When the Body is the Last Resource for Protest... Wider Reading (Poetry) 17: The Rhythm of Time

Bobby Sands was an Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and member of the British Parliament. He was twenty seven years old when he died on the sixty sixth day of hunger-strike in the H-Block prison hospital, Long Kesh, on the 5th May 1981.

The young IRA Volunteer had spent the last nine years of his fleeting life in jail as a result of his Irish republican activities, but became, by the time of his death, world-famous and a household name for his election to the British parliament and withstanding of political pressure from all sides to abandon his fast of over two months. His aim was to counter a criminalisation policy by the British government. His sacrifice (as did that of those who followed him) overturned British propaganda within Ireland and had a profound effect in advancing the cause of Irish freedom.

In ‘The Rhythm of Time’ Sands stresses that the spirit of freedom and reflex to fight against injustice has been inherent to man from our very beginning, and here he draws upon their surfacing against the evils throughout history. The persecuted early Christians, American Indians, peasants, slaves, and Irish republican freedom fighters share the stage of history against tyranny. The fractured stanzas may reflect how broken he has realised society is, and the relentless, driving rhythm and rhymes doubtless show the monotony of his incarceration.

The driving force against oppression, as Sands concludes, is the moral superiority of the oppressed. In tracing this spirit across the ages Sands demonstrates an exceptional grasp of history and memory recall, especially considering that he had been denied books, newspapers, radio or TV, and mental stimulation for the last four years of his life. Wat the Tyler, for example, was an English peasant who, in 1381, challenged and led an uprising against the English monarchy. His poetry also gave hope to many of his fellow inmates, as this was their only entertainment, and, in doing so, Sands let them know that their cause was right, and they would someday triumph.

The Rhythm of Time - Identity Quotations