Oceanic Connections: The Sea in Irish and Caribbean Poetry

Oceanic Connections is a first-of-its-kind comparative study of Anglophone Irish and Caribbean poets who write widely about the sea, revealing the similarities across the poetic traditions of both regions. In turning to the sea, Ellen Howley applies a Blue Humanities lens to the work of major poets from Ireland and the Anglophone Caribbean, such as Derek Walcott, Kamau Brathwaite, Seamus Heaney, and Medbh McGuckian. She demonstrates how the sea is more than a backdrop or metaphor--it is a generative space of creative and historical meaning. Through careful analysis, Howley shows how poets from these geographically distant but culturally resonant regions engage with the ocean’s material realities and mythic depths.

Howley navigates between concrete maritime experiences--sailors, shipwrecks, coastal labor--and the sea’s profound metaphorical potential. Poets become cartographers of both physical and imaginative spaces, mapping connections that span continents and centuries. Oceanic Connections reveals how the ocean simultaneously represents historical trauma, cultural memory, and a site of transformative artistic expression.

Building on studies of Irish-Caribbean connections by Michael Malouf, Lee M. Jenkins, Stephanie Pocock Boeninger, Allison Donnell, Maria McGarrity, and Evelyn O’Callaghan, this study furthers the comparative conversation through its emphasis on poetic resemblances, illuminating surprising commonalities while honoring each tradition’s unique voice.

Ellen Howley is assistant professor at the School of English at Dublin City University. She is the co-editor of Seamus Heaney’s Mythmaking.