Peter Levi's inaugural lecture as Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford discusses the lamentation of the dead in written and oral poetry from Homer and the Bible to recent times, by way of Shakespeare, Milton and the Serbian epics. He puts forward the view that "The Lament for Arthur O'Leary", composed by his widow Eileen O'Connell, is among the finest examples of the Lamentation of the dead, and the greatest poem written in these islands in the whole of the eighteenth century. The text of Peter Levi's lecture is followed by Eilis Dillon's translation of the poem.
- ISBN10 0856461407
- ISBN13 9780856461408
- Publish Date 25 October 1984
- Publish Status Transferred
- Out of Print 30 August 2023
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Carcanet Press Ltd
- Imprint Anvil Press Poetry
- Format Paperback
- Pages 40
- Language English