Twentieth-Century Irish Poetry

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

The course follows the development of twentieth-century Irish poetry beginning with the unusual career of W.B. Yeats and continuing through the poets of the 'Ulster Renaissance.' This approach will necessitate treating the century as a long one. During the semester we will discuss topics such as Regionalism, Nationalism, Myth-making, Skepticism, Pastoralism, and Cosmopolitanism. Many of these notions are at odds with one another, and this tension will highlight the poetry's contemporary relevance. Just as importantly, we will pay close attention to the craft of Irish poets, and to how different aesthetic strains evolved from one end of the century to the other. Writers include W.B. Yeats, Austin Clarke, Louis MacNeice, John Hewitt, Patrick Kavanagh, Thomas Kinsella, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Eavan Boland, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, and Paul Muldoon.