Description
Book SynopsisWoven Shades of Green is an annotated selection of literature by authors who focus on the natural world and the beauty of Ireland. It begins with the Irish monks and their largely anonymous nature poetry, written at a time when Ireland was heavily forested. A section follows devoted to the changing Irish landscape, through both deforestation and famine, including the nature poetry of William Allingham, and James Clarence Mangan, essays from Thomas Gainford and William Thackerary, and novel excerpts from William Carleton and Emily Lawless. The anthology then turns to the nature literature of the Irish Literary Revival, including Yeats and Synge, and an excerpt from George Moore’s novel
The Lake. Part four shifts to modern Irish nature poetry, beginning with Patrick Kavanaugh, and continuing with the poetry of Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, and others. Finally, the anthology concludes with a section on various Irish naturalist writers, and the unique prose and philosophical nature writing of John Moriarty, followed by a comprehensive list of environmental organizations in Ireland, which seek to preserve the natural beauty of this unique country.
Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.
Trade Review"Irish literature’s ubiquitous relationship to the environment offers a vast reservoir of meditations on humanity’s relationship with non-human natures. This can often prove daunting to both established scholars and novice readers. For all those who are interested in the intersectional concerns that arise from Irish literature’s evocations of the environment, Tim Wenzell’s timely anthology will prove to be especially invaluable. The book brings into sharp focus the unique ways in which Irish history merges with national and geopolitical ecologies, and how geographical questions are always conflated with geological ones.” -- Dr. Malcolm Sen, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
"Time has shaped a distinctive history of Irish nature literature in a deeply gathered, insightful anthology....Itself a generous treasury of Irish nature poetry and prose, the book is ordered by historical responses to religion, romanticism, colonisation, catastrophe, nationalism and material success." * Irish Times *
"Wenzell's annotated selection is timely, looking as it does at a genre that doesn't seem to have bitten in Ireland quite as hard as it has in other publishing territories, a symptom perhaps of a more complicated - and at times harrowing - relationship with the natural world." * Sunday Independent *
"This anthology emphasizes the importance of the natural world of Ireland and the breadth of writing that has embraced it during many centuries." * Gale Literature Book Review Index *
"Readers familiar with Irish literature and ecocriticism will find this volume filled with familiar faces and materials, as well as a few more obscure and exciting ones. This anthology offers scholars a series of substantial pieces from which to expand and further consider Irish nature writing and Irish approaches to the natural world." * Irish Studies Review *
"The Best of the University Presses: 100 Books to Escape the News As Recommended by the UP Community"
https://lithub.com/the-best-of-the-university-presses-a-reading-list/ * LitHub *
"Woven Shades of Green...shows the great variety and depth of editor Tim Wenzell’s knowledge and insight on the topic across history. He possesses a keen sense for choosing not only the key authors and texts, but also often underappreciated writers or lesser known works by famous ones." * James Joyce Literary Supplement *
"A generous and inclusive anthology, focusing mainly on poetry but open also to significant pieces of prose....The engagement by these writers shows a valuable addition to the literature of the natural world." * New Hibernia Review *
"Irish literature’s ubiquitous relationship to the environment offers a vast reservoir of meditations on humanity’s relationship with non-human natures. This can often prove daunting to both established scholars and novice readers. For all those who are interested in the intersectional concerns that arise from Irish literature’s evocations of the environment, Tim Wenzell’s timely anthology will prove to be especially invaluable. The book brings into sharp focus the unique ways in which Irish history merges with national and geopolitical ecologies, and how geographical questions are always conflated with geological ones.” -- Dr. Malcolm Sen, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
"Time has shaped a distinctive history of Irish nature literature in a deeply gathered, insightful anthology....Itself a generous treasury of Irish nature poetry and prose, the book is ordered by historical responses to religion, romanticism, colonisation, catastrophe, nationalism and material success." * Irish Times *
"Wenzell's annotated selection is timely, looking as it does at a genre that doesn't seem to have bitten in Ireland quite as hard as it has in other publishing territories, a symptom perhaps of a more complicated - and at times harrowing - relationship with the natural world." * Sunday Independent *
