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To Imagine and To Inhabit: Ireland seen through Yeats and Heaney

Altikardes, Selma LU (2026) ENGK03 20261
English Studies
Abstract (Swedish)
This thesis examines the shift in poetic authority from W.B. Yeats to Seamus Heaney through a comparative close reading of four poems: Yeats’s “To Ireland in the Coming Times” (1892) and “Easter, 1916” (1916), and Heaney’s “Digging” (1964) and “From the Frontier of Writing” (1985). Both poets are canonical figures in the Irish literary tradition, yet their positions within Irish history differ. Yeats was an Anglo-Protestant from Dublin, and Heaney was a Catholic from Northern Ireland. The thesis argues that this difference in positioning produces a structural difference in poetic authority. Drawing on postcolonial theory, mainly the work of Edward Said, Homi K. Bhabha, and Gayatri Spivak, the impact of their colonial history is read... (More)
This thesis examines the shift in poetic authority from W.B. Yeats to Seamus Heaney through a comparative close reading of four poems: Yeats’s “To Ireland in the Coming Times” (1892) and “Easter, 1916” (1916), and Heaney’s “Digging” (1964) and “From the Frontier of Writing” (1985). Both poets are canonical figures in the Irish literary tradition, yet their positions within Irish history differ. Yeats was an Anglo-Protestant from Dublin, and Heaney was a Catholic from Northern Ireland. The thesis argues that this difference in positioning produces a structural difference in poetic authority. Drawing on postcolonial theory, mainly the work of Edward Said, Homi K. Bhabha, and Gayatri Spivak, the impact of their colonial history is read alongside broader theories of culture and identity by Declan Kiberd, Benedict Anderson, and Stephen Greenblatt. Yeats locates his authority in myth and cultural nationalism, whilst Heaney locates his in bodily memory and lived political experience. What is gained in the shift from Yeats to Heaney is the truth about modern Irish identity, but what is lost is the dream of a Romantic Ireland. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Altikardes, Selma LU
supervisor
organization
course
ENGK03 20261
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Yeats, Heaney, Poetry, Postcolonialsm, Authority, Nationalism, Literary analysis, Ireland, Colonialism
language
English
id
9247577
date added to LUP
2026-08-10 06:48:23
date last changed
2026-08-10 06:48:23
@misc{9247577,
  abstract     = {{This thesis examines the shift in poetic authority from W.B. Yeats to Seamus Heaney through a comparative close reading of four poems: Yeats’s “To Ireland in the Coming Times” (1892) and “Easter, 1916” (1916), and Heaney’s “Digging” (1964) and “From the Frontier of Writing” (1985). Both poets are canonical figures in the Irish literary tradition, yet their positions within Irish history differ. Yeats was an Anglo-Protestant from Dublin, and Heaney was a Catholic from Northern Ireland. The thesis argues that this difference in positioning produces a structural difference in poetic authority. Drawing on postcolonial theory, mainly the work of Edward Said, Homi K. Bhabha, and Gayatri Spivak, the impact of their colonial history is read alongside broader theories of culture and identity by Declan Kiberd, Benedict Anderson, and Stephen Greenblatt. Yeats locates his authority in myth and cultural nationalism, whilst Heaney locates his in bodily memory and lived political experience. What is gained in the shift from Yeats to Heaney is the truth about modern Irish identity, but what is lost is the dream of a Romantic Ireland.}},
  author       = {{Altikardes, Selma}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{To Imagine and To Inhabit: Ireland seen through Yeats and Heaney}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}