He was rather cruelly lampooned in Beckett’s novel, Murphy, in which he is portrayed in the form of the character Austin Ticklepenny. In the memoir Clarke recalls the meeting but also lets us know he was no fan of Joyce’s Chamber Music verses. However, Clarke certainly rattled the chains in which the Ireland of his time was tightly bound. Apart from their poetic value, many of Clarke’s later poems – when he emerged from the shadow of Yeats – are also important social documents. No wonder his poems have been described as indictments of greed, cruelty and hypocrisy in Church and State.

Source: The Irish Times May 09, 2021 15:00 UTC