Mount Eagle

John Montague

Wake Forest University Press, 1989 - Poetry - 75 pages

Montague's American readers who expect Mount Eagle to return to the political themes of The Dead Kingdom and his masterwork The Rough Field or to the poignant erotic poetry of Tides and The Great Cloak will find a handful of poems haunting these topics. However, most of this volume departs into new terrain, such as American Indian legends, fish-eye and avian perspectives, and the activities of children and others in life's borderland. Certain poems here, such as "The Hill of Silence," will earn their permanence in our literature where, in the words of Robin Skelton, "John Montague's voice will always be raised in the ranks of our great poets." Other poems will offer the pleasure in their sequences of minute and mature observations sounded in a music of the spoken voice.

About the author

John Montague was born in Brooklyn, New York on February 28, 1929. He was educated at University College Dublin and Yale University. He was a poet, writer, and translator. His works included Forms of Exile, Poisoned Lands, The Death of a Chieftain, A Chosen Light, Tides, A Slow Dance, The Great Cloak, The Rough Field, The Dead Kingdom, Mount Eagle, Border Sick Call, The Figure in the Cave, Smashing the Piano, Company, Drunken Sailor, Speech Lessons, and Second Childhood. He also edited The Faber Book of Irish Verse, which featured many of his translations. He helped found Claddagh Records, which publishes traditional artists and leading literary figures in Ireland. He died on December 10, 2016.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Mount Eagle
• Author: John Montague
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Wake Forest University Press, 1989
• ISBN: 0916390330, 9780916390334
• Length: 75 pages
• Subjects: Poetry / American / General; Poetry / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Poetry / General