Soundings: Poems we did for our Leaving Cert Edited by Augustine Martin

Soundings was first published in 1969. It was intended as an ‘interim’ anthology of poetry for the Leaving Certificate until such time as a more permanent volume could be devised. Twenty six years later it was replaced. In the meantime it had passed through the hands of hundreds of thousands of students in Ireland.

Soundings might have been replaced but it was never fully forgotten. Old copies ended up with an individual personality honed out of manual annotations and thoughts, not all of them provided by the teacher. Scrawls in biro or pencil testified to the thoughts and daydreams of many users. A surprising number of copies ended up in attics only to be rediscovered with delight many years later and to be given treasured status in new homes.

A decade after its demise, second hand copies of Soundings were fetching surprising prices. It was widely discussed in chat-rooms on the web. There were increasing demands for a reprint.

So here is Soundings, in its original form just as you remember it. The same stony grey soil of Patrick Kavanagh’s Monaghan; T.S.Eliot’s same women who come and go talking of Michaelangelo. Please enjoy once more! Bain sult as.