No Earthly Estate: God and Patrick Kavanagh: An Anthology [Hardcover]

Tom Stack (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 24, 2003

Nearly one-half of the poems by the popular Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh (1904-67) have religious themes, images, or allusions. Here Fr. Tom Stack has collected all of these 138 poems and includes extensive introductions and commentaries about them. ""Kavanagh himself said that poetry was a mystical thing, and Stack's reading of the poems amplifies and illumines that claim.""-Seamus Heaney.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Kavanagh himself said that poetry was a mystical thing, and Stack's reading of the poems amplifies and illumines that claim."

About the Author

Tom Stack is Parish Priest of Milltown, Dublin and did his MA under the guidance of Seamus Heaney at Harvard University on the theology of the work of Patrick Kavanagh.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Columba Press; Revised edition (March 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1856073408
• ISBN-13: 978-1856073400
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,389,171 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gold in the mire, January 8, 2008

By 

Page Hudson (Williston, VT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: No Earthly Estate: God and Patrick Kavanagh: An Anthology (Paperback)

Patrick Kavanagh is a great poet, rather uneven in the quality of his work, but with some unforgettable poems. He combines modern idiom with words and images from his Irish farm upbringing and uses flexible structures in designing his poems. His 'free verse' has much greater control than the average slop "all out of shape from toe to top" (Yeats, of course) that modern poets find so attractive, but he is not a writer of traditional styles. This is a nice selection, though not all his best work. Take a look at 'Epic' or 'The Hospital' or selections from 'The Great Hunger'. Kavanagh has a striking voice, brilliant, original, alive. His old fashioned power to please, his artistry with rhythms, cadences and rhymes works well with his varied themes.
Tom Stack's comments are useful, particularly if one is previously unfamiliar with Mr Kavanagh's work.