Poetry is, quite simply, the activity for which Queen’s University is best known around the world. Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney was both a student and lecturer here at Queen’s, and other famous poet-alumni of the university include Ciaran Carson, Paul Muldoon and Medbh McGuckian. Heaney was a founding member of the famous ‘Belfast Group’ in the 1960s, a forum in which young poets came together with critics to discuss their work and the craft of good poetry more generally. The fruitful interaction of creative and critical activity is at the heart of what this unique programme offers.
Drawing on our long-standing reputation for producing distinguished critics and poets, this programme's creative-critical intersections make it suitable for a new generation of poets and critics alike. Students will be joining an academic environment with a world-leading expertise in the critical appreciation, writing, and understanding of modern poetry.
As a poetry student you can choose to follow either a critical or a creative pathway, or a combination of the two. Students who follow a critical pathway will be joining an academic environment with a long-standing reputation for the critical appreciation, reception and understanding of modern poetry. Poets who come to develop their own creative writing have the unique opportunity of working with some of Ireland's most renowned poets.
English - Poetry highlights
World Class Facilities
Housed in the beautiful Lynn Building – formerly the library where Heaney, Muldoon, Carson and McGuckian read slim volumes of poetry, and Philip Larkin was a librarian – The Graduate School is a dedicated social and academic space for postgraduate students at Queen’s, offering research facilities and ongoing training in all aspects of research, essential skills, and career development. The award-winning McClay library houses Irish Special Collections, with unique resources on modern and contemporary Irish poetry, including Belfast Group worksheets and manuscripts, and extensive journal collections. The Seamus Heaney Centre has a dedicated work and social space for postgraduate students, a poetry library, and a lively programme of activities all year round.
Student Experience
You will be joining an academic environment with a long-standing reputation for the writing and critical appreciation of poetry from Ireland, Britain and the United States, and will also benefit from the literary activities and resources of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s – the first centre of excellence for poetry in Ireland. Poets and poetry critics in the School include Leontia Flynn, Fran Brearton, Gail McConnell, Stephen Sexton, Dawn Watson and Nick Laird, along with annual visiting international poetry fellows.
Our ‘Belfast Group’ heritage is a distinctive feature of our programme. The poetry programme inherits and updates the tradition begun in small back rooms in the 1960s of poets and critics coming together to produce and discuss poetry. Our unique interdisciplinary approach continues this fruitful commingling of creative and critical perspectives and methods.
Internationally Renowned Experts
English at Queen’s is ranked in the top 150 in the world (QS World Rankings by subject 2025). Alongside the expertise and guidance you’ll receive from the teaching team, you will have the chance to attend workshops and one-to-one consultations with outstanding poets and writers who spend time at Queen’s each year: The Ireland Chair of Poetry, International Visiting Poetry Fellow, Seamus Heaney Centre Fellows and Ciaran Carson Fellows.
Student Testimonials
‘By working with amazing staff, the MA in Poetry at Queen's gave me the chance to explore and refine both my critical and creative voices.’
Dr Caitlin Newby (author of 'Ceremony', Lifeboat: 2019)
Full-time students take 3 taught modules in each semester (the core ‘Reading and Writing Poetry’ module in semester 1 is a ‘double’ module).
Part-time students take 3 modules in each year, on either a 1+2 or 2+1 model across the two semesters.
Semester One Modules:
ENG7307: Reading and Writing Poetry. Compulsory. 40 CATS. Weekly workshop and weekly seminar.
ENG7300: Form in Poetry. Compulsory. 20 CATS. Weekly seminar.
Semester Two Modules (Indicative):
ENG7301: The Poetry Collection. Compulsory. 20 CATS.
ENG7305: Irish Poetry. Optional. 20 CATS.
ENG7094: The Poetry Workshop. Optional. 20 CATS.
ENG7375: Love Poetry. Optional. 20 CATS.
ENG7119: Fulbright Scholar Special Option. 20 CATS.
The PG Diploma is awarded to students who successfully complete compulsory and optional taught modules totalling 120 CATS points.
