Reading the Ground: The Poetry of Thomas Kinsella

Thomas Kinsella began writing in the 1950s when Irish poets were struggling to emerge from what he identified as the "double shadow of Yeats and English verse." Throughout his career Kinsella sought to establish his identity as an Irish poet writing in English and to determine his place within the dual Irish tradition, Gaelic and English.

In this comprehensive study of Kinsella's poetry, Brian John explores the poet's development within both the Irish and the English contexts and defines the...