Selected Poems

Patrick Kavanagh, Collected Poems, 1964
Penguin Classics, 1996

Who Killed James Joyce?

p. 96
Who killed James Joyce?
I, said the commentator,
I killed James Joyce for my graduation.

What weapon was used
To slay mighty Ulysses?
The weapon that was used
Was a Harvard thesis.

Auditors In

p. 97
The problem that confronts me here
Is to be eloquent yet sincere;
Let myself rip and not go phoney
In an inflated testimony.
Is verse an entertainment only?

Lines Written on a Seat on the Grand Canal, Dublin

‘Erected to the Memory of Mrs Dermot O'Brien’
p. 129
A swan goes by head low with many apologies
Fantastic light looks through the eyes of bridges —
And look! a barge comes bringing from Athy
And other far-flung towns mythologies.

Ireland,
Poetry
Marc Girod
Sat Jun 5 21:10:57 2021