Dennis O'Driscoll

Who was Dennis O'Driscoll?

Dennis O'Driscoll was an Irish poet, essayist, critic and editor. Regarded as one of the best European poets of his time, Eileen Battersby considers him "the lyric equivalent of William Trevor" and a better poet "by far" than Raymond Carver. Gerard Smyth regards him as "one of poetry's true champions and certainly its most prodigious archivist". His book on Seamus Heaney is regarded as the definitive biography of the Nobel laureate.

In all, O'Driscoll wrote nine books of poetry, three chapbooks, and two collections of essays and reviews. The majority of his works can be characterised by the use of economic language and the recurring motifs of mortality and the fragility of everyday life. As he aged, O'Driscoll's works become more fluid and thoughtful as well as more frequent, and, according to some sources, like Alan Brownjohn of The Sunday Times for instance, even though he is younger than some of the poetic greats, "at best he is already their equal."