"This anthology emphasizes the importance of the natural world of Ireland and the breadth of writing that has embraced it during many centuries." * Gale Literature Book Review Index *
"Readers familiar with Irish literature and ecocriticism will find this volume filled with familiar faces and materials, as well as a few more obscure and exciting ones. This anthology offers scholars a series of substantial pieces from which to expand and further consider Irish nature writing and Irish approaches to the natural world." * Irish Studies Review *
"The Best of the University Presses: 100 Books to Escape the News As Recommended by the UP Community"
https://lithub.com/the-best-of-the-university-presses-a-reading-list/ * LitHub *
"Woven Shades of Green...shows the great variety and depth of editor Tim Wenzell’s knowledge and insight on the topic across history. He possesses a keen sense for choosing not only the key authors and texts, but also often underappreciated writers or lesser known works by famous ones." * James Joyce Literary Supplement *
"A generous and inclusive anthology, focusing mainly on poetry but open also to significant pieces of prose....The engagement by these writers shows a valuable addition to the literature of the natural world." * New Hibernia Review *
Table of Contents Foreword by John Wilson Foster
Preface
Part I Early Irish Nature Poetry
Introduction
The MysteryDeer’s Cry St. Columcille of Iona
Columcille Fecit Caelius Sedulius
Invocation Anonymous Early Irish Nature Poetry
The Blackbird by Belfast LoughThe ScribeThe White LakeThe LarkThe Hermit’s SongKing and HermitSong of the SeaSummer Has ComeSong of SummerSummer is GoneA Song of WinterArranBuile Suibhne Part II Nature Writing and the Changing Irish Landscape
Introduction
Thomas Gainsford
A Description of Ireland
William Allingham
WishingThe FairiesThe Lover and BirdsAmong the HeatherIn a Spring GroveThe Ruined Chapel William Hamilton Drummond
The Giant’s Causeway, Book First James Clarence Mangan
The Dawning of the DayThe Fair Hills of Eire, O!The Lovely Land: On a Landscape Painted by Maclise William Makepeace Thackeray
From
Irish Sketchbook William Carleton
From
The Black Prophet Emily Lawless
From
Hurrish: A Study Part III Nature and the Irish Literary Revival
Introduction
Katharine Tynan
The Children of LirHigh SummerIndian SummerNymphsSt. Francis to the BirdsThe Birds’ BargainThe GardenThe Wind that Shakes the Barley A
E (George Russell)
By the Margin of the Great DeepOversoulThe Great BreathThe Voice of the WatersA New WorldA Vision of BeautyCarrowmoreCreationThe Winds of AngusThe Nuts of KnowledgeChildren of LirConnla’s Well From
The Candle of Vision William Butler Yeats
Coole Park, 1929Coole Park and Ballylee, 1931Who Goes with Fergus?Down by the Salley GardensIn the Seven WoodsThe Shadowy Waters (Introductory Lines)
The Cat and the MoonThe Fairy PedantThe Lake Isle of InnisfreeThe Madness of King GollThe Song of Wandering Aengus ...
The Stolen Child ...
The Two Trees ...
The White Birds ...
The Wild Swans at Coole ...
Eva Gore-Booth
The Dreamer ...
Re-Incarnation ...
Secret Waters ...
The Little Waves of BreffnyThe Weaver John Millington Synge
In KerryTo the Oaks of GlencreePreludeIn GlencullenOn an Island From
The Aran Islands Riders to the Sea George Moore
Preface and Chapter 1 from
The Lake Padraic Colum
A DroverA Cradle SongAcross the DoorThe Crane ...
Dublin Roads ..
River Mates ...
Part IV Modern Irish Nature Poetry
Introduction ...
Patrick Kavanaugh ..
PoplarsLilacs in the CityOctober Canal Bank WalkHaving to Live in the CountryInniskeen Road: July Evening On an Apple-Ripe September MorningPrimroseWet Evening in April Louis MacNeice
The Sunlight on the Garden ..
Wolves ...
Tree Party Seamus Heaney ..
Death of a NaturalistThe Salmon Fisher to the Fisherman LimboSt. Kevin and the Blackbird .
Eavan Boland
The Lost LandThe RiverMountain TimeThis MomentOde to SuburbiaEscape ...
A Sparrow Hawk in the Suburbs Moya Cannon
Bees under SnowEavesdroppingTwo Ivory SwansWinter View from Binn BriocainPrimaveraThe Tube-Case MakersCrannogHazelnuts John Montague
All Legendary ObstaclesThe Wild Dog RoseThe Trout Michael Longley
The OspreyBadgerHedgehogKingfisherRobinOut of the SeaHer Mime of the Lame SeagullCarrigskeewaunSaint Francis to the Birds Derek Mahon
The SeasonsAchillAphrodite’s PoolThe Mayo TaoPenhurst PlaceThe WoodsThe Dream Play “A Hermit”
Leaves Sean Lysaght
Golden EagleThe Clare Island SurveyGoldcrest From
Bird Sweeney Desmond Egan
The Great BlasketSunday EveningMeadowsweetSnow Snow Snow SnowA Pigeon DeadEnvoi Mary O’Malley
AbsentThe Man of AranPorpoisesThe Price of Silk is Paid in GoldThe StormLiaden with a Mortgage Briefly Tastes the Stars Rosemarie Rowley
Osborn O h - Aimbirgin; A Cry from the Heart of a Poet—Morning in BearaThe Blackbird of Derry of the CairnIn Praise of the Hill Between of HowthBlind Seamus McCourt: Welcome to the Bird’Kitty Dwyer Part V The Literature of Irish Naturalists
Introduction
John Tyndall
Belfast Address
Robert Lloyd Praeger
From
The Way That I Went Michael Viney
From
A Year’s Turning From
The Irish Times, “Another Life”
Tim Robinson
From
Connemara: Listening to the Wind, “Preface”
From
Connemara: Listening to the Wind, “The Boneyard”
John Moriarty
From
Invoking Ireland Appendix: Environmental Organizations in Ireland
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index
