"The book gives away enough of its author's private life and reflections to make the reader ponder from page to page. One is left with the sense of a life of psalms. There is also a bardic ring to it in some of its sections: Smyth, perhaps because he is an accomplished journalist, recharges moments of insight in the movements of collective Irish experiences in the last thirty years. He seems in many instances in these poems the chronicler of Irish fate."
James Liddy, An Sionnach
Gerard Smyth was born in Dublin in 1951. He has been publishing poetry in literary journals in Ireland, Britain and North America since the late 1960s. He is the author of six poetry collections: World Without End (1977), Loss and Gain (1981), Painting the Pink Roses Black (1986), Daytime Sleeper (2002), which also appeared in a Romanian translation in 2003, A New Tenancy (2004) and The Mirror Tent (2007). Dedalus will publish his Selected Poems in 2010.
"At his best he can set images ringing with life and make them resonant with significance"
Books Ireland
"Daytime Sleeper is a refreshing and invigorating testament to a true poet at work in the world"
Eugene O'Connell, Cork Literary Review
"Gerard Smyth has a painstaking eye for the telling detail... in his hands the impact of simplicity is extraordinary"
Philip Casey
"He may do for Dublin in verse what Joyce did for it in prose"
Michael Hartnett
James Liddy, An Sionnach
Gerard Smyth was born in Dublin in 1951. He has been publishing poetry in literary journals in Ireland, Britain and North America since the late 1960s. He is the author of six poetry collections: World Without End (1977), Loss and Gain (1981), Painting the Pink Roses Black (1986), Daytime Sleeper (2002), which also appeared in a Romanian translation in 2003, A New Tenancy (2004) and The Mirror Tent (2007). Dedalus will publish his Selected Poems in 2010.
"At his best he can set images ringing with life and make them resonant with significance"
Books Ireland
"Daytime Sleeper is a refreshing and invigorating testament to a true poet at work in the world"
Eugene O'Connell, Cork Literary Review
"Gerard Smyth has a painstaking eye for the telling detail... in his hands the impact of simplicity is extraordinary"
Philip Casey
"He may do for Dublin in verse what Joyce did for it in prose"
Michael Hartnett