Collected Poems

Michael Hartnett (1941-1999) had a distinguished and highly respected career in his native Ireland. Even before the publication of his 1968 collection with the Dolmen Press, Anatomy of a Cliche, his poems earned critical esteem and, in time, they were recognized by the Irish Poetry Prize in 1980, a Poetry Ireland Choice in 1987, and awards from the Irish-American Cultural Institute and the American Ireland Fund. He was a member of Ireland's distinguished arts academy, Aosdana. From brief early lyrics to more extended meditations, and including a number of unpublished gems, this collection represents forty years of coruscating art.