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Derek Mahon: In Carrowdore Churchyard

 (Page numbers given refer to Collected Poems: Derek Mahon [CP]: The  Gallery Press, 1999)

 

Poem Title

Original Publication

CP Page no

In Carrowdore Churchyard

Twelve Poems, Belfast: Festival Publications, 1965

17

 

Allusion to Classical figure Euripides, Homer (in the reference to ‘the blind poet’)

Classical/post-Classical intertexts The poem is an Elegy to Louis MacNeice, whose career as a classicist is noted in the reference to Euripides. Echoes of his poetry are present throughout. (See H. Haughton, The Poetry of Derek Mahon (Oxford: Oxford University Press), p.39ff.)

Further Comment Mahon’s friend and contemporary Michael Longley recounts that he, Mahon and Seamus Heaney each attempted to write an elegy to their much admired predecessor, MacNeice, though Mahon’s far outshone their attempts. (In M. Murphy & C. Ní Anluain, Reading the Future: Irish Writers in Conversation with Mike Murphy (Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2000), p.123.) Classical references feature strongly in the poetic and theatrical works of all four Northern Irish poets.

 

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Poem Title

Original Publication

In Carrowdore Churchyard

Twelve Poems, Belfast: Festival Publications, 1965

CP Page no

17

Length / Form

 

Allusion to Classical figure

Euripides, Homer (in the reference to ‘the blind poet’)

Allusion to Classical place

 

Relationship to Classical text

.

Close translation of words/phrases/excerpts

 

Classical/post-Classical intertexts

The poem is an Elegy to Louis MacNeice, whose career as a classicist is noted in the reference to Euripides. Echoes of his poetry are present throughout. (See H. Haughton, The Poetry of Derek Mahon (Oxford: Oxford University Press), p.39ff.)

Further Comment

 

Further Analysis

Mahon’s friend and contemporary Michael Longley recounts that he, Mahon and Seamus Heaney each attempted to write an elegy to their much admired predecessor, MacNeice, though Mahon’s far outshone their attempts. (In M. Murphy & C. Ní Anluain, Reading the Future: Irish Writers in Conversation with Mike Murphy (Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2000), p.123.) Classical references feature strongly in the poetic and theatrical works of all four Northern Irish poets

 

Derek Mahon