Introduction

The comparative study of the literatures of Ireland and Scotland has emerged as a distinct and buoyant field in recent years. This collection of new essays offers the first sustained comparison of modern Irish and Scottish poetry, featuring close readings of texts within broad historical and political contextualisation.

Themes and Focus

Playing on influences, crossovers, connections, disconnections and differences, the affinities and opposites traced in this book cross both Irish and Scottish poetry in many directions.

Contributors and Perspectives

Contributors include major scholars of the new archipelagic approach, as well as leading Irish and Scottish poets providing important insights into current creative practice.

Poets Discussed

Poets discussed include W. B. Yeats, Hugh MacDiarmid, Sorley MacLean, Louis MacNeice, Edwin Morgan, Douglas Dunn, Seamus Heaney, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Michael Longley, Medbh McGuckian, Nuala ni Dhomhnaill, Don Paterson and Kathleen Jamie.

Conclusion

This book is a major contribution to our understanding of poetry from these islands in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.