Irish Poetry: Politics, History, Negotiation

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

   PDF

2. Introduction: Making History?

   • Steven Matthews

   Pages 1-44

3. John Hewitt: An Honest Ulsterman’s ‘Poemosaics’

   • Steven Matthews

   Pages 45-73

4. Thomas Kinsella’s Poetic of Unease

   • Steven Matthews

   Pages 74-103

5. A Failure to Return: John Montague’s The Rough Field

   • Steven Matthews

   Pages 104-131

6. History Is Only Part of It: Brendan Kennelly’s Cromwell

   • Steven Matthews

   Pages 132-157

7. ‘Reconciliation Under Duress’: The Architecture of Seamus Heaney’s Recent Poetry

   • Steven Matthews

   Pages 158-185

8. Letters from the Alphabet: Carson’s and Muldoon’s Contigent Poetics

   • Steven Matthews

   Pages 186-206

9. Back Matter

   Pages 207-249

   PDF

The award of the 1995 Nobel Prize for Literature to Seamus Heaney recognized not only the aesthetic achievement of his work, but also its political urgency. Here Steven Matthews presents a genealogy of Irish poetry which centres upon Heaney's recent preoccupation with the relations between poetry, politics and history. Writing from the perspective of Irish critical responses to the poetry, he discusses a wide range of work from John Hewitt through Heaney himself to Paul Muldoon. All of these poets have been inspired directly or indirectly by the situation in the North of Ireland. Placing the poems in their historical context, the author also analyses how these poets have reacted to the influence of W.B. Yeats. This important book offers a new approach to Irish poetry, linking it for the first time to the crucial political and historical events which lie at its centre.

• poem
• poetics
• poetry

Policies and ethics