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POETRY: THE FALL, by Anthony Cronin:MEMOIRIST, BIOGRAPHER, critic, journalist, novelist (whose comic masterpiece The Life Of Reillyis being re-issued later this year), tireless agitator for the arts in the public and political spheres, inspirational figure to generations of Irish writers – Anthony Cronin is all of these things. But the publication of this, his 12th volume of poetry, is a timely reminder of the fact that poetry has always been his core business.

Since the publication of Poemsin 1957, Cronin has gone his own way in Irish poetry. His early poetry, often lyrical, but also witty and meditative, and expressed in the language of good sense, was already at a slight angle to the trend of Irish poetry. His poems often move forward discursively through argument, rather than a stringing together of metaphors, or the elaboration of a lyrical, ego-based anecdote, which is the norm even now in Irish poetry. He has sometimes been associated with the Movement poetry in England, and it is notable that he is rare among Irish poets in his genuine interest in, and understanding of, the matter of England.