Derek Mahon: The Midnight Note

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

Allusion to Classical figure Cynthia, Anio's nymphs, Venus

Allusion to Classical place Tivoli (not Tibur, as Propertius has it), the Scythian wilds

Close translation of words/phrases/excerpts The poem is a version of Propertius' Elegies III, 16

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