LT 354 - The Finest Music – The Craft of Irish Poetry
Over 12 weeks this course will facilitate student engagement with writing creatively with a concentration on poetry. Concurrently participants will trace the development of Irish poetry from early Irish poetry to Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire through WB Yeats and Seamus Heaney, and on through the 21st Century to younger generation poets and poets in the Irish language. Though constructed as a survey course, from the outset students will also be exposed to a wide range of contemporary voices in order to give a flavour of the excitement and diversity of the current scene and its relationship to the tradition. Taking place in Dublin, UNESCO City of Literature, the course is a unique opportunity to use the literary heritage and present-day life of the city as a venue for inspiration and learning.
The course will explore themes of nation and conflict up to and through the Northern Irish Troubles in the poetry of Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Paul Muldoon, Colette Bryce and others; the dual language tradition and major poets in the Irish language including Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, as well the representation of women in the canon, both as subject and object, through the poetry of Eavan Boland, Paula Meehan and others. The concerns and influences of the generation of Irish poets who emerged from the 1990’s up to the present day continue to be varied and among those we will look at are Colette Bryce, Victoria Kennefick, Ailbhe Darcy, and others. Our last session will look at the lively performance poetry and spoken word scene in Dublin.
Concurrent with this we will focus on the craft of poetry and development of student’s own writing. They will respond to a varied program of exercises, craft challenges and ‘poetry ideas’ as well as supportive critiques, in order to draft and redraft a body of work. In weekly workshop sessions we will explore and draw on relevant aspects of craft drawn from the week’s reading and seminar. These will include exploring rhyme and meter in forms such as the sonnet and the ballad as well as in free verse. We will also take example from the way poets have drawn from myth, daily life, observation and memory.
Course-related trips will include a visit to Marsh’s Library, The Chester Beatty Museum, the National Gallery of Ireland Seamus Heaney exhibition, and the National Gallery.