Though many poets attempted this technical feat, Clarke did it most successfully, fusing the two traditions to craft poems in English that seamlessly integrate Irish assonance and half rhyme.

Taking Yeats and his contemporaries’ reinvokings of classical Irish tales as a starting point, Clarke went deeper, borrowing their complex sonic patterns and rhymes for application in English. He died in 1974.Ĭlarke’s unique contribution to the Irish literary world was his use of traditional Gaelic meters. Clarke also wrote two memoirs in his final decades. His late work Mnemosyne Lay in Dust (1966), a fictionalized account of his nervous breakdown after his father’s death 40 years prior, is thought by many to be among his greatest poetic works. Clarke’s return to poetry in 1955 saw a new emphasis on satire, with the poet taking up his pen for biting observations on national social issues. and of the Irish Academy of Letters at various times-his plays still frequently found bans in staunchly Catholic Ireland. Even as he found recognition as one of the leading Irish literary voices of the era-holding the presidencies of both the Irish chapter of P.E.N. However, he continued to write verse plays, as well as reviewing for the Irish Times, broadcasting regularly on Radio Éireann, and founding the Dublin Verse-Speaking Society and the Lyric Theatre troupe to promote verse drama.

Clarke moved back to Ireland in 1937 with his second wife, Nora Walker together, the two would have three children.įrom 1938 to 1955, Clarke wrote no poetry. However, his talent was recognized by his colleagues, including Yeats and George Bernard Shaw, who asked Clarke to be a charter member of the Irish Academy of Letters at its founding. Some of the latter, which often demonstrated an anticlerical slant, were censored in Ireland for sacrilege, including all three of his novels. His output included more poetry as well as plays and novels. Clarke then moved to England to find stable work, making his living there as a journalist and editor for the next fifteen years. He taught at University College for several years until he was forced out due to his civil marriage to playwright Lia Cummins the union was a failure, and the pair separated. This long narrative poem, based on a tale from the Fenian cycle, met with great success, going into a rare second edition and winning him friends among the literary elite. Upon earning his MA with honors in 1917, Clarke published his first book, The Vengeance of Fionn.

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