Lamentation of the Dead: Inaugural Lecture by the Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford, Given on 25 October 1984Paperback, 25 October 1984

Peter Levi's inaugural lecture as Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford discusses the lamentation of the dead in written and oral poetry from Homer and the Bible to recent times, by way of Shakespeare, Milton and the Serbian epics. He puts forward the view that 'The Lament for Arthur O'Leary', composed by his widow Eileen O'Connell, is among the finest examples of the lamentation of the dead, and the greatest poem written in these islands in the whole of the eighteenth century.
The text of Peter Levi's lecture is followed by Eilís Dillon's translation of the poem.