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Derek Mahon: A Building Site

Poem Title

Original Publication

CP Page no

A Building Site

An Autumn Wind, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, 2010

Not included in CP (see also note below)

Relationship to Classical text Plato’s Cratylus 401-402 recounts Heraclitus' notions of constant flux.

Classical/post-Classical intertexts  See the intertexts for 'Heraclitus on Rivers' (CP, p.114).

Comment The allusion to "perpetual change and flux" recalls Mahon's preoccupation with Heraclitan philosophy in earlier poems, such as 'Heraclitus on Rivers' (CP, p.114) and The Hudson Letter's 'IV: Waterfront' (CP, p.192-193). The demolition site is said to be a tabula rasa.

Note Also collected in New Collected Poems, Gallery Press, 2011, p.351-352

Derek Mahon