Ferocious Humanism: A Critical Anthology Of Irish Poetry: Critical Anthology Of Irish Poetry Before Swift To Yeats And After

Including samples of Gaelic literature in translation, Ferocious Humanism collects Irish poetry from the age of Swift to the middle of the twentieth century. Major names include Aogan O Rathaille, Jonathan Swift, Oliver Goldsmith, Henrietta Battier, James Clarence Mangan, Lady Wilde, anonymous writers on famine and terror, Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats and some of his survivors. Disinterring a tradition of enlightened outrage, the editor reconstructs a sustained yet distinctively Irish poetic voice down the centuries. Devoted to humane values yet wise to the duplicity of all self-proclaimed virtue, their voice has repeatedly adopted the mask of dramatic ferocity, with Swift's savage indignation setting the tone.