Exit qualifications are available: students may exit with a Postgraduate Certificate by successfully completing 60 CATS points from taught modules.
Compulsory Modules
Reading and Writing Poetry
Structure and Serendipity
The Poetry Collection
Course Details
In semester 1 students explore a range of writings – both poetry and criticism – through concepts and themes such as: Art, Love, Death, Animals, Nonsense, Music, Weather, Work. Poets studied in the seminars include Yeats, Plath, Auden, Eliot, Bishop, and Heaney. Students are introduced to the form and language of poetry, as well as to the historical dimensions of, and contexts for, various poetic forms – both traditional and experimental. The writing workshops involve detailed discussion of students’ own poetry, which they can bring to class for feedback from the tutor and other students.
In semester 2 students study contemporary poetry collections, focusing on the ways in which the structure of a given poetry collection contributes to the overall meaning of the work, as well as choosing from specialist options which include Irish poetry, Love poetry, and writing workshops. The optional module list is indicative only.
Optional Modules
Irish Poetry
Love Poetry
The Poetry Workshop
Fulbright Scholar special option
Teaching is typically on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings or afternoons.
Learning and Teaching
You will have the chance to take a variety of modules and to develop writing and research projects of unique interest to you.
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You will be part of a cohort of poets and critics who you’ll get to know well in weekly seminars and workshops, and you’ll be taught and supervised by a small staff team who are passionate about the reading and writing of poetry.
Assessment
Assessments associated with this course are outlined below:
The information below is intended as an example only, featuring module details for the current year of study (2024/25). Modules are reviewed on an annual basis and may be subject to future changes – revised details will be published through Programme Specifications ahead of each academic year.
A discussion and analysis of how poetic form in general is produced, this module introduces students to the form and language of poetry as well as the historical dimensions of, and contexts for, various poetic forms. It analyses poetic forms in detail, grounding students in specific poetic forms (e.g. the sonnet, the sestina, villanelle), reading a wide range of examples by different poets, with students engaging with a different set form each week.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of the module, students should have acquired a knowledge of some set verse forms in English, their adaptation by poets within the tradition, and how poetic material can shape itself. Critical awareness of the studied set forms will be promoted through close readings of forms and supplementary materials by the poets themselves as well as critical readers of their work.
- an insight into the nature of inspiration and its relation to form;
an increased understanding of the workings of poetic language.
Skills
By the end of the module, all students will have acquired improved skills at recognising and using poetic forms. Whether in the creative or the critical context, students will be adept at identifying and understanding individual forms and how their use by particular poets varies across national and temporal boundaries.
Students, whether creatively or critically focused, research and discuss the different demands made on the work of the poet by a range of relevant archival, critical, and creative contexts. Awareness of a range of issues pertinent to the production of, and critical reaction to, poetry is developed through analyses of the format and production of a collection, the transition from manuscript to publication, processes of authorial revision, the anthologisation of poems, the formation of creative and critical schools, and relevant critical and methodological contexts.
Learning Outcomes
To promote the understanding of the relation between the creative writing of, and the critical response to, poetry situating analyses within the main methodological approaches to poetry developed in the modern and contemporary periods.
Skills
The ability to link critical reading to creative writing in a written exercise that is fluent in the relevant creative and critical terminology of any given poetic debate; the ability to produce cogent critical readings of the craft of poetic creation.
Inspired by the original ‘Belfast Group’ workshops, attended by both poets and critics, this module provides the opportunity for students to analyse and evaluate new and established writing (by themselves, or by others as appropriate) and in the process to engage with different approaches to the reading, writing, and analysis of poetry. The module also involves consideration of the poet-as-critic, through study of critical writings on poetry by range of Irish, British and American poets such as Yeats, Eliot, Auden, Stevens, Pound, Kavanagh, and Heaney, and of the poem itself as a vehicle for criticism.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module, all students will have developed and honed their analytical skills in interpreting and evaluating poetry; they will also, as appropriate, enhance their creative writing skills and/or their knowledge of key critical debates about poetry in the 20th and into the 21st centuries. They will have an understanding of the politics and aesthetics at work in a number of major poet-critics, and a heightened understanding of their own creative or critical practice in consequence.
