An Analysis of Patrick Kavanagh

             O unworn world enrapture me, enrapture me in a web.
             O fabulous grass and eternal voices by a beech,.
             Feed the gaping need of my senses, give me ad lib .
             To pray unselfconsciously with overflowing speech.
             For this soul needs to be honored with a new dress woven.
             From green and blue things and arguments that cannot be proven. (9-14).
             Prior the persona delineates the bounty of God's grace he encounters along his walk of the bank, now, as the sestet expresses, the sonneteer wishes to experience life in the light he has romanticized beside the bank. He hunted redemption, and now he is able to start anew amidst nature and the will of God. Kavanagh's sentences seem rather long with multiple commas binding them together: "The will of God, wallow in the habitual, the banal," (3). The continuous flow of the lines mirror the continuous flow of the gentle stream of the canal. There is a natural evolution from staggering from life to nourishing one's spirit. The syntax of "Canal Bank Walk" assists the reader in following the persona's spiritual journey from salvation to resurrection.
             Through the use of potent, provoking language, the diction of the poem embodies the poet's pursuit for redemption and rebirth through the cleansing powers of God and nature. In the beginning of the poem much alliteration is present, showing the more structured world of adulthood, whereas towards the end of the sonnet alliteration ceases to be present, demonstrating the less structured organic realm of childish innocence. At the poem's opening the reader can hear the soft lulling of the "L" sound. "Leafy-with-love banks" (1) sets the delightfully mysterious scene of the canal and the sweet love that the persona finds within the calmly rushing waters. In the third line, "The will of God, wallow in the habitual, the banal," the weeping "W" sounds are melancholic and the "AL" gives a sound of longing. Both of these examples exhibit the sorrow that the poet feels as he is tainted by the sinful world of later life.