Station Summary / Study Guide

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Station | Introduction

“Station” is a poem written in free verse by Eamon Grennan, an Irish poet who has spent most of his adult life in the United States. It was first published in 1991 in Grennan’s collection As If It Matters (Dublin, Ireland, 1991; St. Paul, MN, 1992). It is also available in Grennan’s Relations: New and Selected Poems (1998).

In “Station,” the speaker and his young son are at the Hudson Valley train station in upstate New York. The boy’s parents are divorced, and he is about to leave his father and go to visit his mother. The poem describes the scene at the train station and the thoughts of the boy’s father, who knows this is a turning point in his relationship with his son; not only is the boy going away, he is also about to enter adolescence. This is a stage, a “station,” along the boy’s path to adulthood, and the father knows that things will never again be the same between them. He also realizes that he cannot find the right words to say to his son on this occasion.

One of a number of prominent Irish poets who live in America and teach at American universities, Grennan has written nine books of poetry. He has a growing reputation as one of Ireland’s most accomplished contemporary poets. Grennan’s work is notable for its concern with personal relationships, particularly within the family. His poems often describe the small details of domestic life, and a number of them explore the poet’s relationship with his three children.

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