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when Paul Durcan is around
Paul Durcan is, according to, Cormac Kinsella: one of lreland's most popular and controversial poets. Ever since his fhest
prize-winning ccillecticin Durcan has forind detractors among the admirers of the
'well-made poem'. But though much of his work has a structural looseness suggestive of
many Eastern European poets he has written many beautiful formal lyrics such as 'Memoirs
of a Fallen Blackbird'. Durcan's work has been popular for its zany outlook, its
commitment to social comment, its strong narrative impulse and its sensifivily to women.
In
1991 Durcan wrote a series of poems to the tune of paintings at the National Gallery of
Ireland, Crazy about Women , which was reprised in 1994 with Give Me Your
Hand, with poems to the paintings at the National Gallery of London.
Among the painters inspiring Durcan was Jack B. Yeats, Patrick Touhy and Frederic William
Burton. There are extracts from Durcan's work
here.
