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 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.
One former student recalled how Soundings was the first school book to treat her as an adult. It made no concessions to the -teenager-. It didn-t patronise. Its imagery was entirely in the poetry. The typog
