Ossian Collection > Celtic revival in English literature

INTRODUCTION 13
III
THE TYPES OF CELTIC-ENGLISH POETRY
AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT
Perhaps the most convenient term for the poetry
of the Celtic Revival, since it derived its inspiration
from Celtic sources but was written in English, is
"Celtic-English poetry." As we study its develop-
ment in the latter half of the eighteenth century, it
will be found to consist of four distinct types,^
which appeared almost simultaneously and were fre-
quently blended. It is possible, accordingly, to dis-
tinguish (i) poems dealing primarily with Druidism
and other features of Celtic mythology, (2) poems
translated from Irish, Welsh, or Gaelic, (3) imita-
tions of these, or pretended translations, and (4)
poems dealing with the famous heroes of Celtic
history and tradition. But just as an arbitrary
division of writing into exposition, argument, de-
scription, and narrative requires an immediate ex-
planation that all four types of composition are
frequently found in a single essay, so the division of
Celtic-English poetry into these easily recognizable
classifications necessitates an explanation that they
^ The division I have made excludes, I fear too arbitrarily, the
great mass of excellent poetry written in the Scottish dialect by Burns
and others, yet the limitations of space have made such an exclusion
imperative.