Literature: Twentieth Century Irish Poetry

The course will begin with the poems of Yeats’, which belong to the Celtic Twilight, before we consider his poems relating to the struggle for Irish Independence, before concluding with his late poems and their relationship with Modernism. A poet very different from Yeats, but in his own way remarkable is Patrick Kavanagh, and our discussions will focus on his poem, The Great Hunger, and his lyrical verse, both of which are influences on Heaney, particularly his poems of pilgrimage.

We will then consider Seamus Heaney, and trace his interactions with the Troubles and his evolution of a mature style, which made him one of the most remarkable global poets of the century. Alongside Heaney, we will analyse the contribution of his contemporaries Michael Longley, Derek Mahon and Paul Muldoon, who has become the doyen of high Modernism.

Finally we will explore the work of Louis MacNeice and his poetic roots in Northern Ireland, noting his lyrical excellence as a technician of soundscapes within poetry, and his qualities of acute observation of landscape which influence both Longley & Mahon.

This will be a course which will open you up for the first time or again to the beauties of Irish poetry.