Drunken Sailor

by John Montague

In Drunken Sailor, Montague explores the political divide in his native County Tyrone, his own rural Catholic upbringing, the changing face of modern Ireland, the landscape of Ireland as historical palimpsest, and his own fascination with the sea. Many of these themes are familiar to readers of Montague, but here they are handled with the amplitude and unhurried artistry of one deeply practiced in his craft. In this volume the poet grapples with mortality, his own and others’, creating images that haunt the imagination.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

John Patrick Montague, BA, MA, MFA, DLitt

American-born Irish poet, writer of short fiction, essayist, and professor. Graduate of University College Dublin and the University of Iowa.

Awarded honourary doctorates by the State University of New York at Buffalo, the University of Ulster, and University College Dublin. Recipient of the American Ireland Fund Literary Award, the Irish-American Cultural Institute’s Award for Literature, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and Australia's Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize.

He was appointed the first occupant of the Ireland Chair of Poetry. A native of Brooklyn, New York, he became Distinguished Writer-in-Residence for the New York State Writers' Institute and Professor of Poetry and Writer-in-Residence at State University of New York at Albany. He also taught at University College Cork, Queen’s University in Belfast, Trinity College Dublin, and his alma mater University College Dublin.

In addition to receiving honourary doctorates in the United States and Ireland, France invested him a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.