Soundings Poetry book

branie

I understand that it's coming back, so thought I'd revive a few memories for former LC students who studied the book. Do you recall it with fondness or horror?

ankles

WNyone know when it's coming back? Presume it will be in Easons

cee_jay

The had a feature on the evening news yesterday - Easons were shown as stockists but they had already sold half their stock, but stated more on order for delivery very shortly.

Ann22

I remember Soundings. There was a lot of green on the front of it with circles on it. Mmmm what poems to I remember....a few Shakespeare sonnets and um....I don't remember much else about LC poetry.

(I remember talking to my hubbie about a sonnet I recall with the line 'if hairs be wires then black wires grow on her head'...to which he replied 'that's a pile of crap...that's like saying- 'if hairs be sh*te, then black sh*te sits on her head'..I don't think I've ever laughed so much in my life, maybe you had to be there:o)


Anyone remember the Exploring English inter cert books? I found the short stories edition in a car boot sale recently. It was quite mouldy so I didn't buy it. I did have a look through it though. Among ones we had on our syllabus were..'The Rockfish', 'Janey Mary', 'The Confirmation Suit', 'The Wild Duck's Nest', 'The First Confession', 'The Trout'. Great stories:).

stevoslice

they reckon it will be the first time a school textbook could end up top of the christmas bestsellers list.

oh the memories, you get your brother/sisters old soundings book, that they got from cousins, its falling to bits and has been sellotaped back together for the fortieth time, and theres notes/lovenotes/slags/signatures all over the blooming thing. i had so much fun reading all the ****e written in by everyone else i always forgot to learn the poems!!!

Ghost Train

Still have soundings somewhere around the house from 15 years ago

Probably the most used school book I had, fair bit of memorizing lines done from it

kelle

I'd love if "All About home economics" by Deirdre Madden was re-printed!

Aglomerado

kelle wrote: »

I'd love if "All About home economics" by Deirdre Madden was re-printed!

Ah yes, the one with the brown cover. I only did Home Ec in first year but knocked a lot of fun out of the recipes in it for some time afterwards.

Still have my copy of Soundings from LC 1995. It's well battered, but still love it.

Even though I did the JC in 1992, our school were still using Exploring English (1 and 3 only, not 2 as prose wasn't on our syllabus). I loved the short stories of Frank O'Connor, Sean O'Faoileain, Liam O'Flaherty and "Saki", that were in it, encouraged me to read further!

sharkbite1983

how come I'm 27 and never heard of soundings?
there's a guy from the publishers on the radio now, said they estimate the number of people who read it, to be about 1.2 million!!!!!

nlgbbbblth

Ann22 wrote: »

I remember Soundings. There was a lot of green on the front of it with circles on it. Mmmm what poems to I remember....a few Shakespeare sonnets and um....I don't remember much else about LC poetry.

(I remember talking to my hubbie about a sonnet I recall with the line 'if hairs be wires then black wires grow on her head'...to which he replied 'that's a pile of crap...that's like saying- 'if hairs be sh*te, then black sh*te sits on her head'..I don't think I've ever laughed so much in my life, maybe you had to be there:o)


Anyone remember the Exploring English inter cert books? I found the short stories edition in a car boot sale recently. It was quite mouldy so I didn't buy it. I did have a look through it though. Among ones we had on our syllabus were..'The Rockfish', 'Janey Mary', 'The Confirmation Suit', 'The Wild Duck's Nest', 'The First Confession', 'The Trout'. Great stories:).

Ann22

I must pick up Soundings - sold my copy in 1989.

Would love to get my hands on the three Exploring English books - if anyone has copies let me know.

Some of the stories on our Inter Cert syllabus
The Poteen Maker, The Potato Gatherers, The Green Door, Up The Bare Stairs, A Man's World, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, The Fly

cml387

If you want a bit of nostalgia you can read The Green Door, The Lumber Room and others free on the Gutenberg website,

For example:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/269

megadodge

"When I think of all the crap I learnt in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all" - Kodachrome, Paul Simon

Every time I hear that wonderful line it's ALWAYS poetry I think of. Teaching poetry to teenagers is about as pointless an exercise as I can think of. Absolutely hated having that moany, whinging, self-pitying nonsense shoved down my throat.

However, I will admit there were a (very) few exceptions. Expostulation and Reply by Wordsworth has always stayed with me mainly because of the irony of a group of healthy teenagers studying (in a stuffy classroom with the sun splitting the stones outside) a poem telling them that it's ok to take in the world around you and enjoy life instead of studying all the time.

Anyway, surprise surprise, I won't be buying Soundings.

RhubarbCrumble

I did my leaving in '97, but still have my copy of Soundings. I loved Yeats (and still do) and was quite keen on Kavanagh, but as Roddy Doyle said "Gerard Manley Hopkins was definitely sniffing something"!

theghost

Ann22 wrote: »

I remember Soundings. There was a lot of green on the front of it with circles on it. Mmmm what poems to I remember....a few Shakespeare sonnets and um....I don't remember much else about LC poetry.

(I remember talking to my hubbie about a sonnet I recall with the line 'if hairs be wires then black wires grow on her head'...to which he replied 'that's a pile of crap...that's like saying- 'if hairs be sh*te, then black sh*te sits on her head'..I don't think I've ever laughed so much in my life, maybe you had to be there:o)


Anyone remember the Exploring English inter cert books? I found the short stories edition in a car boot sale recently. It was quite mouldy so I didn't buy it. I did have a look through it though. Among ones we had on our syllabus were..'The Rockfish', 'Janey Mary', 'The Confirmation Suit', 'The Wild Duck's Nest', 'The First Confession', 'The Trout'. Great stories:).

