Irish poets to know and love

James Joyce

James Joyce

1882 - 1941

The character based on Joyce himself in his books is surnamed Dedalus, after the mythical master artist and maker of labyrinths: Joyce was both.

Anna Livia Plurabelle

Buy a book in brown paper from Faber and Faber

Anna Livia Plurabelle

From "Pomes, Pennyeach"

Tilly

He travels after a winter sun

Joyce's feelings on the death of his mother

Yeats

1865 - 1939

Man of affairs, mystic and poetic genius.

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

Yeats's bleak prophecy after the First World War

Leda and the swan

A sudden blow: the great wings beating still

Leda and the Swan

Sailing to Byzantium

That is no country for old men

Yeats's sailing to Byzantium

The Wild Swans at Coole

The trees are in their autumn beauty

A melancholy but beautiful reflection on change and the passage of time