware that their place is not isolated from the world.
The conclusion of “The Tilts, Point Lance” contains two grins: “going back on Saturday,” and “in my lapel,” as the narrator considers his return home (Walsh ll. 12-15). The narrator’s distaste for women's over-complications across the previous three stanzas presents a challenge for how to read these grins. On one hand, they could be genuine affections for home: “make no mistake, / glad to be back to civilization” (Walsh ll. 14-15), despite his misgivings. But on the other hand, they could be artificial grins to placate his wife and kids, switching one masculine face for another as he transitions to another set of norms and expectations. This sudden shift in tone fits a sociological theory called masculinities within persons (Spector-Mersel 69). Unlike masculinities across persons, this theory presents a toolbox for men to suit their needs. On the boat, the narrator barely speaks a word and does not have to among men who share in this social paradigm; but on the way home, the narrator is all smiles with no concern for fishing (Walsh l. 13).
This grinning front is so difficult to read because for all his professed simplicity, the narrator’s faces betray him as complex. The recurring character Bill – the likely identity of the narrator in “The Tilts, Point Lance” – has little to say except for “weather, fish, and old schooners” (Walsh pp. 14-21). Bill’s daughter is a recurring narrator who wrestles with Bill’s legacy. In “Homecoming to the End,” she rejects someone’s assertion of Bill’s saint-like qualities for want of a reachable, human father (Walsh p. 19). Like the reader, Bill’s daughter is confronted by Bill’s ambiguity. Only, Bill’s wife would not say ambiguous, but, “A hard man to figure out” (Walsh p. 19).
Works Cited (for analysis):
McCay, Bonnie. “Gender, Globalization and a Tragic Choice on Fogo Island, Newfoundland: The Human Rights Case.” Changing Tides: Gender, Fisheries and Globalization, edited by Barbara Neis, Mariam Binkley, Siri Gerrard, and Maria Cristina Manescby, Fernwood Publishing, 2005, p. 116. desLibris, www.deslibris.ca.proxy.hil.unb.ca/ID/412879. Accessed 27 Jun. 2018.
Spector-Mersel, Gabriela. “Never-aging Stories: Western Hegemonic Masculinity Scripts.” Journal of Gender Studies, vol. 15, no. 1, 1 Mar. 2006, p. 69. EBSCOhost, doi: 10.1080/09589230500486934.
Walsh, Agnes. Going Around with Bachelors. Brick Books, 2007, pp. 14-46.
Agnes Walsh’s “The Tilts, Point Lance” from the collection Going Around with Bachelors is a snapshot of life narrated by a male protagonist. Through a sociological lens, the narrator’s view of his world lends itself to male vs. female constructivist rhetoric. But what is ambiguous is whether these views are truly held by Walsh’s narrator, or if they are adopted temporarily to fit the norms of other men.
In the first stanza the male voice muses about the peacefulness of being away from his family. The vast and constant presence of nature are primary, but “wife, kids, a town” on the fringe of memory (Walsh ll. 1-2). We are then directed in the second stanza to an interior setting. Even though the speaker notes a peaceful solitude in the first stanza (Walsh l. 4), the speaker is implied to be among cohorts inside. Walsh’s character notes how discussion is conducted minimally, “grunts and nods enough, curses to punctuate” (l. 8). We can assume this setting is a boat on a fishing trip thanks to various scents, including “cod guts” (ll. 5-6).
In these first two stanzas the narrator appears to be following a hegemonic masculinity script for Newfoundland fishermen. The masculinities across persons theory posits that there are multiple masculinities which exist in a society, and that each masculinity has its own ideas of how to correctly be a man and woman (Spector-Mersel 69). Other poems in Going Around with Bachelors introduce readers to other Newfoundland masculinities. In “Love,” the reader sees one man pressured into a celibate life because of his family home’s association with their community’s church (Walsh pp. 31-32). Readers are also given glimpses of American influence in several poems, such as “Contacts” (Walsh p. 43), and “Homecoming to the End” (Walsh pp. 18-20). These groups of men have their own behavioral patterns, but the focus is on how they treat women.
In the third stanza of “The Tilts, Point Lance,” the narrator portrays his masculine desires as needs, inherently conflicting to feminine wants (Walsh ll. 9-10). These wants include things like curtains and salt shakers, but also verbs, or more complex forms of conversation than the punctuational curses the men communicate through. Women are portrayed as over-complicating the simple – tyrannical rulers with frivolous desires who create an unnatural domicile instead of considering the place they have been given. They isolate the salt from the ocean into a tiny glass jar and shake it to create a controlled storm.
But the objects wanted in stanza three lend insight into the absent women’s worldview. The term “french safes” means condoms, which throws items like the phallic salt shakers, the concealing curtains and nightclothes, and certain obscene verbs into a sexual partnership context. Fishing is not only a matter of catching the fish but also preparing it for trade, a job traditionally reserved for on-shore housewives (McCay 116). The narrator may contemplate his place in the world, but the women are aware that their place is not isolated from the world.
The conclusion of “The Tilts, Point Lance” contains two grins: “going back on Saturday,” and “in my lapel,” as the narrator considers his return home (Walsh ll. 12-15). The narrator’s distaste for women's over-complications across the previous three stanzas presents a challenge for how to read these grins. On one hand, they could be genuine affections for home: “make no mistake, / glad to be back to civilization” (Walsh ll. 14-15), despite his misgivings. But on the other hand, they could be artificial grins to placate his wife and kids, switching one masculine face for another as he transitions to another set of norms and expectations. This sudden shift in tone fits a sociological theory called masculinities within persons (Spector-Mersel 69). Unlike masculinities across persons, this theory presents a toolbox for men to suit their needs. On the boat, the narrator barely speaks a word and does not have to among men who share in this social paradigm; but on the way home, the narrator is all smiles with no concern for fishing (Walsh l. 13).
