Ciaran Gerard Carson (9 October 1948 – 6 October 2019) was a

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

-born poet and novelist.

Biography

Ciaran Carson was born in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

into an

Irish-speaking Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was th ...

family. His father, William, was a postman and his mother, Mary, worked in the linen mills. He spent his early years in the lower Falls Road where he attended Slate Street School and then St. Gall's Primary School, both of which subsequently closed. He then attended St. Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School before proceeding to

Queen's University, Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

(QUB) to read for a degree in English. After graduation, he worked for over twenty years as the Traditional Arts Officer of the

Arts Council of Northern Ireland The Arts Council of Northern Ireland (Irish: ''Comhairle Ealaíon Thuaisceart Éireann'', Ulster-Scots: ''Airts Cooncil o Norlin Airlan'') is the lead development agency for the arts in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1964, as a successor to ...

. In 1998 he was appointed a Professor of English at QUB where he established, and was the Director of the

Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry The Seamus Heaney Centre is located at Queen's University Belfast, and named after the late Seamus Heaney, recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Heaney graduated from Queens in 1961 with a First Class Honours in English language and ...

. He retired in 2016 but remained attached to the organisation on a part-time basis. In 2020, the Seamus Heaney Centre established two, annual Fellowships in memory of its first director, Ciaran Carson, and inspired by his writing about the city of Belfast in prose as well as poetry. Carson resided in Belfast for all of his life. He died of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

on 6 October 2019 at the age of 70.

Work

His collections of poetry include ''The Irish for No'' (1987), winner of the

Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize The Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize was awarded by the Poetry Society of London for a collection of poetry. It is named after Alice Hunt Bartlett who was the American editor of the society's ''Poetry Review'' from 1923 to 1949. The prize was establish ...

; ''Belfast Confetti'' (1990), which won the Irish Times' Irish Literature Prize for Poetry; and ''First Language: Poems'' (1993), winner of the

T. S. Eliot Prize The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is a prize that was, for many years, awarded by the Poetry Book Society (UK) to "the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland" in any particular year. The Priz ...

. His prose includes ''The Star Factory'' (1997) and ''Fishing for Amber'' (1999). His novel ''Shamrock Tea'' (2001), explores themes present in

Jan van Eyck Jan van Eyck ( , ; – July 9, 1441) was a painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Northern Renaissance art. Ac ...

's painting The Arnolfini Marriage. His translation of

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

's ''

Inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * Inferno (1953 film), ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * Inferno (1973 fi ...

'' was published in November 2002. ''Breaking News'', (2003), won the

Forward Poetry Prize The Forward Prizes for Poetry are major British awards for poetry, presented annually at a public ceremony in London. They were founded in 1992 by William Sieghart with the aim of celebrating excellence in poetry and increasing its audience. The ...

(Best Poetry Collection of the Year) and a

Cholmondeley Award The Cholmondeley Awards () are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has bee ...

. His translation of

Brian Merriman Brian Merriman or in Irish Brian Mac Giolla Meidhre (c. 1747 – 27 July 1805) was an Irish language bard, farmer, and hedge school teacher from rural County Clare. His single surviving work of substance, the 1000-line long Dream vision poem ( ...

's ''The Midnight Court'' came out in 2006. ''For All We Know'' was published in 2008, and his ''Collected Poems'' were published in Ireland in 2008, and in North America in 2009. He was also an accomplished musician, and the author of ''Last Night's Fun: About Time, Food and Music'' (1996), a study of Irish traditional music. He wrote a bi-monthly column on traditional Irish music for

The Journal of Music ''Journal of Music'' (formerly ''Journal of Music in Ireland'', or ''JMI'') is an Irish music magazine founded in 2000. It "has been a critical voice in Traditional and Contemporary musics since 2000". In 2009 it was relaunched as the ''Journal of ...

. In 2007 his translation of the early Irish epic ''

Táin Bó Cúailnge (Modern ; "the driving-off of the cows of Cooley"), commonly known as ''The Táin'' or less commonly as ''The Cattle Raid of Cooley'', is an epic from Irish mythology. It is often called "The Irish Iliad", although like most other early Iri ...

'', called ''The Táin'', was published by Penguin Classics. Two months before he died he published ''Claude Monet, "The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil", 1880'' in

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

. Its last lines were: : It’s beautiful weather, the 30th of March, and tomorrow the clocks go forward. : How strange it is to be lying here listening to whatever it is going on. : The days are getting longer now, however many of them I have left. : And the pencil I am writing this with, old as it is, will easily outlast their end.

