Introduction

If Ever You Go, an anthology of Dublin poems, includes a rich selection of texts drawn from more than three centuries of writing in, and about, the city. Among these texts are many poems by women – some born in Ireland and some travelling there to spend time in its capital city. These poems offer fresh perspectives on urban environments, and in particular on the relationship between the individual and the shared life of the city. Before the 1900s it was comparatively unusual for women to be linked to urban public spaces but, as these poems show, their engagement with Dublin since then has been layered with personal and social reflection. This talk explores some poems by women published in the last one hundred years, from lesser-known figures such as Winifred Letts to contemporaries Eavan Boland and Paula Meehan.

Lucy Collins

Lucy Collins is a lecturer in English Literature at University College Dublin, Ireland. Educated at Trinity College Dublin and at Harvard University, where she spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar, she teaches and researches in the area of modern poetry and poetics. Recent publications include Poetry by Women in Ireland: A Critical Anthology 1870–1970 (Liverpool) and an edition of the poems of Sheila Wingfield(Liberties). A co-edited volume, The Irish Poet and the Natural World: An Anthology of Verse in English from the Tudors to the Romantics appeared from Cork University Press in March 2014.