Ireland has given the world more than its fair share of great poets. Below, we introduce ten classic poems by some of the greatest Irish poets who have ever lived. Some of these are poems about Ireland and Irish history, while others focus on more universal themes and subjects. Thomas […]
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle analyses a minor classic of Anglo-Saxon poetry ‘The Seafarer’ is one of the earliest poems in English literature. Its ‘plot’ can be summarised easily enough: an elderly sailor speaks to us about his alienation from the world. The 124-line […]
‘Requiescat’ is a poem by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), who was better known as a playwright than a poet – indeed, better known as a novelist, a short-story writer, even for being Oscar Wilde than he ever was for his poetry. Yet Wilde had won the Newdigate Prize at Oxford for […]