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      • Poetry From Ireland ISSUE XXIV December 2016
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      • ISSUE XXVI December 2017
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      • ISSUE XXVII July 2018
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  • Collaborations
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    • 2010-2013 >
      • Sylvia Plath by Dr. Nidhi Mehta >
        • Chapter-1(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-2(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-3(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-4(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-5(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-6(Sylvia Plath)
      • Prose Poems of Tagore by Dr. Bina Biswas >
        • Chapter-1(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-2(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-3(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-4(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-5(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-6(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-7(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-8(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-9(Rabindranath Tagore)
      • Kazi Nazrul Islam by Dr. Shamenaz Shaikh >
        • Chapter 1(Nazrul Islam)
        • Chapter 2(Nazrul Islam)
        • Chapter 3(Nazrul Islam)
      • Kabir's Poetry by Dr. Anshu Pandey >
        • Chapter 1(Kabir's Poetry)
        • Chapter 2(Kabir's Poetry)
        • Chapter 3(Kabir's Poetry)
      • My mind's not right by Dr. Vicky Gilpin >
        • Chapter- 1 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-2 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-3 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-4 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
      • On Poetry & Poets by Abhay K.
      • Poetry of Kamla Das –A True Voice Of Bourgeoisie Women In India by Dr.Shikha Saxena
      • Identity Issues in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel by Dr.Arvind Nawale & Prashant Mothe*
      • Nissim Ezekiel’s Latter-Day Psalms: His Religious and Philosophical Speculations By Dr. Pallavi Srivastava
      • The Moping Owl : the Epitome of Melancholy by Zinia Mitra
      • Gary Soto’s Vision of Chicano Experiences: The Elements of San Joaquin and Human Nature by Paula Hayes
      • Sri Aurobindo: A Poet By Aju Mukhopadhyay
      • Wordsworthian Romanticism in the Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra: Nature and the Reflective Capabilities of a Poetic Self by Paula Hayes
      • Reflective Journey of T.S. Eliot: From Philosophy to Poetry by Syed Ahmad Raza Abidi
      • North East Indian Poetry: ‘Peace’ in Violence by Ananya .S. Guha
    • 2014-2015 >
      • From The Hidden World of Poetry: Unravelling Celtic mythology in Contemporary Irish Poetry Adam Wyeth
      • Alchemy’s Drama: Conflict, Resolution and Poiesis in the Poetic Work of Art by Michelle Bitting
      • Amir Khushrau: The Musical Soul of India by Dr. Shamenaz
      • PUT YOUR HANDS ON ME: POETRY'S EROTIC ART by Elena Karina Byrne
      • Celtic and Urban Landscapes in Irish Poetry by Linda Ibbotson
      • Trickster at the African Crossroads and the Bridge to the Blues in America by Michelle Bitting
    • 2015-2016 >
      • Orogeny/Erogeny: The “nonsense” of language and the poetics of Ed Dorn T Thilleman
      • Erika Burkart: Fragments, Shards, and Visions by Marc Vincenz
      • English Women Poets and Indian politics
    • 2016-2017 >
      • Children’s Poetry in India- A Case Study of Adil Jussawalla and Ananya Guha by Shruti Sareen
      • Thirteen Thoughts on Poetry in the Digital Age by Mandy kAHN
    • 2017-2018 >
      • From Self-Portrait with Dogwood: A Route of Evanescence by Christopher Merrill
      • Impure Poetry by Tony Barnstone
      • On the Poets: Contributors in Context by Donald Gardner
      • Punching above its Weight: Dutch Poetry in English, a Selection, 2013-2017 by Jane Draycott
  • Print Editions

​Issue XXIV December 2016

Poetry from Ireland

 edited by Patrick Cotter

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Every litterateur shouldn’t be concerned just about reading and writing for oneself. There must be few among the lot to endeavour towards making materials available for reading. There must be few who find it useful to devote time behind building avenues for writers apart from reading and writing  for themselves. History washes off the contribution of editors leaving the useful residue in the form of novels, short stories, poems, dramas or any other narrative of literature but still editing and publishing has to be done to allow literature to flourish. The people behind The Enchanting Verses Literary Review have been moving with this realism in mind and the good thing is that they never complain while creating avenues for writers and readers. They have divided their hours judiciously to act both as writers and editors. I cannot thank Patrick Cotter enough for knitting this marvellous issue together.


Until this edition, I had never ventured much into Irish poetry except W.B. Yeats. The reason is obvious— Yeats’s connection to Tagore and Tagore’s influence over Indians. Yeats in his introduction to Tagore’s book Gitanjali said, “We write long books where no page perhaps has any quality to make writing a pleasure, being confident in some general design, just as we fight and make money and fill our heads with politics---all dull things in the doing---while Mr. Tagore, like the Indian civilization itself, has been content to discover the soul and surrender himself to its spontaneity.” I still doubt Yeats’s understanding of Tagore’s poetry but the aesthetics of emotional sensitivities was congruous with Tagore’s muses. Similarly, I believe the understanding of any anglophone Asian about this anthology will rest within the emotional whereabouts of the poets presented through their poems in this anthology. I consider poetry cannot be spontaneous but thoughts can be. Writing always takes time and poetry is no exception. Moreover, it is much similar to painting. Painting is drawing lines in a particular fashion to create something intriguing or something that soothes our eyes. Poetry is using words instead of those lines and arranging them in a distinct fashion to create something that presents the poet’s perspective in N no of ways. Each poet in this anthology presents a distinct  style of shaping their thoughts into words.


