Verse in Irish, especially from the early and medieval periods, is felt to be the preserve of linguists and specialists, and Anglo-Irish poetry is usually seen as an adjunct to the English tradition. This anthology approaches the tradition as a whole and presents a relationship between two major bodies of poetry that reflects a shared and painful history. This selection is divided into three sections. The first section of the book begins with the earliest verse - pre-Christian poetry in Old Irish - and ends in the 14th century with the first Irish poetry to be created in the English language. The text then progresses from the 14th to the 18th centuries, presenting the age of bardic poetry, the "new" poetry in Irish that followed it, and the era of Swift and Goldsmith. The final section covers the 19th and 20th centuries, from the beggar-poet Raifteiri and his English-language contemporary Thomas Moore, to the works of a number of poets born around the time of Yeats' death.