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Derek Mahon: Epic Love

Poem Title

Original Publication

CP Page no

Epic Love

Raw Material, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, 2011

Not included in CP

Length / Form Eight-line stanzas, laid out on the page in imitation of the elegiac meter (with alternate lines indented).

Allusion to Classical figure Ponticus, House of Atreus, Homer, Muses, Jove

Allusion to Classical place Thebes

Close translation of words/phrases/excerpts The first half of the poem is a version of Propertius' Elegies I, 7, whilst the second half draws on Elegies II, 1 and 13.

Comment The Sextus and Cynthia poems were first published in a limited edition (Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, 2009).

Derek Mahon