Ireland's Greatest

[myboyblue]

@farmerinthecity

Wouldn’t be so sure about that - Ronan feckin Keating is on it.

At least Keating has a cancer trust which is doing some good. Gately was famous for touching his toes.

[The_Runt]

Ronan Keating:

We found love,
So don’t hide it
Life is a rollercoaster,
Just gotta ride it
I need you,
So stop hiding
Our love is a mystery
Girl, let’s get beside it

Patrick Kavanagh:

O stony grey soil of Monaghan
The laugh from my love you thieved;
You took the gay child of my passion
And gave me your clod-conceived.

You clogged the feet of my boyhood
And I believed that my stumble
Had the poise and stride of Apollo
And his voice my thick tongued mumble.

[Julio_Geordio]

@myboyblue

Fucking hell. This gay thing is really catching it seems. Any idea where he caught it? I heard a rumour it may have been at the opera?

I believe he caught it by being the catcher of quite a few pitches

[farmerinthecity]

@The Runt

Ronan Keating:

Patrick Kavanagh:

Keating didn’t even write Life is a Rollercoaster. The clown out of the New Radicals did.

[myboyblue]

Epic was always my favourite Kavanagh poem I must say.

[Fitzy]

@The Runt

Ronan Keating:

Patrick Kavanagh:

I don’t care what the context, any excuse to quote that poem is fine by me (Stoney Grey Soil, just to make sure that is).

[Julio_Geordio]

The bicycles go by in twos and threes -
There’s a dance in Billy Brennan’s barn tonight,
And there’s the half-talk code of mysteries
And the wink-and-elbow language of delight.
Half-past eight and there is not a spot
Upon a mile of road, no shadow thrown
That might turn out a man or woman, not
A footfall tapping secrecies of stone.

I have what every poet hates in spite
Of all the solemn talk of contemplation.
Oh, Alexander Selkirk knew the plight
Of being king and government and nation.
A road, a mile of kingdom. I am king
Of banks and stones and every blooming thing.

Always loved this one. I’m sure the thinly veiled “I have no friends” aspect of it would appeal to many TFKers

[Fitzy]

So Gately, Walsh and Keating are more imprtant than Kevin Heffernan, Patrick Kavanagh, Brian O’Nolan, Luke Kelly, Rory Gallagher and Liam Griffin?I like WTB’s idea - Pearse as the most important and watch the Sindo spontaneously combust.

Thank jaysus Joe Dolan made it.

[farmerinthecity]

@myboyblue

Epic was always my favourite Kavanagh poem I must say.

Advent was mine.

We have tested and tasted too much, lover-
Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder.
But here in the Advent-darkened room
Where the dry black bread and the sugarless tea
Of penance will charm back the luxury
Of a child’s soul, we’ll return to Doom
The knowledge we stole but could not use.

And the newness that was in every stale thing
When we looked at it as children: the spirit-shocking
Wonder in a black slanting Ulster hill
Or the prophetic astonishment in the tedious talking
Of an old fool will awake for us and bring
You and me to the yard gate to watch the whins
And the bog-holes, cart-tracks, old stables where Time begins.

O after Christmas we’ll have no need to go searching
For the difference that sets an old phrase burning-
We’ll hear it in the whispered argument of a churning
Or in the streets where the village boys are lurching.
And we’ll hear it among decent men too
Who barrow dung in gardens under trees,
Wherever life pours ordinary plenty.
Won’t we be rich, my love and I, and
God we shall not ask for reason’s payment,
The why of heart-breaking strangeness in dreeping hedges
Nor analyse God’s breath in common statement.
We have thrown into the dust-bin the clay-minted wages
Of pleasure, knowledge and the conscious hour-
And Christ comes with a January flower.

Always felt it was genius the way he threw that bit in at the end there to link the themes.

