'I have not the fine audacity of men,
who have mastered the pen,
or the purse.
The complexes of many slaves are in my verse.
When I straightened my shoulders to look at the world boldly,
I see talent coldly.
Damning me to stooped attrition.
Mine was a beggars mission.
To dreams of beauty I should have been born blind.'
Patrick Kavanagh, The Irony Of It.