SOURCE: “Apocalypse of Clay: Religion in Patrick Kavanagh's Poetry,” in Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 74, No. 293, Spring, 1985, pp. 47–65.

In the following essay, Murphy explores the role of the poet as mystic in Kavanagh's verse, examining and comparing four main religious themes.

In every poet there is something of Christ writing                                                             the sins of the people in the dust.’ 

Patrick Kavanagh: ‘The Irish Tradition’

The importance of religion in Kavanagh's poetry has to be explained initially in terms of his conception of the poet as mystic. In his Introduction to Collected Poems he complains of the failure of some contemporary poets to define a religious purpose for their work: ‘There is a poetic movement which sees poetry materialistically. The writers of this school see no transcendent nature in the poet; they are practical chaps, excellent technicians. But somehow or other I have a belief in poetry as a...