Irish poetry is mainly written in Irish and English, though some is in Scottish Gaelic and some in Hiberno-Latin. The complex interplay between the two main traditions, and between both of them and other poetries in English and Scottish Gaelic, has produced a body of work that is both rich in variety and difficult to categorize. The earliest surviving poems in Irish date back to the 6th century, while the first known poems in English from Ireland date to the 14th century. Although there has always been some cross-fertilization between the two language traditions, an English-language poetry that had absorbed themes and models from Irish did not finally emerge until the 19th century.
Table of Contents:
Part I:
I. Ancient Irish and Scottish
II. Ancient Cornish
III. Ancient Armorican (Breton)
IV. Early Cymric and Medieval Welsh
Part II:
I. Irish (Modern and Contemporary)
II. Scoto-Celtic (Middle Period)
III. Modern and Contemporary Scoto-Celtic
IV. Contemporary Anglo-Celtic Poets (Wales)
V. Contemporary Anglo-Celtic Poets (Manx)
VI. Contemporary Anglo-Celtic Poets (Cornish)
VII. Modern and Contemporary Breton
VIII. The Celtic Fringe
Bliss Carman
The War-Song of Gamelbar
Golden Rowan
A Sea Child
Ellen Mackay Hutchinson
The Quest
Moth Song
June
Hugh M'Culloch
Scent o' Pines
Duncan Campbell Scott
The Reed-Player
Thomas D'Arcy M'CGee
The Celtic Cross
Mary C. G. Byron
The Tryst of the Night
Alice E. Gillington
The Doom-Bar
The Seven Whistlers
Shane Leslie
Requiem
Padraic Colum
An Old Woman of the Roads
A Cradle Song
James Stephens
The Coolun
The Clouds
Eleanor Hull
The Old Woman of Beare
Thomas Macdonagh
From a "Litany of Beauty"
Seosamh Maccathmhaoil
I will go with my Father a-ploughing
A Northern Love Song
Patrick MacGill
Fairy Workers
Francis Ledwidge
The Shadow People
My Mother
Gordon Bottomley
Lyric from "The Crier by Night"
James H. Cousins
The Quest
Padraic H. Pearse
The Fool
Lord Dunsany
The Return of Song
Kenneth Macleod
Dance to your Shadow
Sea Longing
The Reiving Ship
Marjory Kennedy-Fraser
Land of Heart's Desire…
