The second line of the fourth stanza marks
the exact midpoint of the poem; it is also a dis-
tinct turning point within the poem. Here
Boland states clearly that there is a choice to be
made, a choice between two options. For the
first time in the poem, Boland ends a sentence
in the middle line of a stanza, forcing a pause
during which the reader may consider what these
two options may be. From what Boland has
already discussed in the preceding three stanzas
and the first line of the fourth, it may be inferred
that the choice she insists it is time for is that of
either embracing one’s humanity and place
withinhistory or continuing to exist as an out-
sider, as distant as the stars. The choice seems to
be one between counting, that is, mattering, or
being counted out, being an outsider. In the last
line of the fourth stanza, the poet tells the reader
that she herself has made a choice.
Stanzas 5 and 6
In the opening line of the fifth stanza, we are told
that the poet has elected to move from myth to
history. By stating that she is moving from myth,
she identifies herself with the stars as she has
discussed them in the previous stanzas. Mytho-
logical figures, like ancient stars, live outside of
the structure of historical time. While there is
mystery and power associated with myth, there
is also the aspect of being disassociated with truth,
with reality. The poet, therefore, in moving from
the world of myth to the world of history, has
chosen to transform her status from that of out-
sider to someone who matters, someone whose
presence in history must be taken into account.
Doing so, however, comes at a cost, as Boland
begins to explain in the remainder of the fifth
stanza and the entirety of the sixth.
The dark pall of tragedy overshadows the
notion of historical existence as Boland frames it
in the fifth stanza. The concrete images created
in the sixth stanza flesh out the vague notions of
darkness suggested in the fifth. The reader is left
with a sense of bloody, violent death by the end
of the sixth stanza. Boland’s word choice returns
us as well to the imagery pertaining to the stars
and the heavens with which the poem opened.
Continuing into the seventh and final stanza,
Boland emphasizes the slow and painful nature
of human death, and having been reminded in the
last line of the sixth stanza of the stars, the reader
is prompted to ponder the similarities between the
dying light of the stars and the extinguishing of
human life. Entities that live both outside and
within history experience death in similar ways.
Long after a star dies, its light remains visible.Stanza 7
Long after a person dies, Boland seems to be
suggesting, his or her memory or spirit is kept
alive through other people, through the human
process of recording history. Despite such human
effort, Boland emphasizes in the last stanza of the
poem, it is not enough, for we are, she repeats,
perpetually too late. Boland, however, does not
explicitly state what the people who kneel beside
the dying, people who whisper to them, are too
late for. It may be that she is suggesting that they
cannot be saved, cannot be rescued from slipping
back into myth, out of reality, and outside of
history.THEMESMyth versus History
In ‘‘Outside History,’’ Boland explores the
notion of historical time and contrasts the ideas
of what it means to live within history with what
it means to live outside of it. Throughout the
poem, Boland examines the role of the outsider,
depicting such an individual as someone who has
been shunted aside, someone who exists without
mattering in the real world of human history.
The poem opens with a statement about the
permanent reality of outsiders: they are always
there. In general, the termoutsiderhas a negative
connotation, and in Boland’s poem, this nuance
is upheld and further explored. She states that
just as there exist the two possibilities of living
within or outside of history, there also exists a
time to choose between these notions. The read-
er’s understanding of the two choices is gener-
ated as much by what Boland states explicitly as
by what her words and images suggest. To live
outside of history is associated by Boland with
the stars, with myth. Boland links the stars’ exis-
tence with living in a world beyond the pain of
those who live within history. The wordmyth
itself is one that is suggestive both of superna-
tural figures—gods—and of fiction. Myth is a
world disconnected from reality, from the his-
tory populated by real people. Yet the world
of historical reality is characterized by death
and by darkness. Boland envisions this world in
stark terms, using words that conjure up notions
of bloody, violent deaths. She depicts humanOutside History