Reading Medbh McGuckian

This is the first-ever study of Medbh McGuckian that offers close readings of the poet's early work, then pans out to discuss her later career in order to do justice to the poet's complexities. Making use of new research suggesting that much of McGuckian's poetic language is borrowed from other sources, the book begins as a series of close readings, analyzing the poems and textual materials from which the poet has been found to have borrowed. Written by fellow Ulster poet Leontia Flynn, the book offers a sense of the difficulty of McGuckian's work and the poet's evolving style over the last three decades, using several critical perspectives to examine how the poet seeks to make us think differently about women, poetry, and tradition. However, while delving into McGuckian's meanings where possible, the book insists that the mysteries and pleasures of the poetry remain intact.