"Irish Songs and Poems" by William Allingham is an affirmative celebration of Irish culture, capturing the essence of the nation's rich literary and musical heritage. Published during the 19th century, Allingham's work likely reflects his deep connection to Ireland and his commitment to preserving and expressing its unique identity. In this collection, readers can expect a diverse array of poems and songs that pay homage to Ireland's landscapes, history, and traditions. Allingham, known for his lyrical and descriptive style, may weave verses that evoke the beauty of the Irish countryside, explore themes of patriotism, and delve into the myths and folklore that define the Irish experience. The title, "Irish Songs and Poems," suggests a thematic breadth that encompasses both the musical and literary aspects of Irish culture. Allingham's verses may resonate with the rhythms of traditional Irish music, creating a harmonious blend of language and melody that captures the spirit of the nation.

With its roots in the devotional verse of the early Christian church and the long lyric poems of the Irish bards, Irish poetry has a rich and robust tradition both of engagement and self-reflection. It has grappled long with politics and has provided the most eloquent response to Ireland's turbulent history, mediating and mitigating histories of loyalty and loss; it has soaked itself in the Irish landscape and Celtic myth; it has encompassed religion, so much a part of Ireland's cultural heritage. At the same time Irish poets have given their own original slant to everyday experience and affairs of the heart.Thematically organized and spanning many centuries, this selection also features a section of Gaelic poetry in translation, notably excerpts from the 18th-century epic masterpiece, Brian Merriman's The Midnight Court.

Chronicles the adventures of the King of Ireland's eldest and wildest son, describing how he encounters an enchanter's daughter, the king of the cats, Gilly of the goat-skin, and numerous others.

Carrying the Songs explores what is lost to time and change, and what endures and is transformed: languages and landscapes, artefacts and songs, carried through a lifetime, across oceans, across centuries. A long-forgotten Gaelic word surfaces from childhood and is reanimated by use; a tiny Stone Age carving speaks across millennia of a shared human impulse to create. At the heart of this collection is migration, the rhythm that draws together the natural and the human worlds. Luminous and precise, Moya Cannon's poetry resonates like remembered songs. Included with the new poems in Carrying the Songs is a generous selection of the poems from Moya Cannon's much-praised earlier collections, Oar and The Parchment Boat.

The Penguin Book of Irish Poetry features the work of the greatest Irish poets, from the monks of the ancient monasteries to the Nobel laureates W.B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney, from Jonathan Swift and Oliver Goldsmith to Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, along with a profusion of lyrics, love poems, satires, ballads and songs. Reflecting Ireland's complex past and lively present, this collection of Irish verse is an indispensable guide to the history, culture and romance of one of Europe's oldest civilizations. In his introduction to this new Penguin Classics edition, Patrick Crotty explores the traditions of poetry in Ireland, and relates the rich variety of the poems to the long and frequently troubled history of the island.