Poets and other authors gathered at the grave of Patrick Kavanagh in Inniskeen, Co Monaghan, to mark the 50th anniversary of his death.
Kavanagh was born in Mucker Townland in the parish of Inniskeen and died on 30 November 1967.
Eugene McCabe, Pat McCabe, Evelyn Conlon and Theo Dorgan are among those who will read from Kavanagh's work at midday.
Members of the Kavanagh family will also attend.
Among Kavanagh’s best poems was 'The Great Hunger', which told of the frustrations of life as a rural bachelor.
And among his most popular were 'On Raglan Road' - recorded by Luke Kelly of the Dubliners – 'Iniskeen Road: July Evening' and 'Stony Grey Soil'.
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His poetry became very popular from the late 1950s until the late 1960s when it was published in New York and London.
He died just seven months after he married Kathleen Barry Moloney in May 1967.
He had been ill for some time, having developed lung cancer.
His work has increased in popularity ever since and in a survey of Ireland’s favourite poetry conducted by the Irish Times in 2000, ten of Kavanagh's poems were in the top 50 choices.
The Chairperson of the Patrick Kavanagh Centre has said the poet was always able to make "the extraordinary out of the ordinary".
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Art Agnew said Kavanagh "liked to make fun".
He said 'Stony Grey Soil' appealed to young people because while it was local, it was also universal and appealed to young people everywhere.
He said hundreds of people would be going to Inniskeen today to remember the poet.
