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.

A rich and colourful celebration of the poetic heritage of Ireland, this CD and book anthology features classic and contemporary Irish poems read by 100 of the best-known voices in Irish life. A rich and colourful celebration of the poetic heritage of Ireland, this CD and book anthology features classic and contemporary Irish poems read by 100 of the best-known voices in Irish life, including Maeve Binchy, Bono, Pierce Brosnan, The Corrs, Bertie Ahern, Bob Geldof, Seamus Heaney, Marian Keyes and Sinead O'Connor. Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol alongside new work from Ireland's finest living writers. As well as forming a living testament to the best of Irish writing, the collection is also a reminder that words, both oral and written, do make a difference with all royalties going to Focus Ireland, the country's largest and most respected charity for the homeless.

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.

Forty chapters, written by leading scholars across the world, describe the latest thinking on modern Irish poetry. The Handbook begins with a consideration of Yeats's early work, and the legacy of the 19th century. The broadly chronological areas which follow, covering the period from the 1910s through to the 21st century, allow scope for coverage of key poetic voices in Ireland in their historical and political context. From the experimentalism of Beckett, MacGreevy, and others of the modernist generation, to the refashioning of Yeats's Ireland on the part of poets such as MacNeice, Kavanagh, and Clarke mid-century, through to the controversially titled post-1969 'Northern Renaissance' of poetry, this volume will provide extensive coverage of the key movements of the modern period. The Handbook covers the work of, among others, Paul Durcan, Thomas Kinsella, Brendan Kennelly, Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, Michael Longley, Medbh McGuckian, and Ciaran Carson. The thematic sections interspersed throughout - chapters on women's poetry, religion, translation, painting, music, stylistics - allow for comparative studies of poets north and south across the century. Central to the guiding spirit of this project is the Handbook's consideration of poetic forms, and a number of essays explore the generic diversity of poetry in Ireland, its various manipulations, reinventions and sometimes repudiations of traditional forms. The last essays in the book examine the work of a 'new' generation of poets from Ireland, concentrating on work published in the last two decades by Justin Quinn, Leontia Flynn, Sinead Morrissey, David Wheatley, Vona Groarke, and others.

First published in 1984, Paul Muldoon's The Faber Book of Contemporary Irish Poetry sought to establish a canon of Irish Poetry since the death of Yeats. Here the reader can explore substantial selections of the poetry of ten of the most consistently impressive of the post-war poets - Patrick Kavanagh, Louis MacNeice, Thomas Kinsella, John Montague, Michael Longley, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Paul Durcan, Tom Paulin and Medbh McGuckian.The editor, Paul Muldoon, is widely regarded as the leading Irish poet of his generation. In this anthology he brings together fellow poets who have maintained and extended Yeats's legacy.

Compact anthology features many of the best works by 59 poets writing in English, among them Edmund Spenser, Christina Rossetti, John Milton, Robert Burns, and William Blake.

This volume celebrates the poetic heritage of the Emerald Isle, with more than 50 classic poems about Ireland's people, history, character and myths and legends. Its contributors include William Butler Yeats, William Allingham and other well-known Irish poets. The book is one of Barnes & Noble's 'Collectible Editions' classics. Each one features authoritative text by the world's greatest authors in an elegantly designed bonded-leather binding, with distinctive gilt edging.