This magnificent anthology presents the Irish tradition as a unity: verse in Irish and English, usually regarded separately, are shown as elements in a shared and often painful history. The selection begins in pre-Christian times and closes with nineteenth- and twentieth-century verse. Poets featured include Swift, Goldsmith, W. B. Yeats, Patrick Kavanagh, and Seamus Heaney.

This anthology presents the Irish tradition as a unity: verse in Irish and English, usually regarded separately, are shown as elements in a shared and often painful history. The selection is in three parts: it begins with earliest, pre-Christian times and the first poetry in English from the fourteenth century; moves on to Irish bardic poetry and English poetry in the era of Swift and Goldsmith; and closes with nineteenth- and twentieth-century poets, from Davis, Mangan, Yeats, and Ferguson to Austin Clarke, Patrick Kavanagh, and Seamus Heaney.

Review from previous edition `the first coherent attempt to present the entire range of Irish poetry in both languages to an English speaking readership ... [a] really magnificent achievement.' Irish Times `For a practical demonstration of the Irishness of Irish poetry...in its many beautiful manifestations, one can turn with confidence to Thomas Kinsella's selection' Financial Times