(1905-1967)
Patrick Kavanagh was an Irish
poet who drew on his experience of life in Ireland for much of his
poetry. Kavanagh was born in County Monaghan at Mucker near Inniskeen,
where his father was a shoemaker and small farmer. In his early
life he 
worked as a shoemaker and on his father's farm, he later moved to
Dublin and became a critic and journalist. He was befriended by
A. E. (George Russell), he soon began to establish a reputation
not only for his literary skills, but as a drinker and
He published his first collection of poems,
Ploughman and Other Poems, in 1936. In 1947 he published A Soul
for Sale which was widely considered to be his finest work. His
other works include The Great Hunger (1942) and Come Dance with
Kitty Stobling (1960) and Tarry Flynn.
Perhaps Kavanagh's most famous poem is "On
Raglan Road," is often sung to the tune of the traditional
Irish air "The
Dawning of the Day."
Kavanagh died on 30th November 1967 and was
buried in the grave yard of the church he attended as a boy, Kavanagh
along with WB Yeates are widely regarded
as the two most influential Irish poets of the twentieth century.
Visit the Patrick Kavanagh website.
Read the words of and listen to the
tune Raglan Road. and a few other of Kavanagh's poems. |
