The Mystical Imagination of Patrick Kavanagh – A Buttonhole in Heaven
By Una Agnew
For Kavanagh, the created world was God-filled and every bit as radiant as the heavenly city of God. His poetry became a radical affirmation of life, of earth, of the human condition and of God’s presence everywhere. Conscious that Kavanagh’s own view that his poetry is best read “”without comment from the scholar””, Una Agnew uses as a framework for her study the ancient mystical stages that were outlined by Evelyn Underhill: awakening, purification, illumination and transformation. The result is a convincing and inspiring illustration of the fundamental mysticism of the poetry and the person of Patrick Kavanagh.
