The rich and varied nature of twentieth-century Anglo-Irish and Irish poetry is reflected in the essays presented in Politics and the Rhetoric of Poetry: Perspectives on Modern Anglo-Irish Poetry. The linguistic and theoretical observations formulated in close readings of apparently non-political texts disclose implied political positions and suggest to what extent rhetoric and the nature of language are at the root of such questions as how should we read contemporary poetry. How can poems play a part in the resolution of the political and historic conflict? Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill's versions of The Táin, Brendan Kennelly's Cromwell, Paul Muldoon's Madoc and Ciaran Carson's Belfast Confetti are analysed in detail, as is the relationship between rhetoric and politics in Seamus Heaney and Derek Mahon. Earlier twentieth-century poets such as Thomas Kinsella, John Hewitt, Patrick Kavanagh, John Montague, Louis MacNeice and Padraic Colum are also examined. The contingent nature of language is recognized by many of these poets, and the seventeen essays bring out the political charge hidden in the poetry. This includes the deliberate choice of the poetic form, the internal dialogue or the complexity of voices in the poem and a particular preoccupation with endings. These essays demonstrate Yeats's contention that "Deliberation can be so intensified that it becomes synonymous with inspiration".
Contents: Tjebbe A. WESTENDORP: Politics and the Rhetoric of Poetry: Introduction. Honor O'CONNOR: Brendan Kennelly's Cromwell. Mary O'CONNOR: Sex, Lies, and Sovereignty: Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill's Re-Vision of The Táin. Peter ROBINSON: Muldoon's Humour. Kathleen MULLANEY: Derek Mahon's Poetry. Yuichi MIDZUNOE: A Quest for Identity in Modern Irish Poets: Hewitt, Kennelly, Heaney, and Muldoon. Ruth FLEISCHMANN: "The Blood our Fathers Spilt": Rhetoric and Poetry. Giuseppe SERPILLO: Twentieth-Century Irish Poetry and the Strategy of Composition. Catharine MALLOY: Beyond an Arrangement of Words: Discursive Relations in Seamus Heaney's Field Work. Charles BENNETT: The Use of Memory: On Heaney's Stations. Robert DRUCE: Seamus Heaney: Funambulist on a Razor's Edge. Alasdair D.F. MACRAE: Varieties of Commitment in Seamus Heaney. Perro de JONG: Proteus in Ulster: Notes on the Politics of Metamorphosis. Martine de CLERCQ: Seamus Heaney's Politics and Poetics in The Government of the Tongue. Donatella BADIN: A Tool for Eliciting Order from Experience: The Poetry of Thomas Kinsella. Désirée HIRST: John Montague: A Poet's Vision of His Country's Place in Time. Christopher Jon FAUSKE: A Life Merely Glimpsed: Louis MacNeice at the End of the Anglo-Irish Tradition. Sanford STERNLICHT: Padraic and Mary Colum: Bridging Worlds - Dublin and New York, Poetry and Criticism, Men and Women. Notes on Contributors.
Contents: Tjebbe A. WESTENDORP: Politics and the Rhetoric of Poetry: Introduction. Honor O'CONNOR: Brendan Kennelly's Cromwell. Mary O'CONNOR: Sex, Lies, and Sovereignty: Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill's Re-Vision of The Táin. Peter ROBINSON: Muldoon's Humour. Kathleen MULLANEY: Derek Mahon's Poetry. Yuichi MIDZUNOE: A Quest for Identity in Modern Irish Poets: Hewitt, Kennelly, Heaney, and Muldoon. Ruth FLEISCHMANN: "The Blood our Fathers Spilt": Rhetoric and Poetry. Giuseppe SERPILLO: Twentieth-Century Irish Poetry and the Strategy of Composition. Catharine MALLOY: Beyond an Arrangement of Words: Discursive Relations in Seamus Heaney's Field Work. Charles BENNETT: The Use of Memory: On Heaney's Stations. Robert DRUCE: Seamus Heaney: Funambulist on a Razor's Edge. Alasdair D.F. MACRAE: Varieties of Commitment in Seamus Heaney. Perro de JONG: Proteus in Ulster: Notes on the Politics of Metamorphosis. Martine de CLERCQ: Seamus Heaney's Politics and Poetics in The Government of the Tongue. Donatella BADIN: A Tool for Eliciting Order from Experience: The Poetry of Thomas Kinsella. Désirée HIRST: John Montague: A Poet's Vision of His Country's Place in Time. Christopher Jon FAUSKE: A Life Merely Glimpsed: Louis MacNeice at the End of the Anglo-Irish Tradition. Sanford STERNLICHT: Padraic and Mary Colum: Bridging Worlds - Dublin and New York, Poetry and Criticism, Men and Women. Notes on Contributors.