Ulster's Other Poetry: Verses and Songs of the Province - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1843511606 ISBN 13: 9781843511601

Publisher: The Lilliput Press, 2009

Synopsis

Ulster' S Other Poetry proves that the people of Ulster have never been humourless or dour. Far from it. With its sparkling variety of rhymes, songs and humorous poems from every tradition of the province, the book demonstrates that those who dwell in the northern quarter of Ireland have their own unique take on the strange ways of the world, coupled with a whole-hearted appreciation of good fun.
Spanning over three centuries of Ulster's past, this anthology is full of comic pleasures. In its pages, country ballads jostle with city satires, songs aimed at children meet jingles advertising bread, and university light verses encounter the folk-poems of the Antrim weavers.
Each poem comes with background information about its origins, and each page is illuminated by Hector McDonnell's wonderful, witty drawings. This book is destined to become a much-thumbed, much-loved companion.

About this title

About the Author

John Wyse Jackson and Hector McDonnell have also worked together on Ireland's Other Poetry: Anonymous to Zozimus and Ulster's Other Poetry: Verses and Songs of the Province, both published by The Lilliput Press.

From Booklist

Americans aren’t usually looking for what were once called “party pieces” to recite at the drop of a hat in pub or parish hall, but if they read these collections of funny, speakable verse, they might be inspired to revive an old tradition. The heavily metric and entertainingly rhymed poems absolutely beg to be given voice. Some of the work contained in these collections from the Irish Republic’s capital and the province subsumed by Northern Ireland will be familiar to Irish-American readers, for poems such as Percy French’s “Mountains of Mourne” and the anonymous “Spanish Lady” have been successfully set to music. Most others are occasional pieces, some by famous authors (George Bernard Shaw, Oliver St. John Gogarty), more by obscure or unknown ones, satirizing politics, religion, sexual mores, and culture. But it isn’t the content that makes these pieces so enjoyable. It’s the old-fashioned songlike meters and frequently amusing rhymes (e.g., “axolotl / Popocatapetl”) that please the ear. Especially recommended for libraries with strong Irish collections. --Patricia Monaghan

Edition details

• Publisher: The Lilliput Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1843511606
• ISBN 13: 9781843511601
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 148
• Editor: Jackson John Wyse, Mcdonnell Hector