Eamon Grennan (1941 - ) is an Irish poet born in Dublin. He has lived in the United States, except for brief periods, since 1964. He is Dexter M. Ferry Jr. Professor of English at Vassar College. For the movie, see 1941 (film). ... The poor poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 53. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Vassar College is a private, coeducational, highly selective liberal arts college situated in Poughkeepsie, New York. ...

Though his Irish roots are clear in his poetry, Grennan has an international sense of literary tradition. He has cited as influences American poets including Robert Frost and Elizabeth Bishop (herself an international poet with ties to the U.S., Canada, and Brazil). In addition to writing poetry, he has translated Giacomo Leopardi and—with his wife, Vassar classicist Rachel Kitzinger—Sophocles's Oedipus at Colonus. Irish writing of 8th century For a comparatively small country, Ireland has made a disproportionate contribution to world literature in all its branches. ... Robert Frost (1941) Robert Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. ... Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979), was an American poet and writer. ... Giacomo Leopardi, Count (June 29, 1798 – June 14, 1837) is generally considered, along with such figures as Dante, Petrarca, Ariosto and Tasso, to be among Italys greatest poets and one of its greatest thinkers. ... Ancient Greek literature refers to literature written in the Greek language until the 4th century AD. // This period of Greek literature stretches from Homer until the 4th century and the rise of Alexander the Great. ... Sophocles (ancient Greek: ; 495 BC - 406 BC) was the second of three great ancient Greek tragedians. ... Oedipus at Colonus (also Oedipus Coloneus, and in Greek Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ) is one of the three Theban plays of the Athenian tragedian Sophocles. ...

Grennan studied at University College, Dublin, where he met poets Derek Mahon and Eavan Boland, and at Harvard University, and began teaching at Vassar in 1974. He returned to Ireland fairly briefly, first in 1977 and later in 1981, and began writing poetry there. His first book, Wildly for Days, was published in 1983. Gaelic poetry became an important influence, particularly, he has said, on the sound of his poems. At the same time, he is interested in the sentence as a poetic unit as well as a prose unit. In an interview with Timothy Cahill, Grennan said: University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin - more commonly University College Dublin (UCD) - is Irelands largest university, with over 20,000 students. ... Derek Mahon Derek Mahon (born 23 November 1941) is an Irish poet. ... Eavan Boland (born 1944) is an Irish poet and essayist. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Founded in 1636,[2] Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Although Irish has been used as a literary language for more than a thousand years (see Irish literature), and in a form intelligible to contemporary speakers since at least the sixteenth century, modern Irish literature is thought to begin with the revival movement. ...

I have, it's a toothache quality, a kind of pain -- the ambition to make a sentence that is full, that has not gone limp, hasn't stopped while it still has some elasticity in it.

Grennan's career has been long, productive and distinguished, and he has earned from fellow poets a reputation for lyrical skill and psychological intensity. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins said of Grennan: The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress is appointed by the United States Librarian of Congress and earns a stipend of $35,000 a year. ... William J. (Billy) Collins (born March 22, 1941) is an American poet who served two terms as the 44th Poet Laureate of the United States, from 2001 to 2003. ...

Few poets are as generous as Eamon Grennan in the sheer volume of delight his poems convey, and fewer still are as attentive to the marvels of the earth. To read him is to be led on a walk through the natural world of clover and cricket and, most of all, light, and to face with an open heart the complexity of being human.

Works

• The Quick of It. St. Paul, MN: Graywolf, 2005.
• Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus. Trans. with Rachel Kitzinger. Oxford, 2004.
• Renvyle, Winter. Philadelphia: Pointed Press, 2003.
• Still Life with Waterfall. St. Paul, MN: Graywolf, 2002.
• Selected & New Poems. Dublin: Gallery Press, 2000.
• Provincetown Sketches. Aralia Press, 2000.
• Facing the Music: Irish Poetry in the Twentieth Century. Omaha: Creighton University Press, 1999.
• Relations: New & Selected Poems. St. Paul, MN: Graywolf, 1998.
• Selected Poems of Giacomo Leopardi. Trans. Princeton: Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation, Princeton University Press, 1997.
• So It Goes. St. Paul, MN: Graywolf, 1995.
• As If It Matters. St. Paul, MN: Graywolf, 1992.
• What Light There Is and Other Poems. New York: North Point Press, 1989.
• Twelve Poems. San Francisco: Occasional Works, 1988.
• Wildly for Days. Dublin: Gallery Press, 1983.
• Cat Scat North Point Press, 1988.

In early 2007 he visited St.Paul's High School in Brooklandville, Maryland to discuss poetry.

External links

• Interview with Timothy Cahill
• Biography from Branching Out