Monday, April 13, 2009

Lines Written on a Seat on the Grand Canal, Dublin...by Patrick Kavanagh

Kavanagh is like Seamus Heaney to me, because he writes about ordinary things. This poem was written when he saw a canal-side seat dedicated to a lady. I have always loved the peom because it reminds me of when I used to live near that same canal myself - there was something really beautiful about a hazy summer evening by the canal, complete with traffic noise and passers by. It also strikes a chord in me about being commemorated or buried in a place that you love. Kavanagh got his wish, there is now a statue of him sitting beside the canal, very close to where I used to live, I always thought of this poem every time I saw him there !

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'Erected to the memory of Mrs. Dermot O'Brien'

O commemorate me where there is water,
Canal water, preferably, so stilly
Greeny at the heart of summer. Brother
Commemorate me thus beautifully
Where by a lock niagarously roars
The falls for those who sit in the tremendous silence
Of mid-July. No one will speak in prose
Who finds his way to these Parnassian islands.
A swan goes by head low with many apologies,
Fantastic light looks through the eyes of bridges -
And look! a barge comes bringing from Athy
And other far-flung towns mythologies.
O commemorate me with no hero-courageous
Tomb - just a canal-bank seat for the passer-by.

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