Lyra Celtica

Lyra Celtica is a sweeping anthology of Celtic poetry, edited by E. A. Sharp and J. Matthay with an introduction and notes by William Sharp. Drawing on Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Breton, Cornish, and Manx traditions, it gathers ancient legend, devotional song, lament, love poetry, nature verse, and modern Celtic revival writing into one vivid literary map. The volume ranges from early laments for Deirdrê and Ossian to modern voices such as W. B. Yeats and George Meredith, tracing recurring themes of grief, beauty, nationalism, spirituality, and otherworldly wonder. Sharp presents the book as a selective first gathering from a much larger project, meant to showcase modern poetry while pointing toward the need for deeper comparative study. He celebrates the growth of Celtic scholarship and argues that Celtic imagination remains alive not only in surviving languages but in the wider literary temperament of English and Scottish writers as well. The anthology's poems move from Highland songs and seascapes to philosophical visions of mortality, making the Celtic spirit feel both ancient and urgently contemporary. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.