Pastoral Elegy in Contemporary British and Irish Poetry

Introduction: Contemporary Pastoral Elegy \ 1. Inheritance and Commemoration: Memorial Landscapes in Michael Longley's Poetry \ 2. Community Poetry 1: Pastoral Elegy in Ted Hughes' Remains of Elmet , Moortown Diary and River \ 3. Community Poetry 2: Pastoral Elegy in Ted Hughes' Birthday Letters \ 4. Leaving Home: Seamus Heaney's Parental Elegies \ 5. Pastoral and Aftermath: Seamus Heaney \ 6. 'Routine Periodic Faunal Extinctions': Peter Reading's Ecological Elegies \ 7. Contemporary Female Poets and Pastoral Elegy \ 8. Grief Brought to Numbers: Paul Muldoon's Circular Elegies \ 9. The Ethics of Pastoral Elegy: Douglas Dunn and Christopher Reid \ Conclusion: The Future of Pastoral Elegy \ Bibliography \ Index

Iain Twiddy is Associate Professor of English in the Faculty of Media and Communication at Hokkaido University, Japan.

'Iain Twiddy is a wonderfully acute reader witha deep understanding ot the historical and psycholological roots of pastoralelegy. The result is a compelling account of the adaptability and continuingvitality of the genre.' -- Neil Roberts, Emeritus Professor of English Literature, University of Sheffield, UK 'Iain Twiddy'sinspiring account of contemporary poetry pays tribute to the resilience andpersistence of one of the oldest forms of writing - the pastoral elegy. In thishighly informative and comprehensive study, he ranges from the classicalorigins of pastoral elegy to its modern manifestations in the writings ofMichael Longley, Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, and others. He showswith impressive conviction how contemporary poets have continued to draw on theenergies and resources of pastoral elegy in confronting loss and adjusting tosocial and political change. The versions of pastoral we encounter in thiscompelling book are poems that are dynamically involved in the traditionalelegiac processes of memory and consolation, but also fully alert to thechallenges of their own time, including the devastation of war and the impactof environmental change. The book finds hope and uplift in the revitalisedforms of pastoral elegy in contemporary British and Irish poetry. In itsmeticulously detailed attention to language and form, it shows (in the words ofWallace Stevens) how each poem is "the cry of its occasion".' -- Stephen Regan, Professor of English, Durham University, UK