"The turnips were a-sowing in the fields around Pettigo"

"The turnips were a-sowing in the fields around Pettigo"

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, p. 41

Goldsmith Press, The Curragh, Ireland

1978

Citation for the purposes of criticism

Published poem

English

Poetry chapbook

DD_0258

54.5494, -7.8320

“All happened on Lough Derg as it is written
In June nineteen-forty-two
When the Germans were fighting outside Rostov.
The poet wrote it down as best he knew
As integral and completed as the emotion
Of men and women cloaking with a burning emotion*
In the rags of the commonplace, will permit him.
He too was one of them. He too denied
The half of him that was his pride
Yet found it waiting, and the half untrue
Of this story is his pride’s rhythm.
The turnips were a-sowing in the fields around Pettigo
As our train passed through
A horse-cart stopped near the eye of the railways bridge.
*sic”

Poems