Coming to the language, English cannot be termed as a language with a firm linguistic quality. Dialects differ from country to country where English is spoken by a considerable majority. There are roots hidden beneath various dialects and they have been the cause of various types of English that are written and spoken today. For example, Indian English has to be the outcome of prevailing Indian dialects and the British colonisation in India. Similarly, the English in many of the poems in the anthology seems to present a dialect of their own as compared to American, British, Australian or Indian English. Though English is the main language of Ireland, the effect of vernaculars and the local linguistic slant cannot be denied. I had a feeling while reading this edition that Irish poets prefer to be extremely personal at times and sometimes it is almost impossible to get to the theme without knowing the background of a particular poem. But, the fascinating thing is these poems are all well dressed and pruned and they allow us to muse and question ourselves towards the end. Every genuine poetry lover looks out for interpretations rather than landing upon concrete conclusions while reading a poem. The Irish poets seem to provide enough room for these interpretations. Starting from John Montague’s Star Song to Thomas McCarthy’s Windswept the issue is a panorama of expressions, fresh turns of phrase and viewpoints that would help us understand what Poetry is to Ireland and what Ireland is to the world of Poetry.

​
Sonnet Mondal
Editor in Chief
The Enchanting Verses Literary Review


John Montague - Enchanting Poet 

PictureJohn Montague
John Montague (1929-2016)  was one of the best known Irish contemporary poets.  He was born in New York and brought up in Tyrone. He has published a number of volumes of poetry, two collections of short stories and two volumes of memoir.  In 1998 he became the first occupant of the Ireland Chair of Poetry. In 2010, he was honoured with Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur, France’s highest civil award.

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin- Editor's Choice 

PictureEiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin was educated at University College Cork and The University of Oxford. She is a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and an emeritus professor of the School of English which she joined in 1966. Ní Chuilleanáin is a founder of the literary magazine Cyphers. Her first collection won the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award in 1973. In 2010 The Sun-fish was the winner of the Canadian-based International Griffin Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the Poetry Now Award. In 2016 she was appointed Ireland Professor of Poetry by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins.


from Patrick Cotter, Guest Editor Issue XXIV

PicturePatrick Cotter
English has been the language with which Irish poets have built international reputations, the achievements of W.B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney mirror that of Rabindranath Tagore. But just as India has fabulous poets in Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil and in hundreds of other tongues, Ireland has marvellous poets working in the Irish language and in this miscellany of Irish poets you will find some. Most Anglophone Indians also speak another language. Most Anglophone Irish do not. Ireland shared a colonial master with India. Ireland endured occupation a few centuries longer which meant that the island’s native language suffered attrition and while remaining culturally significant is spoken by only a minority today.
The Irish writing in English have distinguished themselves with a variety of English which is askew from standard English, conveying a different music and different way of looking at the world, shaped by the grammar and logic of the Irish language. Narrative – derived from the ancient literature in the Irish language predominates our poetry, but explorations of family and history are prevalent too. Since the 1990s Irish women have been published in increasing numbers and asserting themselves as accomplished poets. There is an old joke about there being a standing army of Irish poets but there are at least two hundred currently in print with books to call their own. It is impossible to represent them all. In 2015 I guest-edited an Irish issue of Poetry and presented a selection of poets under forty. Most of the poets here are over fifty years of age. Anyone who would like to seek out other Irish poets not represented here could begin by checking out the following websites:

http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/country/item/30/Ireland
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/toc/detail/71530
http://www.munsterlit.ie/Southword/issues_index.html7


All Poets & Poems ​ ​

John W. Sexton
Matthew Geden
James Harpur (credit John Minihan)
Colm Breathnach
Bernard O'Donoghue
Enda Wyley
Mary Noonan photo by Sarah Dawson
Moya Cannon
Paul Casey
Seán Lysaght
Celia de Fréine
Gerry Murphy
Gerard Smyth
Colette Bryce
Michael Coady
Martina Evans
Pat Boran
Eileen Sheehan
Ciaran O'Driscoll
Mary O'Donnell
Peter Sirr
Paula Cunningham
Afric McGlinchey
John F. Deane
Vona Groarke
Greg Delanty
Eleanor Hooker
Thomas McCarthy
Matthew Sweeney
Jean O'Brien
Nessa O’Mahony
Katie Donovan
Gabriel Rosenstock

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Social Realism Thwarted
by Patrick Cotter




