Famed Irish Poet Micheal O’Siadhail Will Give Reading Sept. 17 at Baylor’s Armstrong Browning Library

WACO, Texas (Sept. 12, 2018) — A reading by world-renowned Irish poet Micheal O’Siadhail of his latest work — “The Five Quintets” — will be given from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 17, in the Foyer of Meditation of Baylor University’s Armstrong Browning Library, 701 Speight Ave.
The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by Baylor University Press, which published the book. A book signing will follow.
A round-table discussion by experts on O’Siadhail’s poetry will be held from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18, in Room 101 of Carroll Science Building, 1401 S. Fifth St. It also is free and open to the public. Sponsor is the department of English in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences, the Irish Government and Beall Poetry Festival.
“The Five Quintets” is both poetry and cultural history, offering a sustained reflection on modernity — people and movements — in poetic meter.
The 350-page work was inspired by medieval Italian poet/philosopher Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy,” a literary journey through heaven, hell and purgatory. “The Five Quintets” has a five-part structure, with each quintet devoted to a discipline: the arts; economics; politics; science; and philosophy and theology.
Richard Rankin Russell, Ph.D., professor of English and director of the graduate program, called the work “a sort of response to T.S. Eliot's “Four Quartets” and said it is “the most ambitious work yet for O'Siadhail, whose previous work covers Irish history, love, and the Holocaust.”
Mary McAleese, former president of Ireland, has called O’Siadhail “Ireland’s most exceptional love poet.”
For more information, visit "The Five Quintets."

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Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.