Page 48 - Patrick Kavanagh News Today

With reference to Nicholas Lezard’s Twitter antagonist (Down and Out, 12 February), disdain for the banal might not be the evidence of high-minded seriousness some would assume. We find respect, even reverence, for the commonplace in poets such as William Blake, who famously wrote of seeing the world in a grain of sand, or the Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh (not noted for frivolity), who celebrated being able to “wallow in the habitual, the banal” after successful major surgery. Vermeer and...

First thought: Thom Gunn, ‘Thoughts on Unpacking’. ‘I realise,’ he ends, ‘that love is an arranging.’ No sooner thought, I think of another, cracking conclusion: ‘The world might change… Change as our kisses are changing without our thinking.’ And then I think of ‘Breakfast Song’, another Elizabeth Bishop poem we’re lucky to have in print. Of Derek Mahon’s ‘Monochrome’. Of Seamus Heaney’s ‘Skunk’. Ev...

Updated / Thursday, 11 Feb 2021 09:30 Actress Paula McGlinchey features in this weeks special Poetry Programme Uncork the red wine, open the chocolates, and settle down for half an hour of love poetry when the Poetry Programme marks St Valentines Day on Sunday 14th February, at 7:30 pm on RTÉ Radio 1. There will be old favourites and new writing, readings by actors and by poets themselves, some from the Poetry Programme’s own archive, and some you may not have heard before. Owen Roe Paula ...

Image: Jan Woolf and others Starmer’s plans to woo back working class voters ‘oop north’ through risible courtship rituals of PATriotism is misjudged, PATronising and insulting.  Had Jeremy Corbyn not slipped another EU referendum into the 2019 manifesto, he’d have won the election, despite the establishment’s press campaign and bogus anti-Semitism smears.   So before we hear about any more flag waving from Sir Kier… I revisit my essay, a work in progress…much like a country ou...

12.42 31 Jan 2021 Have you ever heard of the poem, ‘Dark Haired Miriam Ran Away’? You probably have, even if you don’t know it. It first appeared in print 75 years ago this year - but it’s better known by a different name: ‘On Raglan Road’. Last year, it was voted Ireland’s favourite song, but it began life differently. A poem of love lost, it was perhaps the masterpiece of Patrick Kavanagh. For a poet so synonymous with his native rural Monaghan, most of his poetry was written in...

Morning Report. Back by popular demand, it is Friday! We get you up to speed on the most important developments in politics and policy, plus trends to watch. Alexis Simendinger and @asimendinger and @alweaver22. Please recommend the Morning Report to friends and let us know what you think. CLICK HERE to subscribe! Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported each morning this week: Monday, 419,215; Tuesday, 421,129; Wednesday, 425,216; Thursday, 429,159; Friday, 433,195. The Biden administration s...

Quiz: How much can you remember about the Leaving Cert English poetry syllabus? “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…” By Sean Murray Friday 29 Jan 2021, 9:30 PM Jan 29th 2021, 9:30 PM 55,627 Views 30 Comments FOR SOME OF us, it may be a long time ago.  But even if it’s been decades, there’s a good chance you may remember the poets ...

“O Stony Grey Soil . . . the laugh from my love you thieved,” wrote Patrick Kavanagh about his native Monaghan. The great poet’s lines could also be used to describe the area around Osberstown

Arts Over Borders plans for celebrating Irelands northern literary lands beyond Brexit and Covid David Roy speaks to Arts Over Borders team Seán Doran and Liam Browne about the impact of Covid and Brexit on their annual festivals celebrating Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde and Brian Friel and how the ongoing pandemic and political debacle have affected their plan to highlight Irelands northern literary lands on the global stage Domhnall Gleeson and David Pearse performing Wait...

7 min read Before now, emphasis was placed on rural landscape and western seaboard in Irish art. KATHRYN MILIGANS book has taken a different approach Art can show us familiar things in such striking ways that we may always carry a little extra with us afterwards. Parisian neighbourhood bistros make me feel all louchely Impressionist, while lonely late-night cafes on New York street corners bring out an Edward-Hopper spirit. It’s possible that romance plays a part. Lowry doesn’t qui...