The Boys of Bluehill
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, The Gallery Press, 2015, €11.95pbk €18.50hbk; Wake Forest University Press $13.95pbk
​
There Now Eamon Grennan, The Gallery Press, 2015, €11.95pbk €18.50hbk; Graywolf Press in the USA


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  • Home
  • About Us
    • Contact
    • Media Coverages
    • Copyright Notice
    • VerseVille Blog
  • Submissions
    • Poetry and Essays Guidelines
    • Book Review Guidelines
    • Research Series Guidelines
  • Masthead
  • Editions
    • 2011 Issues >
      • ISSUE-XIV November 2011
    • 2012 Issues >
      • ISSUE-XV March 2012
      • ISSUE-XVI July 2012
      • ISSUE-XVII November 2012
    • 2013 Issues >
      • ISSUE-XVIII April 2013
      • ISSUE XIX November 2013
    • 2014 Issues >
      • ISSUE XX May 2014
    • 2015 Issues >
      • ISSUE XXI February 2015
      • Contemporary Indian English Poetry ISSUE XXII November 2015
    • 2016 Issues >
      • ISSUE XXIII August 2016
      • Poetry From Ireland ISSUE XXIV December 2016
    • 2017 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXV August 2017
      • ISSUE XXVI December 2017
    • 2018 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXVII July 2018
      • ISSUE XXVIII November 2018
    • 2019 Issues >
      • ISSUE XXIX July 2019
    • 2020 ISSUES >
      • Issue XXX February 2020
      • ISSUE XXXI December 2020
  • Collaborations
    • Macedonian Collaboration
    • Collaboration with Dutch Foundation for Literature
  • Interviews
  • Prose on Poetry and Poets
    • 2010-2013 >
      • Sylvia Plath by Dr. Nidhi Mehta >
        • Chapter-1(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-2(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-3(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-4(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-5(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-6(Sylvia Plath)
      • Prose Poems of Tagore by Dr. Bina Biswas >
        • Chapter-1(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-2(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-3(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-4(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-5(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-6(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-7(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-8(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-9(Rabindranath Tagore)
      • Kazi Nazrul Islam by Dr. Shamenaz Shaikh >
        • Chapter 1(Nazrul Islam)
        • Chapter 2(Nazrul Islam)
        • Chapter 3(Nazrul Islam)
      • Kabir's Poetry by Dr. Anshu Pandey >
        • Chapter 1(Kabir's Poetry)
        • Chapter 2(Kabir's Poetry)
        • Chapter 3(Kabir's Poetry)
      • My mind's not right by Dr. Vicky Gilpin >
        • Chapter- 1 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-2 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-3 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-4 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
      • On Poetry & Poets by Abhay K.
      • Poetry of Kamla Das –A True Voice Of Bourgeoisie Women In India by Dr.Shikha Saxena
      • Identity Issues in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel by Dr.Arvind Nawale & Prashant Mothe*
      • Nissim Ezekiel’s Latter-Day Psalms: His Religious and Philosophical Speculations By Dr. Pallavi Srivastava
      • The Moping Owl : the Epitome of Melancholy by Zinia Mitra
      • Gary Soto’s Vision of Chicano Experiences: The Elements of San Joaquin and Human Nature by Paula Hayes
      • Sri Aurobindo: A Poet By Aju Mukhopadhyay
      • Wordsworthian Romanticism in the Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra: Nature and the Reflective Capabilities of a Poetic Self by Paula Hayes
      • Reflective Journey of T.S. Eliot: From Philosophy to Poetry by Syed Ahmad Raza Abidi
      • North East Indian Poetry: ‘Peace’ in Violence by Ananya .S. Guha
    • 2014-2015 >
      • From The Hidden World of Poetry: Unravelling Celtic mythology in Contemporary Irish Poetry Adam Wyeth
      • Alchemy’s Drama: Conflict, Resolution and Poiesis in the Poetic Work of Art by Michelle Bitting
      • Amir Khushrau: The Musical Soul of India by Dr. Shamenaz
      • PUT YOUR HANDS ON ME: POETRY'S EROTIC ART by Elena Karina Byrne
      • Celtic and Urban Landscapes in Irish Poetry by Linda Ibbotson
      • Trickster at the African Crossroads and the Bridge to the Blues in America by Michelle Bitting
    • 2015-2016 >
      • Orogeny/Erogeny: The “nonsense” of language and the poetics of Ed Dorn T Thilleman
      • Erika Burkart: Fragments, Shards, and Visions by Marc Vincenz
      • English Women Poets and Indian politics
    • 2016-2017 >
      • Children’s Poetry in India- A Case Study of Adil Jussawalla and Ananya Guha by Shruti Sareen
      • Thirteen Thoughts on Poetry in the Digital Age by Mandy kAHN
    • 2017-2018 >
      • From Self-Portrait with Dogwood: A Route of Evanescence by Christopher Merrill
      • Impure Poetry by Tony Barnstone
      • On the Poets: Contributors in Context by Donald Gardner
      • Punching above its Weight: Dutch Poetry in English, a Selection, 2013-2017 by Jane Draycott
  • Print Editions