A Farewell to English
“A Farewell to English” is a political poem, pre-
senting to readers a moment in the poet’s life when
his consciousness awakened to the problem of be-
ing an Irish writer who wrote in the English lan-
guage. The scene depicted shows the poet in a pub,
listening to the bartender talk to other patrons in
the smooth flow of the Gaelic language. Although
the poet does not understand all of the words, the
music of the language stirs some sort of genetic
memory in him, connecting his life to the ancient
history of the Irish people. He goes on to muse
about the complex thought processes that he regu-
larly undertakes while writing in English, but be-
comes convinced that obeying the laws of the Eng-
lish language is not the best approach.
At the time, Ireland’s struggle for indepen-
dence England had reached a violent stage, remi-
niscent of past conflicts. In Northern Ireland, citi-
zens were being killed in the streets, caught
between rebel actions and retaliations from the
British government. The more mundane incident in
the bar in this poem was powerful enough to change
Hartnett’s life. Up to 1975, Hartnett had spent most
of his career writing in English. Two years later he
published Poems in English 1958-1974,conclud-
ing his poetry composition in English. He contin-
ued to write essays and translations in English, then
returned to writing verse in the English language
in 1985.
Michael Hartnett
1975
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