In August 1652, the English Parliament passed the Act for the Settlement of Ireland, which provided for the wholesale confiscation of land from Irish Catholics and its redistribution to English and Scottish Protestants. The act was the legal basis for the Cromwellian settlement, which dispossessed the Catholic landowning class and transferred vast estates to Protestant settlers. The act's harsh provisions were a major factor in the consolidation of Protestant ascendancy in Ireland.

The Act for the Settlement of Ireland is a subject of bitter poetic commentary, with Irish poets lamenting the loss of land and the destruction of the Catholic gentry. The act's legal language is contrasted with the poetic tradition of Irish landownership, creating a powerful sense of injustice. The act's legacy of dispossession is a recurring theme in Irish poetry, from the aisling poems to the work of contemporary writers who grapple with the long shadow of the Cromwellian settlement.