Four Poems by Derek Mahon
Four Poems by Derek Mahon INTRODUCTION
Derek Mahon belongs to the same generation of Northern Ireland poets as Seamus Heaney. But, whereas many of Heaney's poems are rooted firmly in the rural landscape of Ulster where he grew up, Mahon's poems reflect his childhood spent in Belfast. His familiar places were the streets of the city, the Harland and Wolff shipyard where his g-andfather and father worked, and the flax-spinning factory where his mother worked. Later on, Mahon would come to study at Trinity College Dublin and from there he spread his wings to travel and work in many different places, from France, Canada and America, to London and Kinsale in Co. Cork.
, •"DAY TRIP TO DONEGAL"
Tie shift, in both meaning and feeling, that :sxes place between the first and final lines of ~ s poem makes it memorable. The title :=e~s ordinary: Day Trip to Donegal suggests :- :~ :od days out at the seaside or even a school trip with classmates and teachers.
~--~ opening stanza is conversational in tone. I :-- ,al at his seaside destination, the poet s n familiar surroundings. There were to be seen" and "as ever" the hills "a deeper green/Than anywhere in the : : - seems at this point that we are r: - r :: share a pleasant day at the seaside in Donegal with the poet. However, just as we . - rev. ~"~ comfortable with this expectation, -:::••• appears. We are disturbed by the 2. Deration in the final line and the image : ^reduces: "...the grave/Grey of the sea Me grwnmer in that enclave."
- - : — : _s -"rial line of the opening stanza , a similar scenario in stanza two. The poet watches the fishing-boats arriving back at the pier with their catch. This familiar scene is often described in attractive terms by songwriters and painters. But here Mahon startles us in the second line by describing the catch as "A writhing glimmer offish". The word "writhing" is very vivid. The fish are seen as suffering and this notion becomes more intense in the concluding
Derek Mahon belongs to the same generation of Northern Ireland poets as Seamus Heaney. But, whereas many of Heaney's poems are rooted firmly in the rural landscape of Ulster where he grew up, Mahon's poems reflect his childhood spent in Belfast. His familiar places were the streets of the city, the Harland and Wolff shipyard where his g-andfather and father worked, and the flax-spinning factory where his mother worked. Later on, Mahon would come to study at Trinity College Dublin and from there he spread his wings to travel and work in many different places, from France, Canada and America, to London and Kinsale in Co. Cork.
, •"DAY TRIP TO DONEGAL"
Tie shift, in both meaning and feeling, that :sxes place between the first and final lines of ~ s poem makes it memorable. The title :=e~s ordinary: Day Trip to Donegal suggests :- :~ :od days out at the seaside or even a school trip with classmates and teachers.
~--~ opening stanza is conversational in tone. I :-- ,al at his seaside destination, the poet s n familiar surroundings. There were to be seen" and "as ever" the hills "a deeper green/Than anywhere in the : : - seems at this point that we are r: - r :: share a pleasant day at the seaside in Donegal with the poet. However, just as we . - rev. ~"~ comfortable with this expectation, -:::••• appears. We are disturbed by the 2. Deration in the final line and the image : ^reduces: "...the grave/Grey of the sea Me grwnmer in that enclave."
- - : — : _s -"rial line of the opening stanza , a similar scenario in stanza two. The poet watches the fishing-boats arriving back at the pier with their catch. This familiar scene is often described in attractive terms by songwriters and painters. But here Mahon startles us in the second line by describing the catch as "A writhing glimmer offish". The word "writhing" is very vivid. The fish are seen as suffering and this notion becomes more intense in the concluding