Critical perspective

Carson managed an unusual marriage in his work between the Irish vernacular story-telling tradition and the witty elusive mock-pedantic scholarship of

Paul Muldoon Paul Muldoon (born 20 June 1951) is an Irish poet. He has published more than thirty collections and won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize. At Princeton University he is currently both the Howard G. B. Clark '21 University Pr ...

. (Muldoon also combines both modes). In a trivial sense, what differentiates them is line length. As Carol Rumens pointed out 'Before the 1987 publication of ''The Irish for No'', Carson was a quiet, solid worker in the groves of

Heaney Heaney is a surname of Irish origin. It is an Anglicisation of the Gaelic ''Ó hEignigh'', thought to be based on the Gaelic a personal name meaning "horseman". It was mistakenly thought to derive from Éan, Gaelic for Bird. Versions of it ar ...

. But at that point he rebelled into language, set free by a rangy "long line" that was attributed variously to the influence of

C. K. Williams Charles Kenneth "C. K." Williams (November 4, 1936 – September 20, 2015) was an American poet, critic and translator. Williams won many poetry awards. ''Flesh and Blood'' won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1987. ''Repair'' (1999) won ...

Louis MacNeice Frederick Louis MacNeice (12 September 1907 – 3 September 1963) was an Irish poet and playwright, and a member of the Auden Group, which also included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis. MacNeice's body of work was widely a ...

and traditional music'. Carson's first book was ''The New Estate'' (1976). In the ten years before ''The Irish for No'' (1987) he perfected a new style which effected a unique fusion of traditional story telling with postmodernist devices. The first poem in ''The Irish for No'', the tour-de-force 'Dresden' parades his new technique. Free ranging allusion is the key. The poem begins in shabby bucolic: :'And as you entered in, a bell would tinkle in the empty shop, a musk :Of soap and turf and sweets would hit you from the gloom.' It takes five pages to get to Dresden, the protagonist having joined the RAF as an escape from rural and then urban poverty. In Carson everything is rooted in the everyday, so the destruction of Dresden evokes memories of a particular Dresden shepherdess he had on the mantelpiece as a child and the destruction is described in terms of 'an avalanche of porcelain, sluicing and cascading'. Like Muldoon's, Carson's work was intensely allusive. In much of his poetry he had a project of sociological scope: to evoke Belfast in encyclopaedic detail. Part Two of ''The Irish for No'' was called 'Belfast Confetti' and this idea expanded to become his next book. The Belfast of the Troubles is mapped with obsessive precision and the language of the Troubles is as powerful a presence as

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...

themselves. The poem "Belfast Confetti" signals this: :'Suddenly as the riot squad moved in, it was raining exclamation marks, :Nuts, bolts, nails, car-keys. A fount of broken type...' In ''First Language'' (1993), which won the T. S. Eliot Prize, language has become the subject. There are translations of

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he start ...

and

Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fro ...

. Carson was deeply influenced by

and he included a poem called 'Bagpipe Music'. What it owes to the original is its rhythmic verve. With his love of dense long lines it is not surprising he was drawn to classical poetry and Baudelaire. In fact, the rhythm of 'Bagpipe Music' seems to be that of an Irish jig, on which subject he was an expert (his book about Irish music ''Last Night's Fun'' (1996) is regarded as a classic). To be precise, the rhythm is that of a "single jig" or "slide."): 'blah dithery dump a doodle scattery idle fortunoodle.' Carson then entered a prolific phase in which the concern for language liberated him into a new creativity. ''Opera Etcetera'' (1996) had a set of poems on letters of the alphabet and another series on Latin tags such as 'Solvitur Ambulando' and 'Quod Erat Demonstrandum' and another series of translations form the Romanian poet

Ștefan Augustin Doinaș Ștefan Augustin Doinaș (; pen name of Ștefan Popa) (April 26, 1922 – May 25, 2002) was a Romanian Neoclassical poet of the Communist era. Doinaș was born in Cherechiu, Bihor County. After completing high school in Arad, he studied philol ...

. Translation became a key concern, ''The Alexandrine Plan'' (1998) featured sonnets by Baudelaire, Rimbaud and Mallarmé rendered into alexandrines. Carson's penchant for the long line found a perfect focus in the 12-syllable alexandrine line. He also published ''The Twelfth of Never'' (1999), sonnets on fanciful themes: :'This is the land of the green rose and the lion lily, / :Ruled by Zeno's eternal tortoises and hares, / :where everything is metaphor and simile'. ''The Ballad of HMS Belfast'' (1999) collected his Belfast poems.

