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A GREAT 20th-century poet, WH Auden, once remarked, in infamously dismissive judgment on his former colleagues in British preparatory (ie private primary) schools, that “no one knows, and no one cares, where private schoolmasters die”. One wonders, in a similar vein, what happens to that huge legion of poets whose lives are forgotten, and to their work.

Part of the answer, at least for this country, is provided, and celebrated, in two new books being published on November 20th by the Lilliput Press. Dublin’s Other Poetryand Ulster’s Other Poetryare both edited by John Wyse-Jackson and Hector McDonnell, who produced Ireland’s Other Poetry, a similar work on a national theme, in 2007.