Poetry and Privacy: Questioning Public Interpretations of Contemporary British and Irish Poetry

By questioning the relationships—critical, authorial, and existential—between poetry and the public sphere, this book seeks to introduce a sense of pragmatism between poetry and criticism and poetry and social or political relevance. Its main contention—that readings of British and Irish poetry rely too often on a thesis of public relevance—arises out of a more general conviction that the relationship between poetry and the public sphere is negatively woven. Offering fresh appraisals of noteworthy poets while creating a portrait of British and Irish poetry in the new century, this groundbreaking examination questions how poetry might progress in the future.