{"id":7673,"date":"2020-03-17T19:27:22","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T19:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=7673"},"modified":"2020-03-17T19:27:22","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T19:27:22","slug":"free-documentary-patrick-kavanagh-no-mans-fool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2020\/03\/17\/free-documentary-patrick-kavanagh-no-mans-fool\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Documentary \u2013 ‘Patrick Kavanagh -No Man’s Fool’"},"content":{"rendered":"

In association with The Loopline Collection<\/a>, <\/span>we are introducing a free documentary film every week during this period of social isolation for you to enjoy.<\/p>\n

For this St. Patrick’s night we bring you S\u00e9 <\/span>Merry Doyle\u2019s intimate portrait of the poet Patrick Kavanagh (1904-1967): \u2018Patrick Kavanagh \u2013 No Man\u2019s Fool\u2019.<\/p>\n

Kavanagh’s best-known works include the novel Tarry Flynn<\/em> (1948), and poems such as \u2018On Raglan Road\u2019 (1946), immortalised in song by Luke Kelly<\/a><\/span>, and\u00a0 \u2019The Great Hunger<\/a>\u2018 <\/span>(1942). His work viscerally conveys the frustrations of Irish rural life in the first half of the century, while grasping at its cosmic possibilities.<\/p>\n

We also find these themes in:<\/p>\n

\u2018Stony Grey Soil of Monaghan\u2018<\/em><\/p>\n

O stony grey soil of Monaghan<\/em>
\nThe laugh from my love you thieved;<\/em>
\nYou took the gay child of my passion<\/em>
\nAnd gave me your clod-conceived.<\/em><\/p>\n

You clogged the feet of my boyhood<\/em>
\nAnd I believed that my stumble<\/em>
\nHad the poise and stride of Apollo<\/em>
\nAnd his voice my thick tongued mumble.<\/em><\/p>\n

You told me the plough was immortal!<\/em>
\nO green-life conquering plough!<\/em>
\nThe mandril stained, your coulter blunted<\/em>
\nIn the smooth lea-field of my brow.<\/em><\/p>\n

You sang on steaming dunghills<\/em>
\nA song of cowards’ brood,<\/em>
\nYou perfumed my clothes with weasel itch,<\/em>
\nYou fed me on swinish food<\/em><\/p>\n

You flung a ditch on my vision<\/em>
\nOf beauty, love and truth.<\/em>
\nO stony grey soil of Monaghan<\/em>
\nYou burgled my bank of youth!<\/em><\/p>\n

Lost the long hours of pleasure<\/em>
\nAll the women that love young men.<\/em>
\nO can I stilll stroke the monster’s back<\/em>
\nOr write with unpoisoned pen.<\/em><\/p>\n

His name in these lonely verses<\/em>
\nOr mention the dark fields where<\/em>
\nThe first gay flight of my lyric<\/em>
\nGot caught in a peasant’s prayer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mullahinsa, Drummeril, Black Shanco-<\/em>
\nWherever I turn I see<\/em>
\nIn the stony grey soil of Monaghan<\/em>
\nDead loves that were born for me.<\/em><\/p>\n