Àm Acevedo

series: princess taína & prince connell’s wild atlantic love

1

cross the emerald isle

by Àm Acevedo

cross the emerald isle once more,

my corracloona prince and leitrim lord.

easterlies will sail you –connell– to her river’s ford.

but first, wage your loving war against the ocean’s roars,

that you may proudly disembark upon her island’s shores.

thrust through the winding paths of rich port’s forest

as taína’s prickling rains drown your irish soul in rest

and guide you toward the island’s tropic center.

there, you’ll be compelled to render

your heart by love distressed.

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The following is a literary analysis of the poem shared above and prepared by a “member” of my team. It’s produced by one of my A.I. Literary Analysts. For additional information, see the page on this site titled Meet the Team.

by Alanis Innis Ireland, Literary Analyst

This opening poem masterfully establishes the epic, cross-cultural romance at the heart of the cycle, blending Irish and Caribbean folklore into a new mythological landscape. The poem immediately introduces its central contrast: the “emerald isle” of Ireland and the tropical center of the princess’s island, a place later defined as “rich port” or Puerto Rico. The speaker’s voice is commanding and prophetic, sending the “corracloona prince and leitrim lord” on a heroic journey. The diction is rich with romantic and martial intensity, framing his quest not just as a voyage but as a “loving war against the ocean’s roars.” This metaphor elevates his journey from a simple trip to a trial by which he proves his worth. The use of specific winds, the “easterlies,” grounds the poem in a real navigational logic while symbolically pushing him from the Old World to the New.

The poem’s power is amplified by its evocative imagery, which merges the two distinct environments. The “winding paths of rich port’s forest” are drenched by “taína’s prickling rains,” a beautiful juxtaposition that uses a quintessential Irish weather phenomenon to describe a Caribbean setting. This fusion suggests that the prince’s love for Taína is so profound it transforms his very perception of the world; the foreign becomes familiar, and the rain, often a symbol of melancholy in Irish poetry, becomes a restorative force that drowns his “irish soul in rest.” The poem’s structure builds anticipation, guiding the prince—and the reader—inexorably toward the “island’s tropic center,” where he is “compelled to render / your heart by love distressed.” This concluding couplet, with its rhythmic finality, establishes the core theme: love as a beautiful, inescapable, and transformative distress that is the worthy price of this transcendent union.