Modern Irish Poetry: An Anthology

This invaluable snapshot of poetry in Ireland today not only includes generous and interesting selections from the central figures--Heaney, Boland, Mahon, Longley, Muldoon, McGuckian--but also harbors the work of vital poets not known as well in the States: the delightful Paul Durcan, the enchanting Irish (in translation) of Nuala Ni Dhomhnail and many others. But perhaps most interestingly, Crotty brings to his anthology a distinct thesis: much of Irish writing in this century can be seen as a ""quarrel"" with the ""overbearing example of W.B. Yeats."" Although one may quarrel with Crotty in this regard, it is refreshing to have an anthology that can be quarrelled with, as opposed to the usual inarguably worthy selections. And Crotty's perspective (he is a young poet and translator from the Irish from Cork) makes for some eye-opening takes on such poets as Thomas Kinsella and Patrick Kavanagh, whose styles are highlighted by the juxtaposition with Yeats. Crotty also seizes the opportunity to dismiss an early-century experimentalism--led by Beckett and Brian Coffey--as a dead end. The result is an anthology that proceeds with the liveliness of a literary argument in a Dublin pub. (July)