Hurt Into Poetry: The Politics of Sentiment in Northern Irish Poetry, 1966-1998 Open Access

Abstract

Abstract
"Hurt Into Poetry: The Politics of Sentiment in Northern Irish Poetry, 1966-1998"
By Simon B. Kress
When W.H. Auden wrote in his elegy for Yeats "Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry. / Now
Ireland has her madness and her weather still, / For poetry makes nothing happen" he
aligned three strands that dominate twentieth-century aesthetics: sentiment, the nation,
and poetry's apparent lack of political efficacy. Reconsidering the role of politics in
Northern Irish poetry of the Troubles, this study argues that with its aspirations to
rehabilitate human sensitivity, to advance an aesthetic ideal of order, and to foster public
affections, Troubles poetry is paradigmatic of modern aesthetics. Moreover, I argue that
Ireland itself is central to this development. In mapping out an "Irish" aesthetic, I posit
Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Thomas Moore's Irish
Melodies (1808), and the poetry of W.B. Yeats as foundational texts for the aesthetic
contemplation of political events and contexts.
While focused on the specific case of Ireland, my project also points toward a
general paradigm for understanding the relationship between aesthetics, postcoloniality,
and the rise of contemporary human rights. At the center of this nexus, is the radical
contrast between the claims of individual subjectivity and the impersonal force of
violence. Combining postcolonial theories of cosmopolitanism and eighteenth-century
theories of moral sentiment, my project explores how this complex dynamic informs the
adamant commitment of Northern Irish poets to aesthetics as an antithesis to political and
sectarian violence. I argue that the poetry of Michael Longley and Seamus Heaney, and
that of Northern Irish poets more generally, establishes an alternative politics, in which an
affective politics grounded in sympathy is used to critique more abstract modes of
political reasoning that may promote violence. Finally, I suggest that Troubles poetry
contributes to the contemporary discourse of human rights by finding in literary
sentiment a kind of aspirational basis for universal justice. Specifically, by recasting
national political conflicts as sources of moral feeling for international audiences,
Troubles poetry suggests a model for the role of postcolonial literatures in shaping the
current discourse of human rights.

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION:
A TROUBLED POETIC: NORTHERN IRISH POLITICS, AESTHETICS, AND
POSTCOLONIALITY

1
CHAPTER 1:
HURT INTO POETRY: TROUBLES POETRY, SENTIMENT, AND WOUNDING
52
CHAPTER 2:
HEARING IS BELIEVING: THOMAS MOORE, SEAMUS HEANEY, AND THE FIGURE OF
MUSIC
101
CHAPTER 3:
SELF-QUARRELING: AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND THE PUBLIC POEM, 1966-1975
142
CHAPTER 4:
LOVERS' QUARRELS: LONGLEY, YEATS, AND THE POLITICS OF LOVE
192
WORKS CITED
238

About this Dissertation

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	English
Degree	PhD
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Literature, English Literature, Modern
Keyword	Sentiment Northern Irish Poetry Michael Longley Seamus Heaney Poetry and Politics
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Higgins, Geraldine, Emory University
Committee Members	Schuchard, W Ronald, Emory University Petraglia-Bahri, Deepika, Emory University

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