Perhaps you would like a little culture with your corned beef and cabbage today?
Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day comes Wes Davis’ An Anthology of Modern Irish Poetry, the most comprehensive work of its kind, collecting nearly 800 poems from more than 50 of the most intriguing and important Irish poets writing since World War II.
The anthology, arranged in order of poets’ birth, surveys a broad range of poets from the Republic of Ireland and the North, including writers known primarily for work in other fields–Samuel Beckett and Aidan Carl Mathews, being two–as well as poets who write primarily in Gaelic, like Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, and have gained attention in the United States through translation by the likes of Seamus Heaney and Paul Muldoon; and still others whose work has not been widely available in English translation, such as Seán Ó Ríordáin and Cathal Ó Searcaigh.
Davis fills nearly 1,000 pages with poems you may already know and others you could learn today, and offers headnotes for each poet, providing historical overview, informative short essays and helpful notes.
So today, keep an eye out for leprechauns, try green beer, and enjoy the best of Patrick Kavanagh.
Listen to an interview with Davis here.