Thomas Kinsella (4 May 1928 – 22 December 2021) was an Irish poet, translator, editor, and publisher. Born outsideDublin, Kinsella attendedUniversity College Dublin before entering the civil service. He began publishing poetry in the early 1950s and, around the same time, translated early Irish poetry into English. In the 1960s, he moved to the United States to teach English at universities includingTemple University. Kinsella continued to publish steadily until the 2010s.
Thomas Kinsella was born on 4 May 1928 inInchicore to working-class but "cultured" parents[2][3] John Paul Kinsella and Agnes, née Casserly.[4][5] His father and grandfather both worked inGuinness's brewery,[6] his father, a union organiser, in thecooperage, later working as "a helper, a labourer, on a Guinness delivery lorry"; his grandfather ran a barge from the brewery to sea-going vessels in Dublin harbour.[7] Kinsella spent most of his childhood in theKilmainham/ Inchicore area of Dublin, and was educated at the Model School, Inchicore,[8] where classes were taught in theIrish language, and at theO'Connell Schools in North Richmond Street, Dublin. He enteredUniversity College Dublin in 1946, initially to study science. After a few terms in college, he took a post in theIrish civil service in the department of finance and continued his university studies at night, having switched to humanities and arts.[9]
Many of Kinsella's early poems were published in the University College Dublin magazineNational Student from 1951 to 1953.[10] His first pamphlet,The Starlit Eye (1952),[11] was published by Liam Miller'sDolmen Press,[12] as wasPoems (1956), his first book-length publication. These were followed byAnother September (1958–1962),[5]Moralities (1960),[13]Downstream (1962),[13]Wormwood (1966), and the long poemNightwalker (1967).[14]
At Miller's suggestion, Kinsella turned his attention to the translation of early Irish texts. He produced versions ofLonges Mac Usnig andThe Breastplate of St Patrick in 1954[15] and ofThirty-Three Triads in 1955. His most significant work in this area was collected in two volumes. The first of these wasThe Táin (Dolmen, 1969; Oxford University Press, 1970),[13] a version of theTáin Bó Cúailnge illustrated byLouis le Brocquy.[16]
WithSeán Ó Tuama, Kinsella co-editedAn Duanaire: 1600–1900, Poems of the Dispossessed (1981), an anthology of Irish poems that critic Siobhán Holland describes as a "politicized deployment of the anthology genre".[17]An Duanaire won a "special award" of theRooney Prize for Irish Literature in 1982.[18] He also editedAustin Clarke'sSelected Poems[19] andCollected Poems (both 1974) for Dolmen andThe New Oxford Book of Irish Verse (1986).[20]
According to critic Dillon Johnston, Kinsella's translations ofTáin andAn Duanaire have helped to "revitalize" the Irish literary canon.[21]
Beginning around 1968 withNightwalker and Other Poems, Kinsella's work became more influenced by Americanmodernist poetry,[26] particularly the poetry ofEzra Pound,William Carlos Williams,[20] andRobert Lowell. In addition, his poetry started to focus more on the individual psyche as seen through the work ofCarl Jung.[27] These tendencies appeared in the poems ofNotes from the Land of the Dead (1973) andOne (1974).[28]
According to critic Thomas H. Jackson, books includingHer Vertical Smile (1985),Out of Ireland (1987), andSt Catherine's Clock (1987) blended personal and world-historical perspectives: "address a self, and you find the world; address an aspect of the world, and you find a self".[29]One Fond Embrace (1988) andPoems from Centre City (1990) allude to historical antecedents includingBrian Merriman and medieval curse poetry to dissect contemporary events such as architectural development in Dublin.[30]
Kinsella received the honoraryFreedom of the City of Dublin on 24 May 2007.[31] In December 2018, he received an honorary doctorate from Trinity College Dublin.[32]
Kinsella's brother was the composerJohn Kinsella (1932–2021).[33] Thomas died in Dublin on 22 December 2021, at the age of 93. His wife Eleanor predeceased him in 2017.[34][35]
Davis, Alex (2001). "Thomas Kinsella and the Pound Legacy: His Jacket on the Cantos".Irish University Review.31 (1):38–53.ISSN0021-1427.JSTOR25517149.
Fitzsimons, Andrew (6 May 2008).The Sea of Disappointment: Thomas Kinsella's Pursuit of the Real. Dublin: University College Dublin Press.ISBN978-1-904558-98-9.OCLC195741561.
.jpg)
