The title poem from this collection is set on an island that has been a site of pilgrimage in Ireland for over a thousand years. A narrative sequence, it is an autobiographical quest concerned with 'the growth of a poet s mind'. The long poem is preceded by a section of shorter lyrics and leads into a third group of poems in which the poet s voice is at one with the voice of the legendary mad King Sweeney.

'Surpasses even what one might reasonably expect from this magnificently gifted poet.' John Carey, Sunday Times