Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 3. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 29)
Péter Dolmányos: An Outline of the Relationship Between Romanticism and Contemporary Irish Poetry
22 PÉTER DOLMÁNYOS about the fragmentation of human personality. 1 8 The Modernists mourned the loss of totality and the fragmented world in the wake of it; in a way this is also the lost innocence, though on a more comprehensive level. The Postmodern, in Lyotard's view at least, is signalled by the loss of the grand narratives —among others, that of history as well. The consequence of the sense of loss is a sometimes nostalgic yearning for what has been lost. Irish history is more than a rich soil for nostalgic poetry: the long centuries of political antagonism between the Irish and the English yielded several cultural consequences as well, among them the relegation of the Irish language into a marginal position. One moment of cultural imperialism was the early 19 t h century Ordnance Survey during which the Irish placenames were 'anglicised.' John Montague's poem entitied 'A Lost Tradition' concerns the consequences of such an event. 'The whole landscape a manuscript / We had lost the skill to read, / A part of our past disinherited' 1 9 —such a heritage makes the question of identity a rather difficult one. In a way, 'identity', especially in relation to Northern Irish poetry is reminiscent of the lost innocence, of a natural and given state which, having been lost, seems all the more valuable. * One of the significant innovations of Wordsworth was the celebration of the common by presenting it from an unusual viewpoint. He managed to prove that a fresh eye may turn even the simplest and most trivial element of life into an experience of profound significance. Contemporary poetry may be seen as a rich record of the common scrutinised and poeticised. Heaney's poem, 'The Rain Stick' is also a celebration of something common: Upend the rain stick and what happens next Is a music that you never would have known To Us ten for. In a cactus stalk •r . I • 1 8 Schiller, F. Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man — Briefe über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen. 1795... 1 9 In Mahon, D., Fallon, P. (eds.) The Penguin Book of Contemporary Irish Poetry. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1990, pp. 44—45.