Skills
An ability to analyse poetry at a sophisticated level; enhanced skill in the writing or interpretation of new work; the ability to identify and evaluate the implications of poets writing on poetry; enhanced communication and group-work skills in a context of creative and critical intersection.
This is a Special Topic module offered by a visiting Fulbright Distinguished Scholar. The contents of the module, which will change on an annual basis, depending on the academic area of expertise of the Visiting Scholar, will examine an aspect of modern Irish literature. The specific module content will be announced as early as possible each academic year. Students who sign up for this module will, as normal, have the right to switch to another module if the content does not suit their academic plans.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students will achieve a detailed and complex understanding of an aspect of modern Irish Literature in English. Students will also acquire the ability to analyse a range of Irish literary texts, and further their understanding of appropriate historical and cultural contexts and particular critical approaches. Students will also be able to identify and analyse significant aspects of Irish literary texts and will have developed their skills in written and spoken argument with ability to draw on appropriate primary and secondary evidence.
Skills
Students will acquire and / or develop the skills of:
• close critical reading of primary material;
• the synthesis and weighing of different, sometimes competing, interpretations of literary texts;
• contextualisation of primary texts in relation to a range of historical and cultural narratives.
This is a Special Topic module offered by a visiting Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in Creative Writing. The contents of the module, which will change on an annual basis, depending on the area of creative writing expertise of the Visiting Scholar, will provide an opportunity for students to work on a specific aspect of creative writing. The specific module content will be announced as early as possible each academic year. Students who sign up for this module will, as normal, have the right to switch to another module if the content does not suit their academic plans.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students will have examined an aspect of creative writing and will have written extensively in the appropriate form or genre. Objectivity about their own creative practice will have been further fostered by the writing of a self-reflexive commentary to accompany their final submission. Students should have come some way towards developing their own creative voice.
The module will examine key figures and movements in Irish poetry through the twentieth and into the twenty-first century. It will begin with the study of Yeats, and assess the different ways in which Yeatsian influence pervades the century. Reactions against the Revival, in the work of modernists such as Devlin and MacGreevy will be considered, as well as the work of Kavanagh and MacNeice from the 1930s through to the 1960s. In the post-1969 period, particular attention will be paid to poetry from the North of Ireland, and the emergence of a generation of writers – Heaney, Longley, Mahon, Muldoon, McGuckian in the years of the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’. Recent poetry from Ireland, and the work of a younger generation – Morrissey, Flynn, Quinn, Wheatley and others – will provide an opportunity to assess the landscape of present-day Irish poetry.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the module, students will have: the ability to situate Irish poetry in its complex historical and political contexts; an understanding of the debates surrounding the politics of form in Irish poetry from Yeats to the present day; a refined and heightened grasp of the forms and themes of poetry; an awareness of the workings of literary influence in the Irish tradition; an understanding of the critical debates surrounding the reception of Irish poetry.
Skills
The following skills will be developed and enhanced through the module: the ability to analyse the nuances of poetic form through close reading of individual poems; the ability to relate poetry to its historical, social and political context; the ability to trace and analyse literary influences; the ability to assess and intervene in critical debate about Irish poetry.
Normally a strong 2.2 Honours degree (with a minimum of 55%) or equivalent qualification acceptable to the University either in English, or in Comparative or World Literature, or in Creative Writing; or joint or combined Honours with English, Literature, or Creative Writing as a major subject.
In addition, applicants are required to submit a sample of literary-critical written work (eg an essay on literature completed as part of an undergraduate degree), and, for those who also wish to pursue creative assessment options, a sample of 8-10 poems/pages of poetry, which will be assessed to determine if an offer of admission can be made.
Applicants who wish to pursue creative writing-only assessment normally require a 2.2 Honours degree (with a minimum of 55%) or equivalent qualification acceptable to the University in any discipline and are required to submit a sample of original written work (8-10 poems/pages of poetry) which will be assessed to determine if an offer of admission can be made.
