"A boy was standing like a ballet dancer poised on the rock"

"A boy was standing like a ballet dancer poised on the rock"

Poetry--Twentieth Century--Patrick Kavanagh--Lough Derg

The poetry of Patrick Kavanagh's 'Lough Derg', detailing a visit in 1941

Patrick Kavanagh, 1904-1967

Kavanagh, Patrick, Lough Derg, pp. 24-25

Goldsmith Press, The Curragh, Ireland

1978

Citation for the purposes of criticism

Published poem

English

Poetry chapbook

DD_0254

54.609160,-7.871266

“The rusty cross of St. Patrick had a dozen
Devotees clustered around it at four o’clock.
Bare knees were going round Saint Brendan’s Bed.
A boy was standing like a ballet dancer poised on the rock
Under the belfry; he stared over at Donegal
Where the white houses on the side of the hills
Popped up like mushrooms in September.
The sun was smiling on a thousand hayfields
That hour, and he must have thought Lough Derg
More unreasonable than ordinary stone.
Perhaps it was an iceberg
That he had glanced at on his journey from Japan.
But the iceberg filled a glass of water
And poured it to the honour of the sun.”

Poems