Kavanagh’s The Green Fool (1938) consists of a double portrait of himself and his birthplace, the main motifs of which are humour and wit. In his self-portrait, humour dominates, enabling him to positively, if not, proudly, single himself out : his imputed status as « village fool » or « family idiot » actually reveals his essential singularity as a poet. Contrastingly, his portrait of Inniskeen is marked by farcical theatricality and witticisms galore. Farce and wit prove compelling instruments of ridicule and apt ways to circumvent the constraints of his milieu. Yet their dominance in the communal portrait hints at Kavanagh’s failure to overcome his suffering from the cultural and spiritual void in which he must live as a young artist.