New Irish Poetry
This poetry derives more from the effects of violence than from its origins or implications. It is written from a context, and some of the despair of that context should be apparent, because the political problem is almost wholly without solution. As with other violent moments, any poetry that does not refer to or derive from it can be accused of evasion. That is not an accusation made against—or a judgment made on—poets afflicted with peacetime; it indicates when politics no longer informs but comes to condition artistic response. Michael Longley has noted in a lecture how tentatively and with what reservations Irish poets first attempted poems referring to the violence. Necessity can seem opportunism to critics, who are with impunity students of politics. . . .
Whatever erosion violence has made into Northern Ireland, its spasmodic and secretive nature does not make everyone a witness, and domestic life proceeds. It would be more surprising if these poets wrote only about the afterimages and echoes of violence than if they wrote nothing about it at all.