[2] Effectively, this meant writing English verse based not so much on metre as on complex patterns of assonance, consonance, and half rhyme.

There was, however, one significant difference; unlike the older poet, Clarke was a Catholic, and themes of guilt and repentance run through this early work.

He also published the intensely personal Mnemosyne Lay in Dust, which is a poem sequence detailing the fictional Maurice Devanes's nervous breakdown and subsequent recovery.

In addition to some twenty volumes of poetry and numerous plays, Clarke published three novels: The Bright Temptation (1932), The Singing Men at Cashel (1936), and The Sun Dances at Easter (1952).

He also published two volumes of memoirs, Twice Round the Black Church (1962) and A Penny in the Clouds (1968), and a number of scattered critical essays and book reviews.

The marriage effectively lasted only a few days, and Clarke spent several months in St Patrick's Hospital recovering from it, but they did not divorce before Cummins died in 1943.

Clarke met, had three sons with, and later married (1945) Norah Esmerelda Patricia Walker (1900–1985), granddaughter of Matt Harris, MP for East Galway from 1885 to 1890.