That the Science of Cartography Is Limited Wisdom and Knowledge Quotes

The poem begins with a hypothesis about a certain way of knowing, or representing, the world; it states that cartography has its limitations. By the end of the poem, we're totally convinced by this point. Not only do maps not capture sensory experiences of the land, they also fail to represent the national tragedies that are quite literally inscribed on the Irish landscape.

The speaker's first encounter with the famine road is sensory. She describes her physical experience of the road—how the grass covers the stones. This is one of two types of knowing in the poem: experiential (firsthand) and recorded (or secondhand).

The speaker's beloved experiences the famine road differently than she does. He spouts off his knowledge of the political details of the potato famine. He takes in history through an understanding of facts and figures, rather than directly experiencing what's going on around him in the moment of the poem. We think going on a date with this loverboy might be a bit boring, but the speaker seems to like him, so we guess he's alright.

Here, the speaker describes the ways in which maps do a pretty awesome job of representing the world. But, she frames the discussion by saying that she does not look at maps because of the awesome ways that they represent the world. She has ulterior motives, this one.

The poem ends with a rationale for why the speaker looks at maps. She looks at them to account for their absences; she knows that maps do not represent famine roads. In this way, maps prove ignorant of history. But the speaker doesn't ignore her nation's troubled history. She uses the map's elisions as an opportunity to create knowledge and understand her world differently—through poetry. And by the end of this poem, we're pretty sure we understand our world differently, too.