Discovering Irish Poetry

Are you ready to discover or rediscover some Irish Poetry? You are in luck! Our beginner’s guide will help you pick those first poems to revisit or discover afresh. It’s time to let your imagination free and let well-chosen words cast their spell and transport you.

Over the millennia, poetry has had many uses, from a king wanting their greatness and valour remembered, to political activism, to entertainment, offering the wisdom of experience or examining the human condition as we circle a fireball hung in space. Irish poems come in all shapes and sizes. In some verses, the meaning is direct and hits you like bulldozers; others just as powerful may take a lifetime or more to decode, examine and even argue over. Ready to take that leap into your imagination with us? Here are some recommendations from giants of Irish poetry.

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Table of Contents

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
Seamus Heaney (1939–2013)
Alice Kinsella (b. 1993)
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Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

The man who could throw shade with the best, the ‘Enfant Terrible’ of Victorian Ireland. He gave us immortal gems like “Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination” and “Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast“. Oscar Wilde’s work ranges from riotously funny to poems that document the most tragic events of life in a period of history far less tolerant of diversity than today.

He often preached the importance of style in life and art and attacking the narrow mindedness of the Victorian area. However, a personal favourite is the ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’, telling us of his experience of being locked up under a ‘tent of blue’, the nature of love that ‘each man kills, the lonely procession of prison life and ultimately, a death sentence delivered. It is a work of genius and a great place to start or revisit once again –

Other works to consider –

The Grave of Keats
Sonnet to Liberty
Her Voice
Requiescat
The Garden of Eros
A Vision
Apologia
Magdalen Walks

Find books of Oscar Wilde’s poetry available from local businesses around Ireland.

William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

Willam Butler Yeats was born on 13 June 1865 in Dublin and was one of the greatest English language poets of the early 20th century. He published his early poems in the mid-1880s while a student at Dublin’s Metropolitan School of Art. Later, Yeats dedicated his time to writing plays and became a political figure in the new Irish Free State, serving as a senator for six years in 1922. He received a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923 for his writings. According to the official Nobel Prize website, Yeats was selected “for his always inspired poetry, a highly artistic form that gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation.”

He is loved by readers and scholars alike for his simple natural style. He often referenced the occult and mysticism in his poetry, likening the human life cycle and history to the lunar cycle. With a new moon, existence born gradually falls away until it disappears and is reborn on the next new moon. If you are starting with Yeats’s poetry, I’d recommend the Lake Isle Of Innisfree, an ode to the simplicity and peace of being in nature that feels universal. Interestingly when I visited the Isle of Innisfree, I found a tiny mound of scrub and not a majestic mythical place. It only adds to the work because the Isle Of Innisfree is within. It’s any little mound of earth, gatepost, or outdoor bench we find to take a moment to ponder.

Other works to consider

Meru
Leda and the Swan
The Song of Wandering Aengus
He Wishes His Beloved Were Dead
When You are Old
The Circus Animal’s Desertion
The Sad Shepherd
The Second Coming
Easter, 1916

Find books of William Yeat’s poetry available from local businesses around Ireland.

Seamus Heaney (1939–2013)

Seamus Heaney was born in Casteldawson, County Derry, Northern Ireland. In the New York Times Book review, he once described himself as someone who “emerged from a hidden, a buried life and entered the realm of education.” Thus, he became a student in English at Queen’s University. Heaney was moved by artists who created poetry from their local and native backgrounds. Therefore, he used his background as a poet from Northern Ireland to reflect upon the “troubles”, the often political struggles that plagued the country during his time growing up there. He is known as one of the major poets of the 19th-century and received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995. “This was for his works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past”. Heaney was the author of over 20 volumes of poetry, so it might be a little challenging to know where to start when delving into his works. An excellent place to start may well be the end with his last published work – Humain Chain. One poem, in particular, tickled my fancy in typical multi-layered Heaney style – ‘Had I Not Been Awake… I would have missed it’ which speaks of a single moment but is also a tongue in cheek metaphor for our own lives from birth till death.

Take a look at his top 10 poems for other places to start:

Death of a Naturalist
Digging
Bogland
Two Lorries
Clearances
Personal Helicon
Mid-Term Break
Mossbawn Sunlight
Blackberry-Picking

Find books of Seamus Heaney’s Poems available from local businesses around Ireland.

Alice Kinsella (b. 1993)

Now that you have your foot on the path of Irish Poetry, here is a living poet to check out; Alice Kinsella. Born in Dublin in 1993, she is newer to the scene than the others we have mentioned. Kinsella’s work has been published in publications like The Fem Literary Magazine and The Sunday Independent. She is also included in Poethead’s indices ‘Women Poets’ and ‘Contemporary Irish Women Poets’.

Alice’s work feels fresh. My favourite, ‘Handbag’, is a perfect time capsule of 21st-century living, completely relatable, but if you ask me, I’ll deny it. Nipple Tassels! Me! Of Course Not! 😉 – Read Handbag here

Some other poems to look out for: