MA brochure - Modern Poetry - Queen's University Belfast

School of English
Postgraduate Degrees in Poetry

Why Poetry at Queen’s?
Poetry is intricately intertwined with the history of
Queen’s University Belfast. The university has a
proud tradition of nurturing creative and critical
talents in the field of poetry. Nobel Laureate
Seamus Heaney, a graduate of, and former lecturer
at Queen’s was a founding member of the ‘Belfast
Group’ in the 1960s, in which the early careers of
other internationally renowned poets -­‐ Paul
Muldoon and Michael Longley among them – were
forged, and in which poets engaged with leading
critics of modern poetry, such as Philip Hobsbaum
and Edna Longley. The tradition of the Belfast
Group continues in the Seamus Heaney Centre for
Poetry, and in the commitment it has to the
interaction of creative and critical activity.
Postgraduate students who choose to study
Modern Poetry in the School of English at Queen’s
will be joining an academic environment with a
long-­‐standing reputation for the critical
appreciation, reception and understanding of
poetry from Ireland, Britain and the United States.
Poets who come to Queen’s to develop their own
writing have the unique opportunity of working in
the Seamus Heaney Centre with some of Ireland’s
finest poets .
Academic Environment
The School of English, together with the Seamus
Heaney Centre for Poetry, is the largest English
department in Ireland with a dedicated and
growing postgraduate student community. We are
home to over 100 Masters and research students
and host readings, lectures and seminars
throughout the year.
Together with the University of Dublin, University
College Dublin, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland
and An Chomhairle Ealaoin (Arts Council of
Ireland), the School and the Heaney Centre c0-­‐host
the prestigious Ireland Chair of Poetry with the
holder attached to each university in turn for a year
at a time. Since its inception in 1998 the holders
have been John Montague, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill,
Paul Durcan, and Michael Longley; the current
Chair (2010-­‐13) is Harry Clifton.
Resources and Facilities
The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry is an
internationally recognized centre for the study as
well as the production of poetry. A dynamic and
vibrant focal point in Ireland for writing, for
criticism, and for the appreciation of modern
literature, the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry
promotes an ethos of lively exchange between
poets, critics and students under its Director, the
internationally renowned poet Professor Ciaran
Carson, and its assistant director, the critic Dr Fran
Brearton. The poets and poet-­‐critics Ms Medbh
McGuckian, Dr Sinead Morrissey and Dr Leontia
Flynn are based in the Centre, along with Professor
Emerita Edna Longley, one of the leading critics of
Irish poetry and literature, who continues to
challenge and define the categories and canons of
modern poetry. Critics of modern poetry in the
School also include Professor Edward Larrissy, Dr
Fran Brearton, Dr Philip McGowan, and Dr Gail
McConnell.
The Centre’s journal of contemporary writing, The
Yellow Nib, is published twice a year. The Centre
runs a programme of literary events fortnightly
each semester enabling students to hear some of
the finest writers of our time firsthand.
The new McClay Library at Queen’s offers students
world-­‐leading facilities and research resources
including extensive archival materials (Seamus
Heaney’s Beowulf papers for example) and rare
books in the field of modern Irish poetry.
Postgraduate students have access to work and
computing facilities in the School of English and
the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry as well as in
the Humanities Postgraduate Centre and the
International and Postgraduate Student Centre,
located opposite the McClay Library.

MA in Poetry: Creativity and Criticism
Convenors: Dr Fran Brearton & Dr Sinead
Morrissey
Recognising that poetry is an art form
encompassing both creative and critical thought,
the MA in Poetry: Creativity and Criticism brings
together these strands for the first time in one MA
programme. Suitable for both poets and critics
alike, the programme provides workshops and
training for poets, alongside a critical grounding
that facilitates further study of creative writing
(poetry) at PhD level. It also provides specialist
academic study for critics and scholars who wish to
focus on the study of poetry, at MA level, and into
PhD work, introducing students to the major
poetry traditions of Ireland, Britain, and the US, in
terms of their formal properties and their critical,
social, intellectual and political contexts.
Furthermore, the programme offers the unique
opportunity for students to develop critical
perspectives in collaboration with creative writers
and vice versa. The MA in Poetry is taught by poets
and critics of international reputation who write
and publish extensively in the field of modern
poetry – Prof. Ciaran Carson, Ms Medbh
McGuckian, Dr Sinead Morrissey, Dr Leontia Flynn,
Prof. Edward Larrissy, Dr Fran Brearton, and Dr
Philip McGowan.
Compulsory modules: semester 1:
(1) Reading Poetry: inspired by the original
‘Belfast Group’ workshops, attended by poets and
critics, this module provides the opportunity for
students to analyse and evaluate new and
established writing (by themselves or others as
appropriate) and in the process to engage with
different approaches to the reading, writing, and
analysis of poetry. The module therefore involves
consideration of the poet-­‐as-­‐critic through study of
critical writings by a range of British, Irish and
American poets such as Yeats, Eliot, Auden,
Stevens, Pound, Kavanagh, and Heaney, and of the
poem itself as a vehicle for criticism.
(2) Structure & Serendipity: Form in Poetry: A
discussion and analysis of how poetic form in
general is produced, this module introduces
students to the form and language of poetry as
well as the historical dimensions of, and contexts
for, various poetic forms. It analyses poetic forms
in detail, grounding students in specific poetic
forms (e.g. the sonnet, the sestina, villanelle),
reading a wide range of examples by different
poets, with students engaging with a different set
form each week.
(3) Approaches to Poetry: craft, collections,
contexts: Students, whether creatively or critically
focused, research and discuss the different
demands made on the work of the poet by a range
of relevant archival, critical, and creative contexts.
Awareness of a range of issues pertinent to the
production of, and critical reaction to, poetry is
developed through analyses of the format and
production of a collection, the transition from
manuscript to publication, processes of authorial
revision, the anthologising of poems, the
formation of creative and critical schools, and
relevant critical and methodological contexts.
[NB For the compulsory semester 1 modules,
different assessment options are available (critical
essay or poem-­‐portfolio plus commentary)
according to student interests.]
Elective modules: semester 2
A POETRY CRITICISM
(1) British Poetry 1880-­‐1990 – offering a close
study of the work of British poets, beginning with
Thomas Hardy and Edward Thomas, moving
through the War poets, the ‘Movement’, and the
more recent work of Harrison, Hill, Hughes and
Duffy.

