The wind leans from Brady’s, and the coltsfoot leaves are holed with rust, The poignant light in puddles shaped by hooves.
Come with me, Imagination, into this iron house And we will watch from the doorway the years run back,
And we will know what a peasant’s left hand wrote on the page. Be easy, October. No cackle hen, horse neigh, tree sough, duck quack.
[90]
GLOSSARY
GLOSSARY
[5–6] Book Of Death: actually the Book of Life where God records the names of every person who is destined for heaven, Kavanagh changes the name for dramatic effect, and to create a despairing, hopeless tone.
[8] clods: lumps of clay
[17] straitening: narrowing [18] heeled-up: parked up matches
[25] halter: a rope or strap placed around the head of an animal to lead it
[32] spanging: (neologism) standing with legs spread wide [39] skeins: threads
[47] Graip up: dig up (a graip is a pronged fork for lifting potatoes)
[48] ruckety: (neologism) rocky, bumpy [54] clay-wattled: [61] coulters: vertical cutting blades [66] treachery: betrayal [74] haggard: [85] coltsfoot: a plant from the daisy family [87] Donaghmoyne: a parish in Monaghan with several lakes [92] sough: moaning, whistling or rushing sound