The Middle Ages and two poets of the IslandsAustin Clarke and Geoffrey Hill

Resumen

Although Austin Clarke and Geoffrey Hill are both poets writing in the 20th Century, both look towards the Middle Ages in search for inspiration at a certain stage in their poetic career. An analysis of their poetry will show us their common romantic return to the past as a re-discovering of their respective national identities, namely Irish and British. The purpose of this essay is to consider two different manifestations of two 20th Century English speaking poets writing about their past. We shall see not only how the ideological (religious or political) reality of their medieval countries determines their poetry, or how the writer's perception of their lands in the past is being modified by the present realities lived by the authors, but also how the usage of the language plays a significant role in these poets' exposures of past and present.