Verse in English from Tudor and Stuart Ireland

Just as Andrew Carpenter's 1998 anthology Verse in English from Eighteenth-Century Ireland changed our perception of eighteenth-century Irish writing in English, the present work challenges the general assumption that little or no verse was written in Tudor or Stuart Ireland. As this exciting and original collection of verse in English from sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Ireland shows, hundreds of poets were active in Ireland at the time. The poems of a few of them - particularly Edmund Spenser and the young Jonathan Swift - are well-known today: but almost everything else in this anthology - taken from manuscripts or from the original printings - appears here for the first time for three hundred years. The poets who wrote these verses, otherwise unknown men and women from the worlds of the Old English and native Irish, or visitors or settlers newly arrived from England, emerge from the pages of this book as sardonic observers of the dangerous times in which they lived, and as writers of originality, freshness and, sometimes - surprisingly - wit.Among many memorable and moving poems in this extraordinary book are love songs, laments, death-bed repentances, accounts of military life in Ireland, ballads marking natural calamities, dedicatory poems, elegies, political lampoons, theological speculations, coarse poems, gentle poems, angry poems, mad poems. There are verses from well-bred coteries in Dublin Castle and verses scratched on gateposts; there are hymns and curses, echoes and allegories, prayers and squibs. The book proves triumphantly that, from the beginning of the Tudor period until the Battle of the Boyne, much of Ireland was alive with the sound of verse in English. Verse in English from Tudor and Stuart Ireland is a major contribution to Irish cultural history, which introduces to the modern reader a wonderful range of original and previously unknown Irish poetic voices.

“"Prior to the 18th century, verse was often an oral account of ordinary events, and written verses were generally circulated among one's social set or printed for wider distribution. Carpenter (Univ. College Dublin) has collected surviving works of men and women residing in Ireland from early Tudor times through the Stuart years. Although many of these individuals would not have considered themselves poets, their verses in English offer an outsider's view of Ireland. Like his previous anthology, Verse in English from Eighteenth-Century Ireland (CH, Nov'98), the present collection demonstrates the number and variety of poets writing at the time, only a few of whom are well known. Carpenter's material ranges in every genre from love songs and hymns to political lampoons. In addition, a few dramatic prologues and epilogues offer a glimpse of the cultural and political milieu of English speakers in Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries. Although only a few women are represented in the text, the survey is a balanced summary of a diverse and prolific literary scene. Summing Up: Recommended. Libraries with special collections in Irish studies or late Renaissance and Restoration literature; upper-division undergraduates and above." -- M. H. Kealy, Immaculata University in Choice "[I]n presenting a generous selection of the English verse produced there [in Ireland], Carpenter provides cultural, literary and social historians with a fascinating collection of materials through which to explore what might be termed English cultural mentalities about Ireland...This anthology is the product of enormous amount of scholarly labour and enthusiasm..."--Times Literary Supplement, Denville, New Jersey”

"Prior to the 18th century, verse was often an oral account of ordinary events, and written verses were generally circulated among one's social set or printed for wider distribution. Carpenter (Univ. College Dublin) has collected surviving works of men and women residing in Ireland from early Tudor times through the Stuart years. Although many of these individuals would not have considered themselves poets, their verses in English offer an outsider's view of Ireland. Like his previous anthology, Verse in English from Eighteenth-Century Ireland (CH, Nov'98), the present collection demonstrates the number and variety of poets writing at the time, only a few of whom are well known. Carpenter's material ranges in every genre from love songs and hymns to political lampoons. In addition, a few dramatic prologues and epilogues offer a glimpse of the cultural and political milieu of English speakers in Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries. Although only a few women are represented in the text, the survey is a balanced summary of a diverse and prolific literary scene. Summing Up: Recommended. Libraries with special collections in Irish studies or late Renaissance and Restoration literature; upper-division undergraduates and above."--M. H. Kealy, Immaculata University "CHOICE "
"[I]n presenting a generous selection of the English verse produced there [in Ireland], Carpenter provides cultural, literary and social historians with a fascinating collection of materials through which to explore what might be termed English cultural mentalities about Ireland This anthology is the product of enormous amount of scholarly labour and enthusiasm "

Dr Andrew Carpenter, Department of English Literature, University College, Dublin, is the joint founding editor of The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing Volumes I-III, and Verse in English From Eighteenth Century Ireland. He is a former publisher of collector's titles under the Cadenus Press, a bibliophile and expert on Eighteenth Century Literature.

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