MODERN IRISH POETRY An Anthology
Edited by PATRICK CROTTY
THE BLACKSTAFF PRESS
BELFAST CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1 THOMAS MACGREEVY (1893-1967) 9 Homage to Hieronymus Bosch 9 Recessional 11 AUSTIN CLARKE (1896-1974) 13 The Lost Heifer 13 from The Young Woman of Beare 14 The Planter's Daughter 16 Celibacy 17 Martha Blake 18 The Straying Student 20 Penal Law 21 St Christopher 21 Early Unfinished Sketch 21 Martha Blake at Fifty-one 22 /romTiresias, II 27 ^PATRICK KAVANAGH (1904-1967) 31 To the Man After the Harrow 31 Stony Grey Soil 32 from The Great Hunger: I, from III, XIV 33 The Twelfth of July 39 Tarry Flynn 39 A Christmas Childhood 40 Father Mat 42 Elegy for Jim Larkin 46 Epic 47 Innocence 48 Kerr's Ass 48 The Hospital 49 PADRAIC FALLON (1905-1974) 50 A Flask of Brandy 50 Kiltartan Legend 51 Yeats at Athenry Perhaps 52 from Three Houses: I Gurteen 55 A Bit of Brass 57 BRIAN COFFEY (1905-1995) 59 from Death of Hektor: 6 59 from For What for Whom Unwanted: 1,8 60 SAMUEL BECKETT (1906-1989) 62 Cascando 62 my way is in the sand flowing 63 what would I do without this world faceless incurious 64 from Words and Music 64 Roundelay 65 JOHN HEWITT (1907-1987) 66 from Freehold: from II The Lonely Heart 66 The Ram's Horn 68 The Colony 69 Substance and Shadow 73 An Irishman in Coventry 73 A Local Poet 74 LOUIS MACNEICE (1907-1963) 76 Mayfly 77 Snow 78 from Autumn Journal: XVI 78 Meeting Point 82 Autobiography , 83 The Libertine 84 Western Landscape 85 from Autumn Sequel: from Canto XX 88 from A Hand of Snapshots: The Once-in-Passing 91 House on a Cliff 92 Soap Suds 92 The Suicide 93 Star-gazer 94 DENIS DEVLIN (1908-1959) 95 Ank'hor Vat 95 Little Elegy 96 from Memoirs of a Turcoman Diplomat: Oteli Asia Palas, Inc. 98 Renewal by her Element 99 W.R. RODGERS (1909-1969) 101 Snow 101 Lent 103 The Net 104 Stormy Night 105 MAIRTIN 6 DIREAlN (1910-1988) 107 Deireadh Re 108 trans. Era's End by Patrick Crotty 109 Cuimhne an Domhnaigh 108 trans. Memory of Sunday by Patrick Crotty 109 Cranna Foirtil 110 trans. Strong Beams by Patrick Crotty 111 SEAN 6 Rl'ORDAlN (1917-1977) 113 Adhlacadh Mo Mhathar 114 trans. My Mother's Burial by Patrick Crotty 115 Malairt 116 trans. Switch by Patrick Crotty 117 Cnoc Melleri 118 trans. Mount Melleray by Patrick Crotty 119 Siollabadh 124 trans. Syllabling by Patrick Crotty 125 Claustrophobia 124 trans. Claustrophobia by Patrick Crotty 125 Reo 126 trans. Frozen Stiff fey Patrick Crotty 127 Fiabhras 126 trans. Fever by Patrick Crotty 127 VALENTIN IREMONGER (1918-1991) 130 This Houre Her Vigill 130 Clear View in Summer 131 Icarus 132 FERGUS ALLEN (b. 1921) 134 Elegy for Faustina 134 The Fall 135 MAlRE MHAC AN TSAOI (b. 1922) 137 Caoineadh 138 trans. Lament by Patrick Crotty 139 Ceathniinti Mhaire Ni Ogain 138 trans. Mary Hogan's Quatrains by Patrick Crotty 139 PEARSE HUTCHINSON (b. 1927) 146 Malaga 146 Gaeltacht 147 Sometimes Feel 148 RICHARD MURPHY (b. 1927) 149 Sailing to an Island 150 The Poet on the Island 152 from The Battle of Aughrim: Casement's Funeral 153 Seals at High Island 154 Stormpetrel 155 Mornine Call 156 from The Price of Stone: Roof-tree, Convenience, Kylemore Castle, Natural Son 156 ^THOMAS KINSELLA (b. 1928) 159 Chrysalides 160 from Notes from the Land of the Dead: Hen Woman, Ancestor, Tear 160 from One: 38 Phoenix Street, His Father's Hands 167 from Anniversaries: 1956 172 from The Messenger 173 from Out of Ireland: Harmonies 174 from One Fond Embrace 174 ^ JOHN MONTAGUE (b. 1929) 178 Like Dolmens Round My Childhood, the Old People 179 The Trout 180 A Drink of Milk 181 from A Chosen Light: I 11 rue Daguerre 182 Family Conference 183 The Same Gesture 183 Last Journey 184 Small Secrets 185 Dowager 187 from The Cave of Night: III Cave 188 Herbert Street Revisited 188 JAMES SIMMONS (b. 1933) 191 One of the Boys 191 West Strand Visions 192 From the Irish 193 BRENDAN KENNELLY (b. 1936) 194 from Cromwell: Three Tides, Vintage 194 SEAMUS HEANEY (b. 1939) 197 Churning Day 198 Broagh 199 The Tollund Man 199 from Mossbawn: Two Poems in Dedication: I Sunlight 201 Funeral Rites 202 Casualty 205 Badgers 208 The Harvest Bow 209 The Birthplace 210 from Sweeney Redivivus: The Cleric 211 From the Frontier of Writing 212 From the Canton of Expectation 213 Wheels within Wheels 215 from Lightenings: VIII, IX 216 Keeping Going 217 •iCMICHAEL LONGLEY (b. 1939) 220 - In Memoriam 220 Caravan 222 Wounds 223 Ghost Town 224 Man Lying on a Wall 225 Wreaths: The Civil Servant, The Greengrocer, The Linen Workers 225 from Mayo Monologues: Self-heal 227 The Linen Industry 227 Between Hovers 228 Homeric Poems: Laertes, Argos, The Butchers, Phemios & Medon 229 River & Fountain 231 MICHAEL HARTNETT (b. 1941) 235 Bread 236 I have exhausted the delighted range . . . 