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1000 Years of Irish Poetry

The Gaelic and Anglo Irish Poets from Pagan Times to the Present
Kathleen Hoagland
Introduction by Malachy McCourt
ISBN 9781566490108 (paperback)
Published in November 2000
MSRP $20.00
"You can find almost everything in it. We very much doubt anyone is going to produce a better anthology of Irish poetry."
- The New York Times
"A gargantuan omnibus of song, a one-volume reference library. The like of it, for scholarship and inclusiveness, we shall probably not see again."
- The Philadelphia Inquirer
"A major contribution to world literature."
- Saturday Review
Cannons should roar, fireworks should light up the sky, and cheering crowds should throng to the streets at the news of the rebirth of 1000 Years of Irish Poetry, to risk resuscitating an old cliché: a veritable treasure trove. Within its covers you will unearth nuggets, and indeed slabs of literary gold, of lyric poetry, of satire, of folk songs, of wild humor, of war, of love and sadness and longing and death. With the republication of this book, the Irish recover under their rook of stars all the great poets and writers who have been falsely claimed by the Saxon crown and its minions, even our reprobates. I envy any man, woman, or child about to embark on this glorious poetic journey, and if you were to pick up this book and not walk through life with it as your very own possession, there is not a love poem of loss to salve your wounded if unknowing heart.
-- Malachy McCourt, from the Introduction