Women's Poetry from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, 1400–1800: An Anthology

A geographically and linguistically diverse account of women's poetic activity across Ireland, Scotland, and Wales from 1400 to 1800.

A multilinguistic resource uncovering women's poetic activity across Ireland, Scotland, and Wales from 1400 to 1800, this anthology overturns the bias towards English writers that has historically shaped scholarly and popular perceptions of the canon of this period. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.Anthologies play an essential role in shaping literary history. This anthology uncovers women's poetic activity and production across the three nations of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales from 1400 to 1800, overturning the long-standing and widespread bias in favour of English writers that has historically shaped both scholarly and popular understanding of this period's female poetic canon. Prioritising texts that have never before been published or translated, readers are introduced to an extraordinary array of women's voices. From ladies-in-waiting to servant maids, from erotic verse to religious poetry, women's immense poetic output across four centuries, multiple vernaculars, and national traditions is richly demonstrated. Featuring translations and glosses of texts in Irish, Ulster Scots, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, and Welsh, alongside informative headnotes on each poet, this collection makes the work of women poets available like never before. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.