Elegy for an Irish Speaker by Medbh McGuckian Elegy for an Irish Speaker is a poem written by an Irish author where

the author explores what it means to lose your own language. In the first stanza the author says that it is impossible to name something. In my opinion, it can refer to the Irish language. McGuckian, as well as many other authors, writes about the loss of language and the effect it will have in the future. In the second stanza, the poet addresses the death: Do I know you, Miss Death, by your warrant, your heroines head pinned against my heros shoulder? The things are going on and with the word warrant a poet gives political importance to the poem. There is allusion to Christianity, seraph who is an angelic being, a symbol of light and ardor. The whole construction is an oxymoron because the author says that they are cold. In the next verse a dying mans room is open to everyone. This dying man is again allusion to Irish language. The writer constantly shifts from one personal pronoun to another, so for example in the second stanza the pronoun is I and in the third it is the second person singular. McGuckian gives the sun and the rain male qualities and in this poem she links the natural and human worlds. In the third stanza Miss Death womb evokes the figure of mother, motherhood, and reproduction. It is important that in the next few verses the author recognizes that the Irish speaker is in danger of becoming a poetess. While the Irish speaker is male, the speaker of the poem and Miss Death, both female, are meeting on equal ground. The speaker is at risk of being misunderstood. In the penultimate stanza, the dying Irish speaker is described as the roaming root of multiple meanings and he does not want to be restricted to a single mode of understanding. In the final stanza the speakers address shifts from Miss Death to the dying Irish speaker. The speaker recognizes the relationship between her audience and herself and says that language, if it survives throughout time, it must undertake the process of change. McGuckian is aware of the situation in Ireland. Without the Irish speaker, and without an understanding of what it means to speak Irish, the speaker cannot recognize a crucial part of its history. According to her, it is important to be heard, even though it implies the chance of being misinterpreted. The poetry serves as a weapon to express your own ideas and also to cause tension among people. It can be read in many ways, and there is no the right solution.