Patrick Kavanagh, "In Memory of My Father"

Patrick Kavanagh (1905–1967) was born in Inniskeen, County Monaghan. After leaving school at an early age he worked as a laborer, a farmer, and an apprentice cobbler. At the age of twenty-five he set out to walk to Dublin, but did not take up residence there until 1939. In Dublin he became a journalist, writing reviews for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, and Irish Press. He edited and wrote for the short-lived Kavanagh's Weekly, which he published with his brother, Peter Kavanagh. His collections of poetry include The Ploughman and Other Poems (1936), The Great Hunger (1942), A Soul for Sale (1947), Come Dance with Kitty Stobling (1960), and Collected Poems (1964). His Complete Poems were published posthumously, in 1972.

"In Memory of My Father"