Miriam Gamble,
poet and former
PhD student, on
why she chose the
School of English at
Queen’s
“I had the time of my life studying
poetry at Queen’s – critically and
creatively, intellectually and socially
(one and the same thing, which is
unusual and precious). I came by
accident, but it’s the best hand
serendipity has ever dealt me. I wrote
my first book of poems there, forged my
best and most enduring friendships.”
(2) American Poetry: from Dickinson to Olds –
this module examines some of the main currents of
American poetry from the close of the nineteenth
century to the present day.
(3) Irish Poetry: W.B. Yeats to the present:
beginning with Yeats, this module explores the key
figures and movements in Irish poetry through the
twentieth and into the twenty-­‐first century
B. CREATIVE WRITING: POETRY
(1) Poetry Workshops: a series of twelve weekly
2-­‐hour workshop to which students bring their
poems to be discussed with the convenor and the
other students.
(2) The Long Poem: This six-­‐week module will
investigate the various formal and thematic
possibilities of the contemporary long poem.
Contemporary long poems by Alice Oswald,
Stanley Moss, Leontia Flynn, James McMichael,
Robert Pinksy and Paul Muldoon (among others)
will be discussed in class with a view to analysing
the contemporary long poem’s peculiar challenges
and achievements. Students will be working on
their own long poem throughout the module.
(3) Poetics of Translation: The Poetics of
Translation is a practical 6-­‐week course in
negotiating language. Students will be given a
selection of poems from other languages, together
with 'literal' translations and several versions by
translators and poet/translators, and will discuss
how these vary in their interpretation of the
originals. Students will then produce their own
translations, together with a commentary on the
process. Knowledge of a second language is
helpful, but by no means essential, since the
exercise deals primarily with examining register
and tone in the English language. "Translating from
the Italian, Tuscan or Florentine, I found myself
translating as much from English, or various
Englishes." (Ciaran Carson, The Inferno of Dante
Alighieri)
Dissertation/Portfolio – compulsory 15,000 word
independent research work on a topic developed
from the taught modular coursework, completed
by mid-­‐September and overseen by a specified
member of staff on the MA, or a portfolio of poems
plus accompanying critical commentary supervised
by a poet teaching on the MA programme.
PhD in English, Modern Poetry
Doctoral research in Modern Poetry includes but is
not restricted to the work of poets working in
English from the early modern period to the
present day.
Recently completed doctoral theses:
Towards a Supreme Poetry: The Ecstatic Self in the
Poetry of Wallace Stevens and Sylvia Plath (2011)
“For a word’s sake”: Theological Aesthetics in
Contemporary Northern Irish Poetry (2010)
The Seamus Heaney Digital Archive: The Public
Performance of Poetry (2010)
Urban Confetti: Benjamin, Carson, O’Hara and the
Figure of the Modern Urban Poet (2009)
Form, Genre and Lyric Subjectivity in Contemporary
British and Irish Poetry (2008)

How to Apply and Funding
Applicants should apply for a place on the relevant
programme via the University’s online application
system at -­‐ https://dap.qub.ac.uk/portal/ -­‐ and may
do so until 3 June 2012 for September 2013 entry.
Applications submitted between 2 March and 4
June 2013 will not be eligible to be considered for
funding. The application requires a record of
undergraduate academic results, a sample of
written work, and two academic references. For
students who wish to take creative writing
assessment options in semester 1 and the poetry
creative writing options in semester 2, the
application requires a creative writing sample, plus
good 2.1 Honours degree or equivalent recognised
qualification. In certain circumstances, students
may be admitted on the strength of their writing
alone; however, these students would enrol initially
for the PG Diploma, with the possibility of
transferring to the MA at a later stage.
Funding for September 2013 Entry
Deadline for applications to be considered for
funding: February 22nd 2013
The deadline for self-­‐funding applicants is June 3rd,
2013.
The School of English commits a proportion of its
annual budget to fund postgraduate taught and
research students. Home and EU students are
eligible for awards from the Arts & Humanities
Research Council (AHRC) and Department for
Employment & Learning (DEL). International
students can avail of awards from the University,
amongst other sources.
General information about postgraduate study at
Queen's is available at: http://www.qub.ac.uk/
home/ProspectiveStudents/
PostgraduateStudents/.

For further information, contact:
Linda Drain
Secretary, Postgraduate Education
School of English
2 University Square
Queen’s School University of English Belfast
Belfast
BT7 1NN
Queen’s University Belfast
Belfast BT7 1NN
N. Ireland
Tel: 028 9097 3320
Fax: pgenglish@qub.ac.uk
028 9097 3334
Web: www.qub.ac.uk/english
Email: pgenglish@qub.ac.uk
http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEnglish/ProspectiveStudents/
N112666
Design: www.darraghneely.com