Book of Irish American Poetry

". . . If the purpose of a good poetry anthology is to introduce readers to unfamiliar writers and reacquaint them with neglected masters, this one must be judged a raging success. Tobin does provide a meaningfully convivial context in which to engage, in close proximity, the work of Galway Kinnell, Billy Collins, and Paul Muldoon. They’re good company, and there’s plenty more where that came from." —Booklist

". . . A prodigious and remarkable work of literary scholarship. This anthology is far more than an original work of scholarship: it is a major act of recovery, which rescues from oblivion the work of important writers who have been the creators of the Irish American literary consciousness. Professor Tobin has achieved the invention of a whole new field. With publication of this anthology, we will finally understand both the scale and importance of Irish American poetry." —Eammon Wall, Jefferson Smurfit Professor of Irish Studies, University of Missouri-St. Louis

"More than two hundred poets from the eighteenth century to now are represented in The Book of Irish American Poetry, some resurrected and restored, others seen anew from the perspective of Irish American studies, still others deservedly anthologized for the first time. Poet and editor Daniel Tobin demonstrates beyond question the length, depth, strength and variety of Irish American poetry. His anthology—complete with historical chronology, biographical and explanatory notes, and extensive bibliographies—is the first accurate map of a new territory." —Brendan Galvin, author of Habitat: New and Selected Poems, 1965-2005

“This handsome book, with its dust jacket reproduction of Hughson Hawley’s Laying the Tracks at Broadway and 14th Street (ca. 1891), is unique in American anthology-making . . . . a major literary and critical achievement . . . it is basically a superb poetic treasury, just as suitable for one’s home collection as for research libraries. Its hundreds of poems, full of lyricism, though veined with Celtic melancholy and the sense of the tragic, constitute versions of an historical and cultural tradition of enormous importance to America and still vigorous, proving that Irish American culture is more than just a good pub or a St. Patrick’s Day parade.” —Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture

“Tobin's 900-plus-page anthology is a gem. . . . It is an effusive text of Irish American poetry, rather than of Irish American poets, and because of this it is inclusive in a way that one might not expect. . . . This is an anthology at once rigorously defined and researched and yet also open to every type of poet and poem.” —The Virginia Quarterly Review

“Editor and poet Daniel Tobin took on a mammoth task in attempting to compile the most authoritative collection of Irish-American poetry . . . . This book is a must-have for lovers of Irish and Irish-American writing.” —Irish America

“. . . an intelligent, imaginative collection that sheds new light on a literary tradition while highlighting exciting work that might otherwise go unnoticed. Definitive enough to belong on the book shelf of any scholar who teaches or writes about American poetry, it is also a marvelous read, a browsing treasure.” —New Hibernia Review

“Tobin as editor reaches beyond ethnic boundaries to capture a deeper and universal sense of freedom and exile. These poets, not all Irish or Irish-American, feel deeply the trauma of history.” —Multicultural Review

“Daniel Tobin’s The Book of Irish American Poetry: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present means to be for poetry what Charles Fanning’s two great works, The Irish Voice in America and Exiles of Erin, do for Irish-American prose. That is, to be the last word. And certainly, what he has created with this encyclopedia collection is a compendium of works remarkable for its scope and depth.” —An Sionnach

“This is a book that one will enjoy dipping into again and again through the years. It appeals to poetry-loving Americans of all backgrounds, not only those who rejoice in some sort of 'Irish connection.'” —Doxa: A Quarterly Review