{"id":8366,"date":"2017-07-28T09:52:29","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T08:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8366"},"modified":"2017-07-28T09:53:01","modified_gmt":"2017-07-28T08:53:01","slug":"tara-bergin-the-tragic-death-of-eleanor-marx-reviewed-by-chloe-s-vaughan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8366","title":{"rendered":"Tara Bergin, The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx<\/em>, reviewed by Chlo\u00e9 S. Vaughan"},"content":{"rendered":"
Tara Bergin, The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx<\/em> (Carcanet Press, \u00a39.99).<\/h5>\n

It\u2019s been four years since Tara Bergin\u2019s debut collection This is Yarrow<\/em> hit shelves and deservedly snagged both the 2014 Seamus Heaney Award and 2014 Shine\/Strong Poetry Award. In this brief absence, Bergin has not merely been looking out of her office window for inspiration; she has in fact been researching The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx<\/em> and the eponymic woman\u2019s life and untimely death with help of funding from the Arts Council Ireland.<\/p>\n

The story of Eleanor Marx was one I was sadly unfamiliar with until I came across this collection, but it does highlight one of the ways poetry can function as even more than just poetry; it\u2019s an educational tool that inspires and translates important history into relevant and modern pieces of literary art, a feat I feel Bergin has achieved with this collection.<\/p>\n

In Bergin\u2019s second poem \u2018The True Story of Eleanor Marx in Ten Parts\u2019, the reader becomes privy to a stripped down history of Marx\u2019s suicide in the style of Emma Bovary from Flaubert\u2019s \u2018Madame Bovary\u2019, which Marx herself was the first to translate into English;<\/p>\n

[…] betrayed by Edward of the two faces.
\nShe orders chloroform, with just some traces
\nOf prussic acid-blue- a beautiful imitation<\/p>\n

2.
\nShe says it\u2019s for the dog but she is the dog<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Throughout this collection there are poems tethering the work to its namesake, even if the reader is aware of them or not. When I reached the end, acknowledging some of them for their blatancy (such as \u2018Dying\u2019 (40) and \u2018Karl Marx\u2019s Daughters Play on the Oujia Board\u2019 (76)) and just enjoying other while being ignorant of the references, Bergin makes sure that the reader realises the references with a handy notes section serving as an epilogue. One such poem is \u2018The Stenographer\u2019 which utilises actual excerpts from the court case in the trial of Madame Bovary:<\/p>\n

After the quotations will come the accusations […]
\nIt exists only in cut-outs and commentaries […]
\nWe see her downfall in the forest […]
\nShe dies in all the glamour of her youth […]
\nI am passing over nothing.\u2019<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

I was impressed with this on first reading anyway; the visual effect of the ellipses in square brackets was a pleasant sight and also hinted that this was a cut-up poem that held more than meets the eye. Despite all of this however, it truly is a lovely little poem, and very much in tune with the themes of tragic women interwoven with nature throughout. <\/p>\n

What is also clever about The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx<\/em> is how these aforementioned references to flowers in multiple poems, such as the mint and laburnum in \u2018Strange Courtship\u2019, all eventually culminate in one big overlaying reference back to Eleanor Marx. In \u2018Oh My Little Eleanor\u2026\u2019 found on the closing pages of the collection, the speaker directly talks to Eleanor and pulls on every flower referenced in the collection, making it seem that each flower was merely an addition to her bouquet:<\/p>\n

Oh my little Eleanor
\nYour favourite flower is all flowers
\nAnd your favourite colour is white
\nBut oh my little Eva
\nYour favourite flower is orchid
\nAnd your favourite colour is night-<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The language of flowers blossomed in England in the Victorian period when Marx was alive. A quick google will tell you the meanings of the flowers Bergin mentions, and in the case of this poem especially it\u2019s fascinating to see the depth of work behind the text. White flowers are commonly associated with purity and innocence, while black flowers connote death and the afterlife. Orchids on their own also represent fertility, virility and sexuality, so an orchid in Eva\u2019s favourite colour could be said to represent the potential reason behind Eleanor\u2019s death. <\/p>\n

