Wake Forest University Press

Irish Poetry

John Montague - Smashing the Piano (clothbound)

“John Montague has spent a lifetime confronting his own vulnerability, and in doing so, has broadened and strengthened modern Irish poetry. ... As always, Montague sees clearly what has been lost, but also what has been retained and refined over a lifetime. What’s remarkable is the new energy which informs and transforms these well-crafted excursions into lost time. As such, this book is more a rejuvenation than a sequel, a revitalizing of a painful past into a permanent and healing present. Smashing the Piano is Montague at the top of his game.”
Kevin Murphy, Irish Literary Supplement

“Montague’s lyrical descriptive powers have never been stronger, and line after line stays in the reader’s head.” Bernard O'Donoghue, Irish Times

“Fierce lyric truth,
Sought since youth,
Grace my ageing
As you did my growing
Till time engraves
My final face.”

$19.95
2001   88 pages
clothbound
ISBN 978-1-930630-01-7