Poets and Dreamers: Studies and translations from the Irish (ePub)

Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory (1852-1932), was a towering figure in the Irish literary renaissance, a movement at the turn of the 20th century that sought to revive and promote Irish literature and folklore in the face of cultural anglicization. Born into the Anglo-Irish aristocracy as Isabella Augusta Persse, she married Sir William Henry Gregory in 1880, acquiring her title. After her husband's death, Lady Gregory's literary career blossomed. She became closely allied with the Irish National Theatre Society and co-founded the Abbey Theatre with W.B. Yeats, serving as its manager and patron. Her contributions to Irish literature are manifold, but she is perhaps best known for her work in collecting and chronicolling Irish folk tales and plays inspired by the same. Her book 'Poets and Dreamers: Studies and translations from the Irish' (1903) showcases this contribution, featuring translations of Irish poetry and essays on cultural figures. Lady Gregory was instrumental in fostering a national literature that drew from the rich well of Irish mythology and local tales, and her legacy lies not just in her writings but also in her nurturing influence on other seminal Irish writers. Her style often integrated Hiberno-English, a dialect of English written and spoken in Ireland, which revealed her deep engagement with the sonic and narrative elements of Irish storytelling traditions.