Derek Mahon's Literal Littorals

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Notes

¹In “Spring in Belfast,” one of his earliest poems, Mahon said something similar: “One part of my mind must learn to know its place” (CP 13).

²The evanescence of poetry is also suggested through images of the break of day—with its “fretful” winds, wintry sea “vent[ing] its displeasure on the rocks,” and light “crawling up the beach”—that dissipates the inspiring substance of the night.

³Based on a line from Waiting for Godot—“They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more. [… .] Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave-digger puts on its forceps”—“An Image from Beckett” is also a reflection on the precariousness of human creations and the permanence and richness of the landscape.