Continuity and Change in Irish Poetry, 1966-2010

Eric Falci traces the evolution of some of the most exciting poetry written since World War II. In detailed readings of well-known Irish poets such as Paul Muldoon, Ciaran Carson, Seamus Heaney, Medbh McGuckian and Michael Longley, this book examines the changing roles of the poet within contemporary Irish culture.

In this book, Eric Falci reshapes the story of Irish poetry since the 1960s. He shows how polemical arguments concerning the role of poetry in 1960s Ireland evolve into a set of formal and compositional strategies for emerging Irish poets in the mid 1970s and beyond. His study presents a cohesive picture of the relationship between Northern Irish poetry from the Republic of Ireland since World War II and traces the lineage of lyric practice from a unique historical perspective. At the same time, it recontextualizes late twentieth-century Irish poetry within the long Irish poetic tradition, places Irish writing more accurately within the field of postwar Anglophone poetry and offers a new account of lyric's critical capacities. Of interest to Irish studies and twentieth-century poetry specialists, this book provides a much-needed guide to some of the most inventive and notable poetry written in the past forty years.