Discover 3 Irish Poets

​With St. Valentine’s Day coming up, you may be thinking of sending cards or posting a message on your social media accounts to express your love and appreciation for your dear ones. But for these tender feelings, it’s sometimes hard to come up with the right words. 

That’s when we turn to the poets, and Ireland has produced many excellent ones. Here we offer you three lovely examples of Irish word-weaving with a little about the poets who wrote them.

Seamus Heaney

​Seamus Heaney won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past." He was born in County Derry in Northern Ireland in 1939 and lived for many years in Dublin. During his career as a poet, playwright, translator, and professor he taught at Harvard and Oxford Universities and published many books. He died in Dublin in 2013.

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Scaffolding

Masons, when they start upon a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;

Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.

And yet all this comes down when the job’s done
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.

So if, my dear, there sometimes seems to be
Old bridges breaking between you and me

Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall.

​There’s nothing quite like hearing poetry read by the poet who wrote it, especially when he has a charming Irish accent: 

William Butler Yeats

​Though an early teacher described William Butler Yeats’ work as "only fair. Perhaps better in Latin than in any other subject. Very poor in spelling," by 1923 he had won the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation." He was born near Dublin in 1865 and played an integral role in the Irish Literary Revival, founding the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and writing many plays performed there. His long creative and eventful life ended in 1939 in France.

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When You Are Old

When you are old and grey and full of sleep, 
And nodding by the fire, take down this book, 
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look 
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace, 
And loved your beauty with love false or true, 
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, 
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars, 
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled 
And paced upon the mountains overhead 
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

​You can hear the melodious voice of British actor Tom Hiddleston reading this poem here:

John Boyle O'Reilly

​Born in Co. Meath in 1844, John Boyle O’Reilly was sentenced to 20 years in a penal colony in the wilds of Australia in 1867 for his involvement with the Fenians, but he escaped to America two years later where he was able to speak up for the Irish community and culture as editor of a newspaper in Boston. A prolific writer, he aslo published a novel and three collections of poetry before his untimely death in Massachusetts in 1890 at the age of 46.

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The White Rose

The red rose whispers of passion,
And the white rose breathes of love;
O, the red rose is a falcon,
And the white rose is a dove.

But I send you a cream-white rosebud
With a flush on its petal tips;
For the love that is purest and sweetest
Has a kiss of desire on the lips.

​Some brilliant animator on YouTube made this video bringing O’Reilly’s prison photo to life to recite the poem.

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