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Eamon JR Grennan | |
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| Education | University College, Dublin Harvard |
Eamon JR Grennan (born 13 November 1941) is anIrishpoet born inDublin, Ireland. He attendedUniversity College Dublin where he completed a BA 1963 and an MA 1964. He has lived in theUnited States, except for brief periods, since 1964. He was the Dexter M. Ferry Jr. Professor of English atVassar College until his retirement in 2004.[1]
Though hisIrish roots are clear in his poetry, Grennan has an international sense of literary tradition. He has cited as influences American poets includingRobert Frost andElizabeth Bishop (herself an international poet with ties to the U.S.,Canada, andBrazil). In addition to writing poetry, he has translatedGiacomo Leopardi and—with his wife, Vassarclassicist Rachel Kitzinger—Sophocles'sOedipus at Colonus.
Grennan studied English and Italian atUniversity College, Dublin, where he met poetsDerek Mahon andEavan Boland, and atHarvard 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:
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 LaureateBilly Collins said of Grennan:
He received thePEN Award for Poetry in Translation in 1998. Grennan was nominated for the 2008Poetry Now Award for his collection,Out of Breath.
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| Title | Year | First published | Reprinted/collected |
|---|---|---|---|
| Soul music : the Derry Air | 1985 | Grennan, Eamon (14 January 1985). "Soul music : the Derry Air".The New Yorker.60 (48): 32. |
