Irish Poetry
Looking at our shelves of current Irish Poetry, Seamus Heaney once wryly remarked: "There's an awful lot of it in it, isn't there?" In fact, long before a mouse seeking cat distracted an early Irish Monk enough at his Scriptorium for the latter to pen the immortal "Pangur Bán", poetry has been a staple part of the Irish cultural diet. The bard's status was as high as that of the genealogist or the musician until the fall of the Gaelic world after the Battle of Kinsale. During the worse years of the Penal Laws, the poet kept the patriotic fires burning by composing the famous Aisling or vision poems. It also behoved the poet to lament the fallen Gaelic order and bewail the loss of their chieftains, not to forget their beautiful Dánta Gradh and somewhat livelier drinking songs. During the eighteenth century this poetic tradition was mingled with the savage satire fo the acerbic Swift or the rural idyll of the more rustic Goldsmith and produced a romantic nationalist verse that was to sustain Ireland throughout the nineteenth century. Then came W.B Yeats, the celtic twilight and the Irish renaissance and Irish poetry faced the twentieth century with a growing strength and confidence that was to give it a worldwide status. This was enforced by the land based verse of the rough and ready lyricist Kavanagh, before handing on the Laurel to the man from Bellaghy, Seamus Heaney. In fact, poetry is so imbedded in the Irish cultural landscape that it caused John Montague to remark: "Poetry is the Whiskey of the Soul, Prose is the Stout/ Let them both pour out."
For a more general look at Irish literature, please go to our Irish Literature section.
For specific Irish poets, please go to our Irish Writers section.