I remember the Exploring English short story edition with great pleasure. I've never forgotten "The First Confession".

I hated Soundings - principally, I think, because the first poem we did from it was Milton's "Lycidas", which seemed to be never-ending. At least it wasn't "Paradise Lost" or "Paradise Regained". That was back in 1971.

cml387

theghost wrote: »

I remember the Exploring English short story edition with great pleasure. I've never forgotten "The First Confession".

I hated Soundings - principally, I think, because the first poem we did from it was Milton's "Lycidas", which seemed to be never-ending. At least it wasn't "Paradise Lost" or "Paradise Regained". That was back in 1971.

I think a re-relase of the three Exploring English would be a bigger seller.
Soundings was a leaving cert book and had more complex poetry.

EE poetry had Betjeman, Spender, and good old Alfred Noyes and was altogether more accessible.

The short story anthology had what I believe was the best Irish short story
"Up the bare stairs"

kelle

Ann22 wrote: »

Anyone remember the Exploring English inter cert books? I found the short stories edition in a car boot sale recently. It was quite mouldy so I didn't buy it. I did have a look through it though. Among ones we had on our syllabus were..'The Rockfish', 'Janey Mary', 'The Confirmation Suit', 'The Wild Duck's Nest', 'The First Confession', 'The Trout'. Great stories:).

I remember The Confirmation Suit! I loved that story. Was there something about Alexander Selkirk in it too? (Maybe I have the name wrong!)

megadodge wrote: »

"When I think of all the crap I learnt in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all" - Kodachrome, Paul Simon

Every time I hear that wonderful line it's ALWAYS poetry I think of. Teaching poetry to teenagers is about as pointless an exercise as I can think of. Absolutely hated having that moany, whinging, self-pitying nonsense shoved down my throat.

However, I will admit there were a (very) few exceptions. Expostulation and Reply by Wordsworth has always stayed with me mainly because of the irony of a group of healthy teenagers studying (in a stuffy classroom with the sun splitting the stones outside) a poem telling them that it's ok to take in the world around you and enjoy life instead of studying all the time.

Anyway, surprise surprise, I won't be buying Soundings.

Never a truer statement made! I feel History and Poetry are wasted on the young. I hated all that stuff when I was a teenager into Madonna and legwarmers. Now, I find I love reading it!

johnthemull

Through a chink too wide
There comes in no wonder

rainbowtrout

johnthemull wrote: »

Through a chink too wide
There comes in no wonder

That's the first quote I remember if asked to quote any poem. It was probably the first one I ever heard in secondary school.

It was all Soundings a couple of weeks ago in the school I work in. Gus Martin - original editor of Soundings - has a son who teaches in the school I work in so he had been telling us that it was happening and how the launch went etc.

I still have nightmares about The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock... think it was by Eliot, just remember it being very long.

I must have a root around next time I'm home, I'm sure I still have my copy somewhere along with the Exploring English books.

RH149

sharkbite1983 wrote: »

how come I'm 27 and never heard of soundings?
there's a guy from the publishers on the radio now, said they estimate the number of people who read it, to be about 1.2 million!!!!!

If you're only 27 then you did your LC 9 or 10 yrs ago, the new course had started by then which basically killed Soundings:(:(
You would have had one of the many new Poetry text books for the new course - a huge windfall for the publishers as a different set of Poets (rather than individual poems) are prescribed for each year so there's so passing the books on to younger siblings or selling them second hand. New ones have to be purchased so you don't get the vintage/ heirloom feel as we had with Soundings....I still have my battered copy with all my notes and doodles written over those of my two older sisters and some stranger who originally sold it to the eldest one!

Nostalgia aside, if we still were using Soundings most students would leave school thinking there were no living poets, very few Irish poets and bar Emily Dickinson, no women poets. The new course exposes them to both classical and modern poetry and even living Irish female ones....though many of the LC Class of 2010 won't have pleasant memories of Eavan Boland standing them up last June!

kelle

There is a Facebook page about it.

http://www.facebook.com/SoundingsPoetry#!/SoundingsPoetry?v=wall

Posy

sharkbite1983 wrote: »

how come I'm 27 and never heard of soundings?
there's a guy from the publishers on the radio now, said they estimate the number of people who read it, to be about 1.2 million!!!!!

I'm 27 and had 'Soundings' for Leaving Cert English. Loved it! I have my old copy somewhere I'm sure, must have a root around..

thearchive

hi all,

I'm looking for information, memories, images etc about Soundings the English poetry book used through out Ireland in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

I am currently writing an article for publication in the next edition of The Archive, the journal of the Northside Folklore Project. The project is an oral history archive run in association with UCC. Please feel free to have a look at our website at http://www.ucc.ie/research/nfp/ Primarily focusing on memories in the Cork area, we would be interested in talking to any one who would have memories (good or bad!) of studying, using or living in the wake of this monumental institution of the Leaving Cert curriculum.

I would really love to chat to some of you how you remember the book, if you still have you're copy, did you have very detailed notes in the margins or did you cover it in absentminded doodles. All memories are of interest to us, no matter have insignificant or mundane you think your own memories might be.

If you would be interested in the article, or have any scanned pics of your own copy, we'd love to hear from you for a trip down memory lane.

Looking forward to hearing from you

Louise Aherne