In the pantheon of Irish literature, few figures cast as long a shadow as John Millington Synge, a man who compressed into his brief thirty-seven years a literary output that would reshape the very notion of Irish dramatic art. Born on April 16, 1871, into the comfortable Protestant Anglo-Irish gentry of County Dublin, Synge would grow to become one of Ireland's most celebrated and controversial playwrights, creating…
“In a good play every speech should be as fully flavoured as a nut or apple, and there should be no writing that is not a pleasure to the ear.”
Neighbourhood:
Edwardian Poets, Georgian Poets, Irish Poets, Nature Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Wonder, Sorrow
James Stephens, born on 2 February 1882 and dead on 26 December 1950, occupies an unusual and still slightly elusive place in Irish literature. He was a poet, novelist, storyteller, essayist, translator, broadcaster, and tireless performer of his own work; he belonged to the generation of the Irish Literary Revival, yet he never fitted comfortably into the movement’s principal categories. He was not, like W. B. Yeats…
“The imagination is the one thing besides honesty that a human being should have.”
Neighbourhood:
Georgian Poets, Irish Poets, Mystical & Spiritual Poets, Nature Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Wonder, Peace
