Jeremiah Joseph Callanan, born in 1795 and dead on 19 September 1839, occupies a distinctive if sometimes precarious place in the history of nineteenth-century Irish poetry. He is remembered above all for poems that gave English-language readers access to the emotional force, compressed imagery, and historical sorrow of Irish Gaelic song. His best-known pieces, including “The Outlaw of Loch Lene,” “The Dirge of O’Sul…
Neighbourhood:
Irish Poets, Nature Poets, Romantic Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Tenderness, Sorrow
In the pantheon of Irish literary figures who shaped the cultural renaissance of the early twentieth century, Joseph Campbell occupies a unique position as both a guardian of ancient Gaelic traditions and a modernizing force in Irish poetry. Born on July 15, 1879, in Belfast, and dying on June 6, 1944, Campbell lived through one of the most tumultuous and transformative periods in Irish history. His life spanned the…
“And mixed up with the twilight and silence is a profound melancholy that rises out of the landscape itself, or is read into it by the greyness of one’s own experience.”
Neighbourhood:
Folk & Ballad Poets, Georgian Poets, Irish Poets, Nature Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Spirituality, Wonder