Book contains agenda and abstracts/papers of presentation given at OITAF-NACS symposium the Alyeska resort in Alaska. (jvl).

The first book of its kind, Out of What Began traces the development of a distinctive tradition of Irish poetry over the course of three centuries. Beginning with Jonathan Swift in the early eighteenth century and concluding with such contemporary poets as Seamus Heaney and Eavan Boland, Gregory A. Schirmer looks at the work of nearly a hundred poets. Considering the evolving political and social environments in which they lived and wrote, Schirmer shows how Irish poetry and culture have come to be shaped by the struggle to define Irish identity. Schirmer includes a large number of accomplished poets who have been unjustly neglected in standard accounts of Irish literature; many of these writers are women, whose work has been kept in the shadows cast by that of well-known male poets. He also emphasizes the importance of political poetry in a country that continues to be torn by sectarian violence. With its rich selection of poetic voices, Out of What Began reveals the political, social, and religious diversity of Irish culture.

Excerpt from Bards of the Gael and Gall: Examples of the Poetic Literature of Erinn, Done Into English After the Metres and Modes of the Gael May not a buried literature have claims upon our attention? If it be of interest to delve and discover a statue or a city, long concealed, should it not be more attractive to come upon a kingdom, where long-forgotten peoples live, love, and act? What a stir there would be, could some delver declare that he had, in his researches underground, discovered a lost literature of Gaul or of Germany, and in it the song, story, and music of nations speaking for themselves, whom now we know but by the description of alien foes. Such a treasure-trove is beyond hope. The Romans went over the regions they subjugated, like the sands of Sahara over meadows, destroying all that was of native growth. Of the Bards they preserved nothing but the name. From the Gauls they adopted articles of attire, their sculptors depicted the native warriors with torques and truis, but their men of letters saved nothing from the wreck of mental work. The term "barbarians" sufficed then as now to sway opinion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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