[farmerinthecity]

@Julio Geordio

The bicycles go by in twos and threes -
There’s a dance in Billy Brennan’s barn tonight,
And there’s the half-talk code of mysteries
And the wink-and-elbow language of delight.
Half-past eight and there is not a spot
Upon a mile of road, no shadow thrown
That might turn out a man or woman, not
A footfall tapping secrecies of stone.

I have what every poet hates in spite
Of all the solemn talk of contemplation.
Oh, Alexander Selkirk knew the plight
Of being king and government and nation.
A road, a mile of kingdom. I am king
Of banks and stones and every blooming thing.

Genius again.

He laments the fact that he is king over all of nature but has no human company.

Blooming can refer to the flowers etc but also shows disgust as he has no human company.

[myboyblue]

We have tested and tasted too much, lover

Love that line. Good ol Soundings, anyone else have that?

[The_Runt]

@myboyblue

Love that line. Good ol Soundings, anyone else have that?

I did anyways, It was a great sized book for cheating. It was small enough that you could cleverly position it so as to be able to take a glance at the next line as you recited your poem.

[Fitzy]

Lads -

Antoinette Quinn - Patrick Kavanagh, A Biography

I’d highly recommend, read it last year.

[Julio_Geordio]

@Julio Geordio

The bicycles go by in twos and threes -
There’s a dance in Billy Brennan’s barn tonight,
And there’s the half-talk code of mysteries
And the wink-and-elbow language of delight.
Half-past eight and there is not a spot
Upon a mile of road, no shadow thrown
That might turn out a man or woman, not
A footfall tapping secrecies of stone.

I have what every poet hates in spite
Of all the solemn talk of contemplation.
Oh, Alexander Selkirk knew the plight
Of being king and government and nation.
A road, a mile of kingdom. I am king
Of banks and stones and every blooming thing.

Always loved this one. I’m sure the thinly veiled “I have no friends” aspect of it would appeal to many TFKers

Love this bit. Alexander Selkirk was the original Robinson Crusoe I think, “Of being king and government and nation”

[Pikeman]

@Julio Geordio

The bicycles go by in twos and threes -
There’s a dance in Billy Brennan’s barn tonight,
And there’s the half-talk code of mysteries
And the wink-and-elbow language of delight.
Half-past eight and there is not a spot
Upon a mile of road, no shadow thrown
That might turn out a man or woman, not
A footfall tapping secrecies of stone.

I have what every poet hates in spite
Of all the solemn talk of contemplation.
Oh, Alexander Selkirk knew the plight
Of being king and government and nation.
A road, a mile of kingdom. I am king
Of banks and stones and every blooming thing.

Love the bits highlighted.
When he says “man” he could mean the man, a boy, even a girl. Or is he talking about the masculinity of things in general.

When he says “the”, he gets you thinking-the what? The sky, the pen in his hand, the what?
Genius.

[farmerinthecity]

@Pikeman

Love the bits highlighted.
When he says “man” he could mean the man, a boy, even a girl. Or is he talking about the masculinity of things in general.

When he says “the”, he gets you thinking-the what? The sky, the pen in his hand, the what?
Genius.

:lol:

[farmerinthecity]

@Fitzy

Lads -

Antoinette Quinn - Patrick Kavanagh, A Biography

I’d highly recommend, read it last year.

Is this Quinn bint related to him do you know Fitzy?

Kavanagh’s sister married a bloke called Quinn, and one of their offspring was that insufferable clown Katherine Lynch’s mother.

[farmerinthecity]

I recall our English class collectively laughing at this line from Advent:

Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder

[Special_Olympiakos]

Why isn’t Gerry Ryan on it ffs? A legend.

[Watch_The_Break]

@Pikeman

Love the bits highlighted.
When he says “man” he could mean the man, a boy, even a girl. Or is he talking about the masculinity of things in general.

When he says “the”, he gets you thinking-the what? The sky, the pen in his hand, the what?
Genius.

:lol:

I was tempted to do this earlier but I didn’t want to discourage what could be a good thread. For shame pikeman.