The Penguin Book of Irish Verse

This anthology of verse illustrates the origins and development of the Irish poetic tradition. From the 17th century to the present day, the poetry of Ireland is testimony to the power of the imagination to withstand systematic oppression and the forces of history. In this selection Brendan Kennelly has chosen to emphasize the fusion of Irish and Anglo-Irish poetry, with the beauty of many Gaelic poems rendered into eloquent English by Frank O'Connor. The whole spectrum of Irish verse is covered, with anonymous and lesser-known poems standing alongside those by such famous artists as Swift, Goldsmith, Yeats and, more recently, Beckett, MacNeice, Heaney and Muldoon.