Richard Murphy, now in his eighties, is one of Ireland''s most distinguished poets, known particularly for poems drawing on the people and history of the west of Ireland with classical rigour and ''unvarnished'' clarity. He emerged in the 1950s with John Montague and Thomas Kinsella as one of the three major poets in the new Irish poetic renaissance. The Pleasure Ground expands the scope of his much acclaimed Collected Poems of 2000 to include a selection of new poems along with an appendix featuring illuminating commentary on the historical and personal background of some of his most notable work, including ''The Cleggan Disaster'', ''The God Who Eats Corn'', The Battle of Aughrim, and the poems of High Island. ''Oscillating from beginning to end and from page to page between narrative and lyric, public and private, love poem and elegy, The Pleasure Ground is a hugely significant achievement. Now well into his ninth decade, Richard Murphy continues to be a poet of great fortitude and resource, one of the finest of our time.'' - Michael Longley, The Irish Times. Poetry Book Society Special Commendation.
