Pastoral Elegy in Contemporary British and Irish Poetry

Defying critical suggestions that the pastoral elegy is obsolete, Iain Twiddy reveals the popularity of the form in the work of major contemporary poets Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes and Paul Muldoon, Michael Longley, Douglas Dunn and Peter Reading.

As Twiddy outlines the development of the form, he identifies its characteristics and functions. But more importantly his study accounts for the enduring ...