Out of What Began

This study traces the development of a distinctive tradition of Irish poetry over 300 years. Beginning with Swift in the early 18th century and concluding with contemporary poets including Heaney, the author considers how Irish poetry and culture are shaped by the struggle for Irish identity.

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This study traces the development of a distinctive tradition of Irish poetry over the course of three centuries. Beginning with Jonathan Swift in the early 18th century and concluding with such contemporary poets as Seamus Heaney and Eavan Boland, the author looks at the work of nearly 100 poets. Considering the evolving political and social environments in which they lived and wrote, Schirmer shows how Irish poetry and culture have come to be shaped by the struggle to define Irish identity. Schirmer includes a large number of accomplished poets he feels have been unjustly neglected in standard accounts of Irish literature; many of these writers are women whose work has been kept in the shadows cast by that of well-known male poets. He also emphasizes the importance of political poetry in a country which continues to be torn by sectarian violence.