Eavan Boland, the Book of Kells, and Lines Both Straight and Curved

Eavan Boland, the highly respected Irish poet who created new spaces for women poets in Ireland and beyond, gave a reading in New York in 2005 and spoke, in part, of the famous Chi Rho page of the Book of Kells. Trinity College Dublin recently renamed its main research library — just across the way from the Old Library, home of the Book of Kells -- to honor her and her distinguished body of work. In this talk, we'll look at the Chi Rho page and at aspects of the roles that the natural world plays in both the Book of Kells and in some of Boland's work.