80 at 80

For fifty years the poet Paul Durcan has explored and questioned a world both real and imagined. Steeped in the goings-on of Ireland and preoccupied with its concerns, he has delighted, enriched and unsettled his readers. His prodigious output of more than twenty collections bursts with poems that are courageously personal and passionately spiritual - a body of work that contains multitudes. ''The great enemy of art is the ego'' says Durcan. ''It keeps getting in the way. One needs the ego to disappear so that I become you; I become the people walking up and down the street.'' First published in 1967, Durcan remains the most of companionable of poets. His vivacity and ability to surprise has never been clearer than in this new selection of eighty of his finest poems, published in celebration of his 80 th birthday. EDITED BY NIALL MACMONAGLE WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY COLM TOIBIN

Product details

• Authors: Paul Durcan, Durcan Paul
• Assisted by: Niall MacMonagle (Editor), MacMonagle Niall (Editor), Colm Toibin (Introduction), Toibin Colm (Introduction)
• Publisher: Harvill Secker
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 12.09.2024
• EAN: 9781787304840
• ISBN: 978-1-78730-484-0
• No. of pages: 224
• Dimensions: 142 mm x 222 mm x 21 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; POETRY / Subjects & Themes / Love & Erotica, POETRY / Subjects & Themes / Places, Ireland, Narrative theme: Politics, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, Modern and contemporary poetry (c 1900 onwards), POETRY / Subjects & Themes / Political & Protest