You are here

  1. Home
  2. Poems with Classical referents
  3. Derek Mahon: from ‘Gramsci’s Ashes’

Derek Mahon: from ‘Gramsci’s Ashes’

Poem Title

Original Publication

CP Page no

from ‘Gramsci’s Ashes’

Collected Poems (see above) 

272

Allusion to classical place amphitheatre, Tiber, Rome

Classical/post-Classical intertexts The poem is a translation of the opening section of Pasolini’s poem ‘Le Ceneri di Gramsci’, an elegy to the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci (P. P. Pasolini. Le Ceneri di Gramsci. Milan: Garzanti, 1957).

Further Comment The ‘ancient stones’ and ruins of the Roman setting speak of a decaying culture and of ideals outlived by material remains.

Derek Mahon