A career-spanning selection of Thomas Kinsella's essays and reviews, this remarkable compendium makes available for the first time key works in modern Irish literature such as the poet s discussions of the Gaelic tradition. Alongside writings on such figures as W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, Austin Clarke, Louis le Brocquy, and Sean O Riada, this comprehensive reference extends understanding of Kinsella's work by including his reflections on his own poetry. In addition, Kinsella evaluates the works of fellow writers such as W. H. Auden, Donald Davie, William Empson, Robert Graves, and Marianne...

A Fire in the Head contains two complementary works, both of which emerged out of the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake in Japan.The title poem-sequence takes the 5-7-5 form of the haiku to create an accumulating narrative of life adjusting to altered circumstance. The essay 'What Are Poets For?. . .' explores the efficacy of art when confronted with calamity, and from within the experience of the catastrophic events offers a response to the question: in a time of need, what use is a poem? ("In these three-line poems, Andrew Fitzsimons has captured what Basho called 'the revelatory light...