Derek Mahon: Quaderno

Allusion to Classical figure Diogenes

Relationship to Classical text "I want no strangers standing in my light" is a reference to the anecdotal meeting of Diogenes and Alexander the Great given in Plutarch's Life of Alexander XIV. According to the tale, Alexander, delighted to meet the philosopher, asks whether he can do anything for him, to which Diogenes replies that he would like him to stand out of his light.

Classical/post-Classical intertexts "conversing with chimeras" is probably a reference to Gerard de Nerval's sonnet sequence 'Les Chimères' (1854, appended to the short story collection Les filles du feu). Mahon's adaptations from Nerval are published as The Chimeras (Dublin: The Gallery Press, 1982) and also appear in Adaptations (2006).

Comment The classical reference is contained within the fourth poem in the sequence, 'Diogenes on the Shore'

Note Also collected in New Collected Poems, Gallery Press, 2011, p. 230-232