A Turn of the Wheel

A Touch of the Poet is the first play in a lengthy cycle which Eugene O’Neill planned—about an Irish family whose succeeding generations would mirror American history. This family cycle, like the Mourning Becomes Electra trilogy, shows O’Neill’s conception of the tragic. His plays have no heroes in the classical sense; we are all imprisoned in our family, in our race, in time and history. Following certain laws, molded by whatever things surround us, we can only escape from one prison to another— from Ireland to America, from the slums to the suburbs.

This play is about Con Melody’s family. Melody (Eric Portman) was a hero under Wellington, but a Spanish love affair sent him in disgrace back to Ireland. Soon he is forced to marry the beautiful peasant girl he has been sleeping with. When he arrives in America, he is forced to open an inn. But he still struts in his uniform, rides a proud mare, and makes his wife and daughter work in the sun so that he may live as a gentleman.

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Garry Wills

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A Touch of the Poet is the first play in a lengthy cycle which Eugene O’Neill planned—about an Irish family whose succeeding generations would mirror American history. This family cycle, like the Mourning Becomes Electra trilogy, shows O’Neill’s conception of the tragic. His plays have no heroes in the classical sense; we are all imprisoned in our family, in our race, in time and history. Following certain laws, molded by whatever things surround us, we can only escape from one prison to another— from Ireland to America, from the slums to the suburbs.

This play is about Con Melody’s family. Melody (Eric Portman) was a hero under Wellington, but a Spanish love affair sent him in disgrace back to Ireland. Soon he is forced to marry the beautiful peasant girl he has been sleeping with. When he arrives in America, he is forced to open an inn. But he still struts in his uniform, rides a proud mare, and makes his wife and daughter work in the sun so that he may live as a gentleman.