Selected Poems

by Derek Mahon

This newly expanded collection of Derek Mahon's poems includes substantial portions of two earlier volumes, The Hudson Letter and The Yellow Book , and concludes with even more recent work. Mahon blends a respect for structure with a modernist style in evocative verses that are abstract yet substantial and combines solid images from nature with elusive, complex human thoughts.

Genres: Poetry, Ireland

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Derek Mahon was born in Belfast in 1941, studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and the Sorbonne, and has held journalistic and academic appointments in London and New York. A member of Aosdána, he has received numerous awards including the Irish Academy of Letters Award, the Scott Moncrieff Translation Prize, and Lannan and Guggenheim Fellowships. - See more at: http://www.gallerypress.com/authors/m...

Reviews

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Along with Seamus Heaney and Michael Longley, Derek Mahon was one of a triumvirate of Northern Irish poets that made a dramatic impact on English language poetry from the 1960s. This selection, from 1990, is an excellent starting point for new readers, and at 190 pages is oddly significantly longer than the more recent (2016) New Selected Poems. Mahon’s mastery of traditional forms and sense of lives in a landscape makes him a must-read poet. Poems like A Disused Shed in County Wexford, Derry Morning and Everything is Going to be All Right provide an excellent introduction to Mahon’s work, but there is so much more to discover in this selection.

[Katrinka · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I might've liked each individual poem more had I encountered it on its own. The collection, though, was too much rhyme and meter in one place for me.

[Ambrose Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8 stars

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Derek Mahon was on my Leaving Cert poetry curriculum. Everyone else that year went with Seamus Heaney as the safe bet (and, I seem to recall, were flummoxed when he didn’t come up and Patrick Kavanagh did instead). I being a born contrarian thought Mahon was way more interesting, which was validating considering he did come up in the exam and I got an A1 and fifteen years later I can still remember a lot of ‘A Disused Shed in County Wexford’ off by heart. ‘The world revolving in its bowl of cloud’ indeed (although I remembered it all that time as ‘waltzing’, which I think I prefer).

Glengormley: “I should rather praise/a worldly time under this worldly sky -/the terrior-taming, garden-watering days/those heroes pictured as they struggled through/the quick noose of their finite being. By/necessity, if not choice, I live here too.”

I love poetry and stories that celebrate the ordinary and the heroism inherent in it.

Carrowdore: “you bring/the all-clear to the empty holes of spring,/rinsing the choked mud, keeping the colours new.”

I mean. That’s POETRY. The words of it.

Day Trip to Donegal! I wrote so many essays on this and the ‘vindictive wind and rain’ and I still don’t really understand it any more than I did then.

Lives (for Seamus Heaney), ironically better than most of Heaney: “let him revise/his insolent ontology/or teach himself to pray.”

Leaves: “Somewhere in the heaven/of lost futures/the lives we might have led/have found their own fulfillment.” OUCH.

The Last of the Fire Kings – well there’s a whole novel in that. “not to release them/from the ancient curse/but to die their creature and be thankful.”

Courtyards in Delft reminded me of Szymborska’s poem about the Medieval Miniature. It takes a really good poet to describe a painting without being boring and also having a point.

Beyond the Pale: “a sprite among sails knife-bright in a seasonal wind” – you know when one single line justifies a whole poem? The rest is good, but even if it wasn’t -!

Calypso – I love this Homer fanfic. “much-sought Penelope in her new resolute life/had wasted no time acting the stricken widow/and even the face that sank the final skiff/knows more than beauty; beauty is not enough.” HOLLA. I also just adore the idea that Odysseus noped out and stayed with Calypso, after all no one can properly explain the seven year interlude just a sail from home.

Sorry, New Space, I think ‘form follows function’ are the three most evil words in the history of art. HARD NO.

Monochrome is just such a lovely love poem (and possibly memento mori?), the kind you’d like written about you.

I wish Dreams of a Summer Night had come with footnotes, it was so full of reference and learning. Mahon is such a great intellectual writer, he hasn’t just got the usual sources but others too. “remains ‘a point of/departure not from reality but to it’ -/wherein lies one function of the poet,/to be instrumental in the soul’s increase.” Amen to that.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I take this book with me every time I go to the ocean so that I can read "Everything Is Going to Be All Right." And, each time, I explore deeper and further into his poetry.

[Robert Lashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I think of Mahon, I think a lot about Wanda Coleman( in that they had phenomenal talents that were not served well by the trends of the time they followed). Like Coleman's devotion to first thought/best thought automatic writing resulted in her mistaking too many drafts for poems, Mahon's adoration of Robert Lowell's confessional tone and particular mushing of formalism and free verse, resulted in too many meh poems with great lines.

Like with Coleman, however, all I just said were quibbles. Even in his most bloated personal poems, there are majestic lines, and when he gets out of his own personalized way, he is as good a living poet as anyone living in the English language. At his best, his language is lyrical and concrete, with an earned music. Also, one of the most underrated imagists i've ever read, get him focused on a barn, and he's a million bucks on the page. Overall, more than worth any readers time.

[Harry · Rating 4 out of 5]

a pretty good selection of poems. I thought the more naturalistic, for lack of a better word, were stronger than those set in more bohemian surrounds

my favorite was 'antarctica' - I used to live near meanwood and after seeing his memorial I found it quite profound how brave and pointless his sacrifice was. I think this poem kind of expands and clarifies my thoughts on that

other favorites include:
blackbird
everything is going to be alright
heraclitus on rivers
songs of praise
north wind: portrush
an old lady
ovid in tomis

[Aoife · Rating 5 out of 5]

'A Disused Shed in County Wexford' is one of my favourite poems. It is chilling and heart-breaking

[Erica Basnicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need a certain number of poems to jump out and grab me,
abs a certain number to make me curious about diving deeper into their meaning. This is a collection I’m returning to the library with a hefty overdue fine, having savoured the bulk of this poetry as long as possible. Lovely.

[YZ]

Unfinished because not available in U.S. (as of 2009) -- some pages missing from my questionably obtained copy.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great contemporary Irish poet.

[Kate Naughton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know, 'A disused shed in County Wexford' by heart and so should you.