Irish Poems

<p>With its roots in the devotional verse of the early Christian church and the long lyric poems of the Irish bards Irish poetry has a rich and robust tradition both of engagement and self-reflection. It has grappled long with politics and has provided the most eloquent response to Ireland's turbulent history mediating and mitigating histories of loyalty and loss; it has soaked itself in the Irish landscape and Celtic myth; it has encompassed religion so much a part of Ireland's cultural heritage. At the same time Irish poets have given their own original slant to everyday experience and affairs of the heart.<br>Thematically organized and spanning many centuries this selection also features a section of Gaelic poetry in translation notably excerpts from the 18th-century epic masterpiece Brian Merriman's <i>The Midnight Court.</i></p>