Bibliography

Poetry

*1976: '' The New Estate'', Blackstaff Press, Wake Forest University Press *1987: ''The Irish for No'', Gallery Press, Wake Forest University Press *1988: ''The New Estate and Other Poems'', Gallery Press *1989: ''Belfast Confetti'', Gallery Press, Wake Forest University Press *1993: ''First Language: Poems'', Gallery Books, Wake Forest University Press *1996: ''Opera Et Cetera'', Bloodaxe, Wake Forest University Press *1998: ''The Alexandrine Plan'', (adaptations of sonnets by Baudelaire, Mallarmé, and Rimbaud); Gallery :Press, Wake Forest University Press *1999: ''The Ballad of HMS Belfast: A Compendium of Belfast Poems'', Picador *2001: ''The Twelfth of Never'', Picador, Wake Forest University Press *2002: ''The Inferno of Dante Alighieri'' (translator), Granta, awarded the Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize *2003: ''Breaking News'', Gallery Press, Wake Forest University Press, awarded the 2003 Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection *2008: ''For All We Know'', Gallery Press, Wake Forest University Press, 2008 *2008: ''Collected Poems'', Gallery Press, 2008, Wake Forest University Press, 2009 *2009: ''On the Night Watch'', Gallery Press; Wake Forest University Press 2010 *2010: ''Until Before After'', Gallery Press; Wake Forest University Press *2012: ''In the Light Of'', Gallery Press; Wake Forest University Press 2013 *2019: ''Still Life'', Gallery Press; Wake Forest University Press 2020

Prose

*1978: ''The Lost Explorer'', Ulsterman Publications *1986: ''Irish Traditional Music'', Appletree Press *1995: ''Belfast Frescoes'', (with John Kindness) Ulster Museum *1995: ''Letters from the Alphabet'', Gallery Press *1996: ''Last Night's Fun: About Time, Food and Music'', a book about traditional music; Cape; North Point Press (New York), 1997 *1997: ''The Star Factory'', a memoir of Belfast; Granta *1999: ''Fishing for Amber'', Granta *2001: ''Shamrock Tea'', a novel which was longlisted for the Booker Prize; Granta *2009: ''The Pen Friend'', a web of memory, published by Blackstaff Press *2012: ''Exchange Place'', a novel, published by Blackstaff Press

Translations

*2002: '' The Inferno of

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

'' (translator), Granta, awarded the

Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize is an annual literary prize for any book-length translation into English from any other living European language. The first prize was awarded in 1999. The prize is funded by and named in honour of Lord Weidenfe ...

*2005: ''The Midnight Court'', (translation of

's ''Cúirt an Mhéan Oíche'', Gallery Press; Wake Forest University Press, 2006 *2007: ''

The Táin ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'', Penguin Classics *2012: ''From Elsewhere'', (translations of

Jean Follain Jean Follain (29 August 1903 – 10 March 1971) was a French writer, poet and corporate lawyer. In the early days of his career he was a member of the "Sagesse" group.

's poetry, paired with original poem/meditations on the same)

Gallery Press Gallery Press is an independent Irish publishing company, publishing Irish poetry, drama, and prose by contemporary Irish writers. Founded by poet Peter Fallon as the Gallery Books imprint of Tara Telephone Publications, itself an offshoot of a ...

Prizes and awards

*1978:

Eric Gregory Award The Eric Gregory Award is a literary award given annually by the Society of Authors for a collection by British poets under the age of 30. The award was founded in 1960 by Dr. Eric Gregory to support and encourage young poets. In 2021, the seven ...

*1987:

for ''The Irish for No'' *1990: Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Poetry for ''Belfast Confetti'' *1993:

for ''First Language: Poems'' *1997: Yorkshire Post Book Award (Book of the Year) for ''The Star Factory'' *2003:

for ''Breaking News'' *2003:

(Best Poetry Collection of the Year) for ''Breaking News''

References

External links

The Triumph in memory of Ciaran Carson by Paul MuldoonSeamus Heaney CentreWake Forest University Press
North American publisher of Carson
''The Journal of Music'', for which Ciaran Carson writes a bi-monthly column on traditional Irish music.Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Books Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carson, Ciaran 1948 births 2019 deaths 20th-century writers from Northern Ireland 21st-century writers from Northern Ireland Academics of Queen's University Belfast Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Aosdána members Deaths from lung cancer in Northern Ireland Educators from Northern Ireland Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Male novelists from Northern Ireland Male poets from Northern Ireland People educated at St. Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School, Belfast Translators from Irish Translators from Old English Translators from Old Irish Translators of Brian Merriman Translators of the Táin Bó Cúailnge Translators of Dante Alighieri Táin Bó Cúailnge Writers from Belfast T. S. Eliot Prize winners 20th-century translators