More or less business as usual with very few new names emerging unless
I am unaware of them. Having been away nine years means no shoes on the
ground grapevine contact. Looking at Keston Sutherland in some detail
online made me wonder where an Irish KS or indeed Emily Critchley or
Andrea Brady might be? All of them reflect the best of poetic advances
in the twilight years of the Cambridge era of poets.
It also raises the impact of the Cambridge generation on Irish poetry
to an extent and in an Irish context the Brian Coffey/Denis Devlin/
Niall Montgomery legacy has been filled by the Maurice Scully/Randolph
Healy/Billy Mills/Catherine Walsh generation. The first named Beckett
generation writers emerged from.U.C.D.. The second has Maurice from
Trinity College in a literary context only though of course Randolph
graduated from Trinity in another field of study. The Beckett
generation were close in a social context which in a more loose way
could be applied to the second wave of S/H/M/W. I of course am aware of
Michael Smith as a pioneer from The Lace Curtain magazine & New Writers
Press. Trevor Joyce rebirthed at Assembling Alternatives in 1996 at The
University of New Hampshire to play an active role. But the initial
switch was driven by Maurice Scully from the early eighties. His
editing of The Belle and The Beau were important as well as his own
prolific work.
Reading Sutherland made me think poetry is indeed valid and worthwhile.
He make majestic sweeps in his work covering vast ground. Looking at
Andrea Brady on motherhood contrasted with Eavan Boland's "Night Feed"
is chalk and cheese in terms of the wider range. I allow for Eavan's
book being written many years before in fairness.
To conclude for now I ask did J.H. Prynne make any real impact in
Ireland and ask how Irish poets view Prynne? More anon comrades!
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