Poet Robert Greacen dies aged 87

POET ROBERT Greacen died on Sunday at the age of 87. He is survived by his daughter Arethusa Greacen. His last book Robert Greacen: New and Selected Poemswas published in 2006.

He had many collections of poetry published and his literary criticism included a book on CP Snow. He married the late Patricia Hutchins, also a writer .

He was elected to Aosdána, an affiliation of fewer than 250 creative artists under the Arts Council.

He was born in Derry in October 1920. He grew up in Belfast and spent much of his childhood in Co Monaghan.

Greacen was educated at the Methodist College, Belfast. He later studied at Trinity College, Dublin and as a student he began to publish his poems and essays.

For many years he lived in London working in both journalism and in adult education. In later years he moved to Dublin. "His early poems are remarkable, particularly the Blackbird which is a strange and original poem," poet Anthony Cronin said yesterday.

In 1995 he won The Irish TimesLiterature prize for poetry for Collected Poems 1944-1994. "As a younger man I was a wordy spinner. My later work is less wordy more compressed" he said at the time. "We will miss the urbane, courteous intelligence that formed the basis of Robert's quiet toned, always engaging poetry" Prof Terence Brown, of Trinity College Dublin said.

A memorial service for him will be held in Findlater's Church, Dublin on Saturday.