The New Oxford Book of Irish VerseThomas Kinsella Never have the immense riches of Irish poetry been displayed to better advantage in this magnificent new collection. The Irish poetic tradition is generally not considered in its entirety. For the poetry in Irish, especially in the early and medieval periods, the emphasis is frequently specialist or linguistic, while the poetry in English is usually considered as an adjunct to the English tradition. Thomas Kinsella's new anthology views the tradition as a whole, with two major bodies of poetry in interaction--sharing, for a great part of their existence, a very painful history. The selection is divided into three "Books." Book I opens with the earliest, pre-Christian poetry in Old Irish and ends in the fourteenth century with the first Irish poetry in the English language. Book II, from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, presents the age of bardic poetry, and the great poetry of its decline, with the "new" poetry in Irish that followed it, and the era of Swift and Goldsmith. Book III covers the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from the beggar poet Raifteiri, in Irish, and his contemporary, Thomas Moore, to the work of a number of poets born about the time of Yeats's death. A feature of the anthology is the body of new translations by Thomas Kinsella. Versions have been used, where appropriate, from his 1981 publication, Poems of the Dispossessed: 1600-1900 (with The Midnight Court now completed) but new versions have been made for all other parts of the work. These amount to a significant new selection: of the early poetry (with some poems from the Latin), of four centuries of bardic poetry, and of a nubmer of modern poems. About the Editor: Thomas Kinsella, poet and translator, divides his time between Dublin and Philadelphia, where he is Professor of English at Temple University. Among his publications are the Tain (1969), Poems 1956-1973, Peppercanister Poems 1972-1978, An Duanaire: Poems of the Dispossessed 1600-1900, and Songs of the Psyche and Her Vertical Smile (1985). Features: A magnificent new collection of Irish verse that treats the tradition as a unified whole . Spans the body of poetry from the pre-Christian era to the present . Contains new translations of much verse originally written in Irish" |
From inside the book
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Page 97
... hand I cherished , King of the graves and bells , that hand never forsworn -my pain it is not beneath my head ! 71 On the Gift of a Knife My friend's knife by my side -not slight my love for that lady ! Nor will it fade as the days pass ...
... hand I cherished , King of the graves and bells , that hand never forsworn -my pain it is not beneath my head ! 71 On the Gift of a Knife My friend's knife by my side -not slight my love for that lady ! Nor will it fade as the days pass ...
Page 219
... hand and menacing prance , and the fearful tremble of treacherous enemies . You were set to ride your slim white - faced steed and Saxons saluted down to the ground , not from goodwill but by dint of fear -though you died at their hands ...
... hand and menacing prance , and the fearful tremble of treacherous enemies . You were set to ride your slim white - faced steed and Saxons saluted down to the ground , not from goodwill but by dint of fear -though you died at their hands ...
Page 283
... Hand ! ' I sought the hall , And , behold ! -a change From light to darkness , from joy to woe ! King , nobles , all , Looked aghast and strange ; The minstrel - group sate in dumbest show ! Had some great crime Wrought this dread amaze ...
... Hand ! ' I sought the hall , And , behold ! -a change From light to darkness , from joy to woe ! King , nobles , all , Looked aghast and strange ; The minstrel - group sate in dumbest show ! Had some great crime Wrought this dread amaze ...
Contents
TO THE SIXTH CENTURY | 3 |
From the Latin | 9 |
BLÁTHMAC MAC CON BRETTAN | 15 |
Copyright | |
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ANONYMOUS Art Ó Laoghaire Banba bardic name battle beth birds blackbird blood body born breast bright brow century Christ cold Colum Colum Cille currach Dark Rosaleen dead dear death drink Dublin earth Eogan eyes fair father Fearghal Fódla gold Goll Goll Mac Morna gone green grey grief hair hand head hear heart Heaven hill holy honour Ireland Irish Irish poetry King lady lament land leave lero light live look Lord mighty Mighty Mary mind monkes Morrígan mourn never night noble o'er pain Pangur Bán plain poem poet poetry praise pray prince Róisín Dubh round Says the Shan Shan Van vocht shining sing sleep Sliab song soul sweet swift Tadhg Ther nis thing Thomas Kinsella thou tree turn verse voice wall wave Whan wind woman women wood wretched young