236 For My Grandmother, Bridget Halpin 237 from A Farewell to English: I 237 Lament for Tadgh Cronin's Children 238 The Man who Wrote Yeats, the Man who Wrote Mozart 239 Sneachta Gealai '77 246 trans. Moonsnow '77 by Michael Hartnett 247 EAMON GRENNAN (b. 1941) 248 Totem 248 Four Deer 249 Breaking Points 250 DEREK MAHON (b. 1941) 253 A Dying Art 253 Ecelesiastes 254 An Image from Beckett 254 Lives 256 The Snow Party 258 A Refusal to Mourn 259 A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford 261 Courtyards in Delft 263 Rathlin 264 Tractatus 265 EILEAN NI CHUILLEANAlN (b. 1942) 266 The Second Voyage 266 Deaths and Engines 267 The Informant 268 The Real Thing 269 Saint Margaret of Cortona 270 EAVAN BOLAND (b. 1944) 272 Listen. This Is the Noise of Myth 272 Fond Memory 275 The Black Lace Fan My Mother Gave Me 276 The Latin Lesson 277 Midnight Flowers 278 Anna Liffey 279 PAUL DURCAN (b. 1944) 286 The Hat Factory 286 Tullynoe: Tete-a-Tete in the Parish Priest's Parlour 289 The Haulier's Wife Meets Jesus on the Road Near Moone 290 Around the Corner from Francis Bacon 295 from Six Nuns Die in Convent Inferno: I 297 The Late Mr Charles Lynch Digresses 301 The Levite and His Concubine at Gibeah 301 BERNARD O'DONOGHUE (b. 1945) 304 A Nun Takes the Veil 304 The Weakness 305 FRANK ORMSBY (b. 1947) 306 Passing the Crematorium 306 Home 306 from A Paris Honeymoon: L'Orangerie 307 CIARAN CARSON (b. 1948) 308 Dresden 308 Cocktails 313 The Mouth 313 Hamlet 314 Ovid: Metamorphoses, V, 529-550 317 Bagpipe Music 317 TOM PAULIN (b. 1949) 321 Pot Burial 321 Where Art Is a Midwife 322 Desertmartin 322 Off the Back of a Lorry 323 A Written Answer 324 The Lonely Tower 324 BIDDY JENKINSON (b. 1949) 327 Caitheadh 328 trans. Spray by Alex Osborne 329 MEDBH McGUCKIAN (b. 1950) 330 The Seed-picture 330 Gateposts 331 The Flower Master 332 The Sitting 332 Marconi's Cottage 333 from Porcelain Bells: 3 Speaking into the Candles 334 PAUL MULDOON (b. 1951) 337 Lunch with Pancho Villa 338 Cuba 339 Anseo 340 Gathering Mushrooms 341 The More a Man Has the More a Man Wants 343 Something Else 361 Cauliflowers 362 NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL (b. 1952) 365 Sceala 366 trans. Annunciations by Michael Hartnett 367 Fear Suaithinseach 366 trans. Miraculous Grass by Seamus Heaney 367 An Bhabog Bhriste 370 trans. The Broken Doll feyJoh n Montague 371 Failte Bheal na Sionna don Iasc 372 trans. The Shannon Estuary Welcomes the Fish by Patrick Crotty 373 An Bhean Mhidhilis 372 trans. The Unfaithful Wife by Paul Muldoon 373 Ceist na Teangan 376 trans. The Language Issue by Paul Muldoon 377 Caith'n 378 trans. Cathleen fey Paul Muldoon 379 MATTHEW SWEENEY (b. 1952) 382 To the Building Trade 382 Tube Ride to Martha's 383 MAURICE RIORDAN (b. 1953) 384 Milk 384 Time Out 385 A Word from the Loki 387 THOMAS MCCARTHY (b. 1954) 390 State Funeral 390 Mr Nabokov's Memory 391 Persephone, 1978 392 The Standing Trains 393 IAN DUHIG (b. 1954) 395 I'r Hen Iaith A'i Chaneuon 395 Reforma Agraria 396 PAULA MEEHAN (b. 1955) 398 The Pattern 398 Child Burial 401 Laburnum 402 SEAN DUNNE (1956-1995) 404 from Sydney Place: Beans, The Mobile, Railings, The Dead Pianist, The Bus Station, The Poet Upstairs, Tea, The Lost Wife, The Old School, The Night Sky 404 CATHAL 6 SEARCAIGH (b. 1956) 407 Bo Bhradach 408 trans. A Runaway Cow fey Patrick Crotty 409 Na Piopai Creafoige 408 trans. The Clay Pipes fey Seamus Heaney 409 Caoineadh 412 trans. Lament fey Seamus Heaney 413 PETER SIRR (b. 1960) 414 A Few Helpful Hints 414 PETER MCDONALD (b. 1962) 416 Sunday in Great Tew 416 Peacetime 419 MARTIN MOONEY (b. 1964) 421 Anna Akhmatova's Funeral 421 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 423 INDEX OF POETS AND TRANSLATORS 429 INDEX OF TITLES . 430 INDEX OF FIRST LINES 433