The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx<\/em> also has poems rooted specifically in the modern day such as \u2018The Hairdresser\u2019 and \u2018The Hospital Porter\u2019, but even the lack of reference to Marx herself can\u2019t keep the tragedy out of their stories. This link really does keep the pace up of the collection and I happily read through it in its entirety first time around. <\/p>\n

Bergin\u2019s collection to me is a true success of both poetry and biography. Each word in the poem has an underlying meaning that adds up to a truly atmospheric second collection I\u2019m happy to recommend (I\u2019ve bought this collection and leant it out to two people since reading it myself in fact). While I\u2019d never had the honest pleasure of reading about Eleanor Marx before now, I can say that she is a person truly worthy of having an entire collection based on.<\/p>\n

Chlo\u00e9 S. Vaughan<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tara Bergin, The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx (Carcanet Press, \u00a39.99). It\u2019s been four years since Tara Bergin\u2019s debut collection This is Yarrow hit shelves and deservedly snagged both the 2014 Seamus Heaney Award and 2014 Shine\/Strong Poetry Award. In this brief absence, Bergin has not merely been looking out of her office window for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[13,283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nTara Bergin, The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx, reviewed by Chlo\u00e9 S. Vaughan - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8366\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tara Bergin, The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx, reviewed by Chlo\u00e9 S. Vaughan - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tara Bergin, The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx (Carcanet Press, \u00a39.99). It\u2019s been four years since Tara Bergin\u2019s debut collection This is Yarrow hit shelves and deservedly snagged both the 2014 Seamus Heaney Award and 2014 Shine\/Strong Poetry Award. In this brief absence, Bergin has not merely been looking out of her office window for […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8366\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-28T08:52:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-07-28T08:53:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/image.ibb.co\/iXx8pk\/41_Dyl0c_i_WL_SX302_BO1_204_203_200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8366\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8366\",\"name\":\"Tara Bergin, The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx, reviewed by Chlo\u00e9 S. Vaughan - The Manchester Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-28T08:52:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-07-28T08:53:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8366#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8366\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8366#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tara Bergin, The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx, reviewed by Chlo\u00e9 S. Vaughan\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"description\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc\",\"name\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"caption\":\"The Manchester Review\"},\"description\":\"The Manchester Review was founded in 2008 and is published by the Centre for New Writing at The University of Manchester. We aspire to bring together online, without a paper edition, the best of international writing from well-known, established writers alongside new, relatively unknown poets and prose-writers.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?author=45\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tara Bergin, The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx, reviewed by Chlo\u00e9 S. Vaughan - The Manchester Review","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8366","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tara Bergin, The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx, reviewed by Chlo\u00e9 S. Vaughan - The Manchester Review","og_description":"Tara Bergin, The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx (Carcanet Press, \u00a39.99). It\u2019s been four years since Tara Bergin\u2019s debut collection This is Yarrow hit shelves and deservedly snagged both the 2014 Seamus Heaney Award and 2014 Shine\/Strong Poetry Award. In this brief absence, Bergin has not merely been looking out of her office window for […]","og_url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8366","og_site_name":"The Manchester Review","article_published_time":"2017-07-28T08:52:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-07-28T08:53:01+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/image.ibb.co\/iXx8pk\/41_Dyl0c_i_WL_SX302_BO1_204_203_200.jpg"}],"author":"The Manchester Review","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"The Manchester Review","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8366","url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8366","name":"Tara Bergin, The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx, reviewed by Chlo\u00e9 S. Vaughan - The Manchester Review","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-07-28T08:52:29+00:00","dateModified":"2017-07-28T08:53:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8366#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8366"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8366#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tara Bergin, The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx, reviewed by Chlo\u00e9 S. Vaughan"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website","url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/","name":"The Manchester Review","description":"The Manchester Review","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc","name":"The Manchester Review","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif","caption":"The Manchester Review"},"description":"The Manchester Review was founded in 2008 and is published by the Centre for New Writing at The University of Manchester. We aspire to bring together online, without a paper edition, the best of international writing from well-known, established writers alongside new, relatively unknown poets and prose-writers.","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?author=45"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2PuXo-2aW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8366"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8407,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8366\/revisions\/8407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}