'I know my parents made me by my hands': The Villanelle in Ireland

This essay briefly outlines the history of the Italian and French origins of the villanelle form before its introduction to Anglophone poetry, and its early adoption by Irish writers, particularly James Joyce and Oscar Wilde. In this context, the author discusses modern examples of the form by poets including Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Paul Muldoon, and Sinéad Morrissey. It is suggested that contemporary Irish poetry both acknowledges the complicated history of this form and stretches the limitations of its rules, to strike a balance between the security of tradition and the freedom of modernity and its transnational possibilities.