This grinning front is so difficult to read because for all his professed simplicity, the narrator’s faces betray him as complex. The recurring character Bill – the likely identity of the narrator in “The Tilts, Point Lance” – has little to say except for “weather, fish, and old schooners” (Walsh pp. 14-21). Bill’s daughter is a recurring narrator who wrestles with Bill’s legacy. In “Homecoming to the End,” she rejects someone’s assertion of Bill’s saint-like qualities for want of a reachable, human father (Walsh p. 19). Like the reader, Bill’s daughter is confronted by Bill’s ambiguity. Only, Bill’s wife would not say ambiguous, but, “A hard man to figure out” (Walsh p. 19).
Works Cited (for analysis):
McCay, Bonnie. “Gender, Globalization and a Tragic Choice on Fogo Island, Newfoundland: The Human Rights Case.” Changing Tides: Gender, Fisheries and Globalization, edited by Barbara Neis, Mariam Binkley, Siri Gerrard, and Maria Cristina Manescby, Fernwood Publishing, 2005, p. 116. desLibris, www.deslibris.ca.proxy.hil.unb.ca/ID/412879. Accessed 27 Jun. 2018.
Spector-Mersel, Gabriela. “Never-aging Stories: Western Hegemonic Masculinity Scripts.” Journal of Gender Studies, vol. 15, no. 1, 1 Mar. 2006, p. 69. EBSCOhost, doi: 10.1080/09589230500486934.
Walsh, Agnes. Going Around with Bachelors. Brick Books, 2007, pp. 14-46.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Agnes Walsh: Patrick’s Cove and Placentia. BalconyTV, 2013.
Babstock, Ken, et al. Riddle Fence. St. John’s, NL: Writers’ Alliance of Newfoundland & Labrador, 2007.
Callanan, Mark; Langer, James. The Breakwater Book of Contemporary Newfoundland Poetry. St. John’s, NL: Breakwater Books, 2013.
Compton, Anne. Coastlines: The Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Fredericton, NB: Gooselane Editions, 2002.
Cullum, Linda K.; McGrath, Carmelita; Porter, Marilyn. Weather’s Edge: A Compendium. St. John’s NL: Killick Press, 2006.
Creelman, Elizabeth; Kavanagh, Ed; Walsh, Agnes. Pushed Through and Second Chances: Stories About the Right to Read. St. John’s, NL: The ‘Longside Centre, 2004.
Lynes, Jeanette; Davies, Gwendolyn. Words Out There: Women Poets in Atlantic Canada. Lockeport, NS: Roseway Publications, 1999.
Morris, Sandy. Stars in the Sky Morning: Collective Plays of Newfoundland and Labrador. St. John’s, NL: Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1996.
Seven Brides for Uncle Sam. Directed by Anita McGee, National Film Board of Canada, 1997.
Walsh, Agnes. Answer Me Home: Plays from Tramore Theatre. St. John’s, NL: Breakwater Books, 2011.
---. “Begin With the World: Let it be Small Enough.” Newfoundland Quarterly, v97 n4 (2005): 20.
---. “Dad and the Fridge Box.” Geist, v16 n65 (2007): 36.
---. “Entering Galway.” Newfoundland Quarterly, v97 n4 (2005): 19.
---. Going Around with Bachelors. London, ON: Brick Books, 2007.
---. “His Match: What he told me about his marriage in a pub on Bere Island.” Newfoundland Quarterly, v97 n4 (2005): 22.
---. In the Old Country of My Heart. St. John’s, NL: Killick Press, 1996.
---. “Jumping Ship on Fogo Island.” Newfoundland Quarterly, v105 n1 (2012): 26.
---. “Love in this Place.” Newfoundland Quarterly, v97 n4 (2004): 50.
---. “Mike’s.” TickleAce, n32 (1996): 37-8.
---. Oderin. St. John's, NL: Pedlar Press, 2019.
---. “Patrick’s Cove.” Newfoundland Quarterly, v97 n4 (2005): 19.
---. “The Cows Were There.” Newfoundland Quarterly, v97 n4 (2005): 21.
---. “The Tilts, Point Lance.” TickleAce, n32 (1996): 39.
---. “The Wind Joined Us on Bere Island.” Newfoundland Quarterly, v97 n4 (2005): 20.
Secondary Sources
CBC Radio. "Why Agnes Walsh's First Poetry Collection in Over a Decade is a Love Letter to Her Mother." cbc.ca. The Next Chapter.
“The Cyclic Variations and More New Poems/Going Around with Bachelors.”Newfoundland Quarterly, v100 n1 (2007): 57-8.
Dragland, Stan. “Agnes Walsh.” Heritage: Newfoundland and Labrador. Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Website, 2018.
---. "Dreaming Backwards: Agnes Walsh's In the Old Country of My Heart." Newfoundland Studies 16.2 (2000): 227-72. Literature Online.
---. “The Right Intellegence of Home: Agnes Walsh and Tramore Theatre Troupe.” Newfoundland Quarterly, v97 n4 (2005): 18-22.
Roach Pierson, Ruth. “Agnes Walsh: Going Around with Bachelors.” Newfoundland and Labrador Studies, v23 n1 (2008).
Thackray, Marc. “The Rush to Here/Once When I Wasn’t Looking/Going Around with Bachelors.” Journal of Canadian Poetry, v24 (2009): 121.
Tregebov, Rhea. “Going Around with Bachelors/Actualities/Last Water Songs.” Event, v37 n1 (2008): 129.
