Collected / Seán Dunne

Published posthumously, Collected, a book of poems and translations, celebrates a sorely lamented voice in Irish poetry. Inevitably, Seán Dunne’s three collections are the quoinstones of this book. Included also are unpublished and previously uncollected works, notably his long ‘Letter from Ireland’ and a substantial selection of translations from Anna Akhmatova.

Peter Fallon’s ‘Afterwords’ describes Seán Dunne’s enduring themes, his hungers and his spiritual growth, and the arc of his emergence as a quietly insistent and necessary poet. More than twenty years ago (in what has proved a prescient review), Brendan Kennelly applauded Seán Dunne’s ‘dedication and accomplishment . . . constantly pitting his own values against the pain, suffering, violence and futility of the world. And his values are strong, perhaps lasting ones’ — a judgement this ample collection corroborates.