Classical Presences in Irish Poetry after 1960: The Answering Voice (The New Antiquity)

This book provides the first overview of classical presences in Anglophone Irish poetry after 1960. Featuring detailed studies of Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, Derek Mahon, and Eavan Boland, including close readings of key poems, it highlights the evolution of Irish poetic engagements with Greece and Rome in the last sixty years. It outlines the contours of a ‘movement’ which has transformed Irish poetry and accompanied its transition from a postcolonial to a transnational model, from sporadic borrowings of images and myths in the poets’ early attempts to define their own voices, to the multiplication of classical adaptations since the late 1980s -- at first at a time of personal and political crises, notably in Northern Ireland, and more recently, as manifestations of the poets’ engagements with European and other foreign literatures. Acknowledgements 7 Contents 9 Chapter 1: A Brief Introduction: Rationale and Objectives 10 Works Cited 19 Chapter 2: The Classics in Modern Irish Poetry 20 1 William Butler Yeats: The Greeks, ‘The Builders of My Soul’ 21 2 Patrick Kavanagh: Homer, a Parochial Poet 27 3 Louis MacNeice: A Modern Classicist 31 4 Growing Up in the 1950s: Literary Influences and Classical Educations 37 Works Cited 50 Chapter 3: Seamus Heaney: ‘Lethe in Moyola’ 53 1 The Classics in Heaney’s Early Poetry, from Death of a Naturalist (1966) to Station Island (1984) 54 2 Heaney’s Classical Turn: The Haw Lantern (1987), The Cure at Troy (1990), and Seeing Things (1991) 59 The Haw Lantern (1987) 59 The Cure at Troy (1990) 61 Seeing Things (1991) 64 3 Heaney’s Classical Work from The Midnight Verdict (1993) to Aeneid VI (2016) 68 ‘Mycenae Lookout’ (1996) 69 The Burial at Thebes (2004) 71 The Midnight Verdict (1993) 75 Electric Light (2001) 78 The Riverbank Field (2007), Human Chain (2010), and Aeneid VI (2016) 82 Works Cited 89 Chapter 4: Michael Longley: The ‘Lapsed Classicist’ 92 1 The Classics in Michael Longley’s Early Poetry: From No Continuing City (1969) to The Echo Gate (1979) 93 2 Michael Longley’s Classical Turn: Gorse Fires (1991) and The Ghost Orchid (1995) 99 Gorse Fires: Michael Longley and the Odyssey 99 The Ghost Orchid and the Iliad 110 The Ghost Orchid and Ovid’s Metamorphoses 114 3 Longley’s Classical Work in the Twenty-First Century, from The Weather in Japan (2000) to Angel Hill (2017) 118 Works Cited 130 Unpublished material 130 Published material 130 Chapter 5: Derek Mahon and Eavan Boland: Marginal Perspectives 133 1 Classical Presences in Derek Mahon: A ‘Very European Poet’ 134 2 Eavan Boland: The Classics and Representations of Womanhood 152 3 Conclusion(s) 170 Works Cited 172 Unpublished Material 172 Published Material 172 Chapter 6: A Classical ‘Revival’? 175 1 Classical Rewritings, The ‘Troubles’, and the Peace Process 176 2 The ‘Fashion’ of the Classical Poem among Contemporary Generations of Irish Poets 182 3 Classical Rewritings in ‘Younger’ Generations? The Exceptions of Peter Fallon, Theo Dorgan, and Peter McDonald 188 4 From Ancient Greece and Rome to Europe 197 5 Conclusion(s) 204 Works Cited 207 Further Reading 210 Index 216 Annotation This work provides an overview of classical presences in Anglophone Irish poetry after 1960. Featuring detailed studies of Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, Derek Mahon, and Eavan Boland, including close readings of key poems, it highlights the evolution of Irish poetic engagements with Greece and Rome in the last sixty years. It outlines the contours of a 'movement' which has transformed Irish poetry and accompanied its transition from a postcolonial to a transnational model, from sporadic borrowings of images and myths in the poets' early attempts to define their own voices, to the multiplication of classical adaptations since the late 1980s - at first at a time of personal and political crises, notably in Northern Ireland, and more recently, as manifestations of the poets' engagements with European and other foreign literatures Front Matter ....Pages i-ix A Brief Introduction: Rationale and Objectives (Florence Impens)....Pages 1-10 The Classics in Modern Irish Poetry (Florence Impens)....Pages 11-43 Seamus Heaney: ‘Lethe in Moyola’ (Florence Impens)....Pages 45-83 Michael Longley: The ‘Lapsed Classicist’ (Florence Impens)....Pages 85-125 Derek Mahon and Eavan Boland: Marginal Perspectives (Florence Impens)....Pages 127-168 A Classical ‘Revival’? (Florence Impens)....Pages 169-203 Back Matter ....Pages 205-219