Sir, – Joe Cleary’s question “Who is to take charge of our national literature?” reminds me of a recent visit to the Solomos Museum here in Corfu (Books, November 1st). It was formerly the home of Dionysios Solomos (1798-1857), who was widely regarded as the father of modern Greek poetry and the author of the Hymn to Liberty, which became the Greek national anthem.
A semicircle of children from a local primary school were sitting on the floor, riveted by what their teacher was telling them about their “national poet”.
How fortunate they were to have this facility and to know that the music to that anthem was composed by Solomos’ friend, Nikolaos Mantzaros, who lived a few streets distant.
In the Acropolis museum in Athens I have seen similar schoolchildren fascinated by their teacher’s exposition of their aesthetic heritage.
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I hesitate to suggest that the former homes of WB Yeats, Peadar Kearney or Seamus Heaney should be put to similar use. But how effective it would be if such interpretive centres could be maintained, especially in places where there is already a vibrant awareness of a poet’s or novelist’s contribution to “national” literature: Patrick Kavanagh’s Inniskeen, Yeats’s Thoor Ballylee, Heaney’s Mossbawn are examples of what could be achieved, stimulating pride and curiosity, and questioning issues such as identity, heritage and the relationship of past to future. – Yours, etc,
RICHARD PINE,
Corfu,
Greece.