Elegizing an Aristocracy: The Anglo-Irish Protestant Gentry in the Poetry of Richard Murphy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34739/fci.2024.04.06Keywords:
Anglo-Irish, Aristocracy, Ascendancy, Irelanf, Big House, Protestant, ColonizerAbstract
The Irish poet Richard Murphy was a minority within a minority: an Anglo-Irish Protestant of the landed gentry. His privilege, property, and Anglican background set him apart from the common people of an independent Ireland which was Catholic, Gaelic, and nationalist in character. As the last major poetic representative of his culture, Murphy holds a special place in the Irish literary tradition. However, he lived and wrote during a time of significant decline for his patrician caste. His poems documenting the decay of Ireland’s once powerful and prominent Protestant elite is the subject of this paper’s critical inquiry. With greater consideration for the cultural climate and historical circumstances of his time, a clearer and more accurate understanding of Murphy’s conception of the complex facets of Irish identity will be achieved in this analysis.
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