Poetry and plantation in early modern Ireland: Speed to Swift
Published in Irish Studies Review, January 2026.
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Abstract
This essay explores early modern Anglophone poetry on Ireland, touching on neglected metrical innovators like Richard Stanihurst, an audacious translator of Virgil, as well as more familiar figures such as Spenser, Milton, and Marvell. Plantation poetry provides fresh angles on the ways in which an adverse Irish context could produce poetry that was both impactful and experimental. Joad Raymond’s idea of “The Daily Muse,” or poetry as journalism, fits Ireland, which in the period furnished the perfect interface for poetry as muse and news and gave rise to lasting lyrical work as well as opportunistic ephemera. When placed alongside lesser known and anonymous writers whose light verse may appear too transient for analysis, celebrated canonical works are brought into sharper relief. Bill McCormack’s brilliant analysis of Lycidas and David Norbrook’s rich contextual study of Marvell’s Horatian Ode demonstrate exactly what immersion in an Irish environment can provide by way of reorienting early modern English poetry. The essay concludes by exploring some early modern echoes in modern Irish poetry.