Patrick Kavanagh
Who is Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh (21 October 1904 – 30 November 1967) was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel Tarry Flynn, and the poems "On Raglan Road" and "The Great Hunger". He is known for his accounts of Irish life through reference to the everyday and commonplace.
Life and work
Early life
Patrick Kavanagh was born in rural Inniskeen, County Monaghan, in 1904, the fourth of ten children of James Kavanagh and Bridget Quinn. His grandfather was a schoolteacher called "Kevany", which a local priest changed to "Kavanagh" at his baptism. The grandfather had to leave the area following a scandal and never taught in a national school again, but married and raised a family in Tullamore. Patrick Kavanagh's father, James, was a cobbler ...
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Patrick Kavanagh Poems
- Canal Bank Walk
Leafy-with-love banks and the green waters of the canal
Pouring redemption for me, that I do
The will of God, wallow in the habitual, the banal,
Grow with nature again as before I grew.
...
- My Father Played The Melodeon
My father played the melodeon
Outside at our gate,
There were stars in the morning east
And they danced to his music.
...
- Gospel
We are the children of light,
Wise, not companioned
By goats
In a condemned graveyard.
...
- On An Apple-ripe September Morning
On an apple-ripe September morning
Through the mist-chill fields I went
With a pitch-fork on my shoulder
Less for use than for devilment.
...
- Advent
We have tested and tasted too much, lover-
Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder.
But here in the Advent-darkened room
Where the dry black bread and the sugarless tea
...
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Patrick Kavanagh Quotes
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Comments about Patrick Kavanagh
- Ronnieneilson: ‘clay is the word and clay is the flesh’ the opening lines tonight, taken from patrick kavanagh’s the great hunger. lisa o’neill’s show tonight was a transcendent meditation on life and death using nature as a metaphor for the vagaries of the human condition.
- Bernardtjoy: an ever essential bit of patrick kavanagh:
- Boylanroger: a somber-looking patrick kavanagh supervises the cutting of the wedding cake by his more-cheery wife katherine. april 1967.
- Boylanroger: patrick kavanagh, the distinguished poet, on the high street in carrickmacross, co. monaghan in, as the caption says, "an unusually cheery mood." it must have been pub opening time.
- Dublinindo: the dubliner, a self-described “rebel” married a french count and hosted raucous parties, with the likes of brendan behan, patrick kavanagh and jp donleavy gate-crashing her flat above the notorious “catacombs” shebeen on fitzwilliam square.
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