Oomph of Quicksilver/Freacnairc Mhearcair

by Michael Davitt, Louis de Paor

Michael Davitt is a very well known writer and broadcaster for RTÉ. He founded the poetry broadsheet and journal Innti and was a central figure in a new movement in Gaelic poetry in the 1970s. He became a friend of Seán Ó Ríordáin, to whose metaphysical wit he gave a sharp vernacular edge. He was also influenced by the linguistic virtuosity of the American E.E. Cummings, the Beat poets and American popular culture. His poems have a wide awake conscience that holds a mirror to contemporary Irish society, while his poems about and for people he admires capture their force and vitality.

Louis de Paor provides an illuminating introduction crediting Michael Davitt's achievement as one of the most compelling and innovative poetic voices in Ireland in the last 30 years. Among the leading poets who have made new English versions in this collection are John Montague, Brendan Kennelly, Paul Muldoon, Mary O'Malley and Michael Hartnett.

Genres: Irish Literature, Poetry

120 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2000

About the author

Michael Davitt was an Irish poet who published in the Irish language. He has been characterised as "...one of modern Ireland's finest poets in either of the nation's languages and key figure in the 1970s Irish Language poetry movement.

Reviews

[Tiarnán · Rating 4 out of 5]

Groundbreaking modern poetry in Irish.