Lyrical Revolutions: Shaping Modern Poetry in England, Ireland, and the USA

Abstract

This paper explores how twentieth-century poets in England, Ireland, and the United States transformed the lyric form to express the spiritual, cultural, and psychological complexities of modern life. Beginning with early innovators such as W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound, and extending to later figures like W.H. Auden, Seamus Heaney, and Sylvia Plath, it examines how the lyric shifted from Romantic introspection to a medium of historical and moral engagement. Through comparative analysis, the study reveals how each national tradition redefined poetic voice and identity: the Irish lyric’s mythic and communal intensity, the English lyric’s formal experimentation, and the American lyric’s confessional and psychological depth. The paper argues that this “lyrical revolution” reimagined the relationship between self and society, tradition and modernity, forging a transatlantic continuum of influence and renewal. Ultimately, it contends that the lyric became the defining form through which modern poets negotiated individuality, memory, and the moral imagination of the twentieth century.