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.