The First Stage in the Itinerary of Ua Cleirigh: A Study of Austin Clarke's Early Poetry

Abstract

<p>From The Vengeance of Fionn (1917), written in imitation of Herbert Trench's Deirdre Wed, Austin Clarke was to go on to develop his own poetic voice. This thesis, after comparing these two poems, seeks to show the path that Clarke adopts in his early epic poetry. This stage of the young Clarke's poetic journey reveals how he uses the Irish mythological material as private and pUblic symbols and how its use, together with his adaptation of Gaelic prosody and Gaelic genres, places him in a direct line of succession to the Gaelic fili.</p> <p>The thesis traces the change of the poet's focus, from ancient saga to the Celtic-Romanesque period, from the public and private soul-building of the first stage to the public and private soul-searching of the second, from the fili of patriotism to the fili of the satire and the curse. Clarke, however, is constantly a Gaelic poet writing in English verse, a fact which gives a freshness, vividness and natural beauty to his poetry. Clarke's achievement makes him one of the most important influences on Irish verse since Yeats.</p>