Selected Poems

by Austin Clarke

Book by Austin Clarke

Genres: Poetry

280 pages, Hardcover

First published May 4, 1992

About the author

Austin Clarke (Irish: Aibhistín Ó Cléirigh[1]) (9 May 1896 – 19 March 1974), born in 83 Manor Street, Stoneybatter, Dublin, was one of the leading Irish poets of the generation after W. B. Yeats. He also wrote plays, novels and memoirs. Clarke's main contribution to Irish poetry was the rigour with which he used technical means borrowed from classical Irish language poetry when writing in English.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_...

Reviews

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clarke was one of the leading Irish poets of his generation after Yeats and Kavanagh. Though he also wrote plays, novels and memoirs, Clarke's main contribution to Irish literature was his poetry, which demonstrated his technical prowess borrowed from traditional Irish poetry to write English verse based on complex patterns of assonance, consonance, and half rhyme. Describing his technique to Robert Frost, Clarke said, "I load myself down with chains and try to wriggle free." Given the heavy religious themes of sin and repentance, guilt and shame, and moralizing about women’s virtue in his poems, Clarke rarely managed to “wriggle free” to give voice to his heart.