Poetry is not Irish or any other nationality; and when writers such as Messrs. Clarke, Farren and the late F. R. Higgins pursue Irishness as a poetic end, they are merely exploiting incidental local colour.
Interpretation
Poetry transcends national boundaries, and focusing solely on national identity can undermine its essence.
In this quote, Patrick Kavanagh emphasizes that true poetry is universal and cannot be confined to a specific nationality or cultural identity. He suggests that when poets emphasize 'Irishness' as a primary goal, they may be limiting their perspective and instead drawing on superficial elements of local culture rather than exploring more profound, universal themes that poetry can address.
In practice
During a poetry reading, to illustrate the need for universality in poetry.
It is impossible to read the daily press without being diverted from reality. You are full of enthusiasm for the eternal verities - life is worth living, and then out of sinful curiosity you open a newspaper. You are disillusioned and wrecked.
Some may find them merely diverting melodies. Others may find them incitements to Red revolution. And who will say if either or both is wrong? Not I.
The voice is raised, and that is where poetry begins. And even today, in the prolonged aftermath of modernism, in places where "open form" or free verse is the orthodoxy, you will find a memory of that raising of the voice in the term "heightened speech".
All the pictures I could never do, I'll do it in comics. All the comics I do are the pictures I could never do.
I like any and all of my associations with music: writing, playing, and listening. We write and play from our perspective, and the audience listens from its perspective. If and when we agree, I am lucky.
The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds came home to roost.
Time, which despoils castles, enriches verses.
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