Description
One Wide Expanse is the first volume in The Poet's Chair series, which will publish the public lectures of the Ireland Professors of Poetry. The Ireland Chair of Poetry was established in 1998 following the award of the Nobel Prize of Literature to Seamus Heaney and is supported by Queen's University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaion. The next two volumes will contain the lectures of Harry Clifton and Paula Meehan. This series follows on from the publication of the lectures of John Montague, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill and Paul Durcan in The Poet's Chair, published in 2008. In this volume, the distinguished Irish poet Michael Longley - whose poetry has transcended political and cultural boundaries throughout his career - reflects on what has influenced his craft. Longley opens with an 'autobiography in poetry' where he recounts the poets and poems that have influenced him as both a reader and writer of poetry. He discusses his intimate relationship with Derek Mahon and Seamus Heaney along with other poets from around the world.The second lecture explores how influential the classical literatures of Greece and Rome have been on English poetry, highlighting how he has used these literatures in his own work, often to portray the Troubles in his native Northern Ireland.Longley closes with a very personal discussion of the influence that the west of Ireland has had on his poetry, his life, and his 'spiritual education'. The poet's love of nature and the environment shines through and extracts from his poems portray his deep understanding of the West. This illuminating volume gives readers a rare insight into the creative process of one of Ireland's leading contemporary poets who was Ireland Professor of Poetry from 2007 to 2010.
‘Far from decadent fancies, these gorgeously produced books are full of wisdom, wit and fire, exploring above all else how Irish verse is not a limited pursuit, but is a living part of our culture cutting to the heart of how we might think, how we might live, what we might do. Both books should be read by anyone with an interest not just in Irish poetry, but in Irish culture and its changing place in the world today.’
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Alan Gillis, Irish Literary Supplement
March 2018
‘This beautifully produced book is part of the series The Poet’s Chair: Writings from the Ireland Chair of Poetry, which collects the lectures given by the holder of the Chair during his or her tenure. This volume collects the lectures delivered by Michael Longley, a poet whose dedication and rigorous approach to poetic composition, together with his wit and modesty as a man, have made him an exemplary figure for generations of Irish poets.’
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Michael O’Loughlin, The Irish Times
14 November 2015
‘Michael Longley takes a quasi-religious view of poetry, believing that it is a ‘calling’, not a profession … “It’s my life, it’s my religion, it’s the way I make sense of the world”. That world has encompassed growing up in Belfast before the Troubles, an education in Classics at Trinity College Dublin, and time divided between two homes, in Belfast and Carrigskeewaun … where the landscape and nature have inspired much of his verse.’
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Hugh McFadden, Books Ireland
November/December 2015
‘Opinionated yet calm, cushioned within the Ulster establishment yet as liberal as any dissident, [Longley] has drawn thousands of readers to his poetry of fearsome integrity … These books from the Ireland Chair of Poetry will, over time, constitute a prodigious handbook of poetic craft … What may have begun as a very fine idea to record the voices of these distinguished poet-Professors has now developed into a UCD master-class on the craft of poetry.’
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The Irish Examiner
29 August 2015
‘In his first lecture [Longley] describes how he came to know, love and to write poetry … The second essay … deals with the topic of classics as he read them and as they ought to be known in a world that seems to cherish them less and less. This is a vital and interesting piece. Even more interesting is the third essay on the role of the western landscape and the Irish language in Irish poetry … An excellent and insightful book.’
The Irish Catholic
September 2015
‘This illuminating volume, beautifully produced by UCD Press, gives readers a rare insight into the creative process of one of Ireland’s leading contemporary poets … A must-read for fans of literature, in particular poetry.’
Ulster Tatler
September 2015
‘The slim hardback, One Wide Expanse, has been beautifully produced by UCD Press and contains Longley’s three formal lectures.’
The Irish Times
22 June 2015
‘What goes on inside a poet’s head? In this first volume of UCD Press’s The Poet’s Chair, the distinguished Irish Poet Michael Longley … reflects on what has influenced his craft. A rare insight into the creative process of one of Ireland's leading contemporary poets'
The Irish Voice Scotland
August 2015
'In this first volume of The Poet’s Chair, the distinguished Irish poet Michael Longley – whose poetry has transcended political and cultural boundaries throughout his career – reflects on what has influenced his craft. One Wide Expanse gives readers a rare insight into the creative process of one of Ireland’s leading contemporary poets who was Ireland Professor of Poetry from 2007 to 2010.'
Read the article here
Donegal Democrat
September 2015
‘Longley’s love of nature and the environment shines through and extracts from his poems portray his deep understanding of the West.’
Read the article here
Connacht Tribune
3 September 2015
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