And poet lost to potato-fields,
Remembering the lime and copper smell
Of the spraying barrels he is not lost
Or till blossomed stalks cannot weave a spell.

(Patrick Kavanagh (1905-1969), Irish poet, novelist. Spraying the Potatoes (l. 29-32). . . Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company.)

A man is original when he speaks the truth that has always been known to all good men.

(Patrick Kavanagh (1905-1967), Irish poet, author. "Signposts," Collected Prose (1967).)

What appears in newspapers is often new but seldom true.

(Patrick Kavanagh (1905-1967), Irish poet, author. "Signposts," Collected Pruse (1967).)

Her face had streaks of care
Like wires across it,

(Patrick Kavanagh (1905-1969), Irish poet, novelist. Tinker's Wife (l. 6-7). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d ed., 1988) W. W. Norton & Company.)

A road, a mile of kingdom, I am king
Of banks and stones and every blooming thing.

(Patrick Kavanagh (1905-1969), Irish poet, novelist. Inniskeen Road: July Evening (l. 13-14). . . Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company.)

And there's the half-talk code of mysteries
And the wink-and-elbow language of delight.

(Patrick Kavanagh (1905-1969), Irish poet, novelist. Inniskeen Road: July Evening (l. 3-4). . . Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company.)

O unworn world enrapture me, enrapture me in a web
Of fabulous grass and eternal voices by a beech,

(Patrick Kavanagh (1905-1969), Irish poet, novelist. Canal Bank Walk (l. 9-10). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d ed., 1988) W. W. Norton & Company.)

Actors are loved because they are unoriginal. Actors stick to their script. The unoriginal man is loved by the mediocrity because this kind of "artistic" expression is something to which the merest five-eighth can climb.

(Patrick Kavanagh (1905-1967), Irish poet, author. "Signposts," Collected Prose (1967).)

Malice is only another name for mediocrity.

(Patrick Kavanagh (1905-1967), Irish poet, author. "Signposts," Collected Prose (1967).)

Leafy-with-love banks and the green waters of the canal
Pouring redemption for me,

(Patrick Kavanagh (1905-1969), Irish poet, novelist. Canal Bank Walk (l. 1-2). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d ed., 1988) W. W. Norton & Company.)