Chapter One examines the personal and literary background of the founders or The Nation, studies Duffy's first newspaper, The Vindicator (1839-42), but finds it unimpressive an a literary organ. Chapter Two examines the true poetry policy of The Nation, produces evidence of an unexpected variety in the poetry of the first year but concedes that the tone of the year's political poetry is responsible for the derogatory terms coat frequently used about "Young Ireland" poetry. Chapter Three examines the poetry of year two, dispels the myth of uniformity of style and tone, even in political poetry, and demonatrates the movement away from political and propagandistic verse. It further proves that non political poets considerably outnumber political in year three and that The Elation adopted a policy for poetry much more liberal than it had originally proposed. Chapter Four again demonstrates that the poetry of year four was predominantly non political and argues that this year produced the paper's best poetry in the Gaelic translations of Mangan. It further shows how the movement away from political verse continued in year five, a year in which dependence on the poetesses "Mary", "Iva" and "Speraaza" became considerable and notes that disillusionment with O'Connell was the main theme in political poetry. The chapter concludes by regretting; the dimming of The Nation's noble literary experiment in year six when, after the outbreak of revolution in France, the paper allowed its literary columns to be flooded with wretched political verse. Chapter Five argues that Yeats's main criticisms of "Young Ireland" poetry were based mainly on the unrepresentative anthology. The Spirit of the Nation and that personal animosity influenced his literary pronouncements after his defeat by Cavan Duffy in the Nov Irish Library dispute. Chapter Six argues the need for a properly representative anthology of "Young Ireland" poetry.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:363582 |
| Date | January 1977 |
| Creators | Bradley, William |
| Publisher | University of London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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