Exceptions may be made in the case of applicants with a strong track record of publication, prize-winning, or relevant professional experience.
Applicants are advised to apply as early as possible. In the event that any programme receives a high number of applications, the University reserves the right to close the application portal. Notifications to this effect will appear on the Direct Application Portal against the programme application page.
The University's Recognition of Prior Learning Policy provides guidance on the assessment of experiential learning (RPEL). Please visit the link below for more information. http://go.qub.ac.uk/RPLpolicyQUB
International Students
Our country/region pages include information on entry requirements, tuition fees, scholarships, student profiles, upcoming events and contacts for your country/region. Use the dropdown list below for specific information for your country/region.
English Language Requirements
Evidence of an IELTS* score of 6.5, with not less than 5.5 in any component, or an equivalent qualification acceptable to the University is required.
*Taken within the last 2 years.
International students wishing to apply to Queen's University Belfast (and for whom English is not their first language), must be able to demonstrate their proficiency in English in order to benefit fully from their course of study or research. Non-EEA nationals must also satisfy UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) immigration requirements for English language for visa purposes.
If you need to improve your English language skills before you enter this degree programme, INTO Queen's University Belfast offers a range of English language courses. These intensive and flexible courses are designed to improve your English ability for admission to this degree.
Academic English: an intensive English language and study skills course for successful university study at degree level
Pre-sessional English: a short intensive academic English course for students starting a degree programme at Queen's University Belfast and who need to improve their English.
Graduates of the programme have a good employment record, entering professions such as publishing, journalism, arts administration, events organisation, the media, public relations, teaching, advertising, business and industry. The programme has an excellent track record of student success in publication and prizes.
Graduate Plus/Future Ready Award for extra-curricular skills
In addition to your degree programme, at Queen's you can have the opportunity to gain wider life, academic and employability skills. For example, placements, voluntary work, clubs, societies, sports and lots more. So not only do you graduate with a degree recognised from a world leading university, you'll have practical national and international experience plus a wider exposure to life overall. We call this Graduate Plus/Future Ready Award. It's what makes studying at Queen's University Belfast special.
1EU citizens in the EU Settlement Scheme, with settled status, will be charged the NI or GB tuition fee based on where they are ordinarily resident. Students who are ROI nationals resident in GB will be charged the GB fee.
2 EU students who are ROI nationals resident in ROI are eligible for NI tuition fees.
3 EU Other students (excludes Republic of Ireland nationals living in GB, NI or ROI) are charged tuition fees in line with international fees.
All tuition fees quoted relate to a single year of study unless stated otherwise. Tuition fees will be subject to an annual inflationary increase, unless explicitly stated otherwise.
There are no specific additional course costs associated with this programme.
There are no specific additional course costs associated with this programme.
All Students
Depending on the programme of study, there may be extra costs which are not covered by tuition fees, which students will need to consider when planning their studies.
Students can borrow books and access online learning resources from any Queen's library. If students wish to purchase recommended texts, rather than borrow them from the University Library, prices per text can range from £30 to £100. Students should also budget between £30 to £75 per year for photocopying, memory sticks and printing charges.
Students undertaking a period of work placement or study abroad, as either a compulsory or optional part of their programme, should be aware that they will have to fund additional travel and living costs.
If a programme includes a major project or dissertation, there may be costs associated with transport, accommodation and/or materials. The amount will depend on the project chosen. There may also be additional costs for printing and binding.
Students may wish to consider purchasing an electronic device; costs will vary depending on the specification of the model chosen.
There are also additional charges for graduation ceremonies, examination resits and library fines.
How do I fund my study?
The Department for the Economy will provide a tuition fee loan of up to £6,500 per NI / EU student for postgraduate study. Tuition fee loan information.
A postgraduate loans system in the UK offers government-backed student loans of up to £11,836 for taught and research Masters courses in all subject areas (excluding Initial Teacher Education/PGCE, where undergraduate student finance is available). Criteria, eligibility, repayment and application information are available on the UK government website.