Derek Mahon (23 November 1941 – 1 October 2020) was an Irish poet. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland but lived in a number of cities around the world. At his death it was noted that his, "influence in the Irish poetry community, literary world and society at large, and his legacy, is immense". President of Ireland

Michael D Higgins Michael Daniel Higgins ( ga, Mícheál Dónal Ó hUigínn; born 18 April 1941) is an Irish politician, poet, sociologist, and broadcaster, who has served as the ninth president of Ireland since November 2011. Entering national politics throug ...

said of Mahon; "he shared with his northern peers the capacity to link the classical and the contemporary but he brought also an edge that was unsparing of cruelty and wickedness."

Biography

Derek Mahon was born on 23 November 1941 as the only child of Ulster Protestant working-class parents. His father and grandfather worked at

Harland and Wolff Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the W ...

while his mother worked at a local flax mill. During his childhood, he claims he was something of a solitary dreamer, comfortable with his own company yet aware of the world around him. Interested in literature from an early age, he attended Skegoneill Primary school and then the

Royal Belfast Academical Institution The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today is ...

. At

Inst Inst may refer to: * As "inst.", abbreviation for instant, with reference to time * Alternative shortened Instagram name * As "inst.", abbreviation for '' instante mense'', meaning a date of the current month, such as "the 5th inst." * The Royal Be ...

he encountered fellow students who shared his interest in literature and poetry. The school produced a magazine to which Mahon produced some of his early poems. According to the critic Hugh Haughton his early poems were highly fluent and extraordinary for a person so young. His parents could not see the point of poetry, but he set out to prove them wrong after he won his school's Forrest Reid Memorial Prize for the poem ‘The power that gives the water breath‘. Mahon pursued third level studies at Trinity College, Dublin in French, English, and Philosophy and where he edited '' Icarus'', and formed many friendships with writers such as

Michael Longley Michael Longley, (born 27 July 1939, Belfast, Northern Ireland), is an Anglo-Irish poet. Life and career One of twin boys, Michael Longley was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to English parents, Longley was educated at the Royal Belfast A ...

Eavan Boland Eavan Aisling Boland (24 September 1944 – 27 April 2020) was an Irish poet, author, and professor. She was a professor at Stanford University, where she had taught from 1996. Her work deals with the Irish national identity, and the role of w ...

and Brendan Kennelly. He started to mature as a poet. He left

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...

in 1965 to take up studies at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

in Paris. After leaving the Sorbonne in 1966 he worked his way through Canada and the United States. In 1968, while spending a year teaching English at

Belfast High School Belfast High School (BHS) is a co-educational voluntary grammar school in Jordanstown, Newtownabbey, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was established in 1854 and is within the North Eastern Region of the Education Authority. In May 2007, ...

, he published his first collection of poems ''Night Crossing''. He later taught in a school in Dublin and worked in London as a freelance journalist. He lived in

Kinsale Kinsale ( ; ) is a historic port and fishing town in County Cork, Ireland. Located approximately south of Cork City on the southeast coast near the Old Head of Kinsale, it sits at the mouth of the River Bandon, and has a population of 5,281 (a ...

, Co. Cork. On 23 March 2007 he was awarded the

David Cohen Prize The David Cohen Prize for Literature (est. 1993) is a British literary award given to a writer, novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist or dramatist in recognition of an entire body of work, written in the English language. The prize is funde ...

for Literature. He won the

Poetry Now Award The Poetry Now Award is an annual literary prize presented for the best single volume of poetry by an Irish poet. The €5,000 award was first given in 2005 (reduced to €2,500 in 2013) and is presented during annual Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown ...

in 2006 for his collection, ''Harbour Lights'', and again in 2009 for his ''Life on Earth'' collection. At times expressing anti-establishment values, Mahon has described himself as, an ‘aesthete’ with a penchant ‘for left-wingery ��to which, perhaps naively, I adhere.’ His papers are held at

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...

. In March 2020, at the beginning of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, RTÉ News ended its evening broadcast with Mahon reading his poem ''Everything Is Going to Be All Right''. On 1 October 2020, Mahon died in Cork after a short illness, aged 78. He is survived by his partner Sarah Iremonger and his three children, Rory, Katy, and Maisie.

Style

Thoroughly educated and with a keen understanding of literary tradition, Mahon came out of the tumult of Northern Ireland with a formal, moderate, even restrained poetic voice. In an era of

free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French '' vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Defi ...

, Mahon has often written in received forms, using a broadly applied version of

iambic pentameter Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called " feet". "Iam ...

that, metrically, resembles the "sprung foot" verse of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Some poems rhyme. Even the Irish landscape itself is never all that far from the classical tradition, as in his poem "Achill": : Croagh Patrick towers like

Naxos Naxos (; el, Νάξος, ) is a Greek island and the largest of the Cyclades. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture. The island is famous as a source of emery, a rock rich in corundum, which until modern times was one of the best ab ...

over the water ::And I think of my daughter at work on her difficult art :And wish she were with me now between thrush and plover, ::Wild thyme and sea-thrift, to lift the weight from my heart. He has also explored the genre of

ekphrasis The word ekphrasis, or ecphrasis, comes from the Greek for the written description of a work of art produced as a rhetorical or literary exercise, often used in the adjectival form ekphrastic. It is a vivid, often dramatic, verbal descrip ...

: the poetic reinterpretation of visual art. In that respect he has been interested in 17th century

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

and

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

art.

Bibliography

Poetry

Collections

* 1965: ''Twelve Poems.'' Festival Publications, Belfast * 1968: ''Night-Crossing.'' Oxford University Press * 1970: ''Ecclesiastes'' Phoenix Pamphlet Poets * 1970: ''Beyond Howth Head.'' Dolmen Press * 1972: ''Lives.'' Oxford University Press * 1975: ''The Snow Party.'' Oxford University Press * 1977: ''In Their Element.'' Arts Council of Northern Ireland * 1979: ''Poems 1962–1978.'' Oxford University Press * 1981: ''Courtyards in Delft.'' Gallery Press * 1982: ''The Hunt By Night.'' Oxford University Press * 1985: ''Antarctica.'' Gallery Press * 1990: ''The Chinese Restaurant in Portrush: Selected Poems.'' Gallery Press * 1991: ''Selected Poems.'' Viking * 1992: ''The Yaddo Letter.'' Gallery Press * 1995: ''The Hudson Letter.'' Gallery Press; Wake Forest University Press, 1996 * 1997: ''The Yellow Book.'' Gallery Press; Wake Forest University Press, 1998 * 1999: ''Collected Poems.'' Gallery Press * 2001: ''Selected Poems.'' Penguin * 2005: ''Harbour Lights.'' Gallery Press (winner of the 2006

Irish Times Poetry Now Award The Poetry Now Award is an annual literary prize presented for the best single volume of poetry by an Irish poet. The €5,000 award was first given in 2005 (reduced to €2,500 in 2013) and is presented during annual Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown ...

) * 2007: ''Somewhere the Wave.'' Gallery Press * 2008: ''Life on Earth.'' Gallery Press (shortlisted for the 2009 International

Griffin Poetry Prize The Griffin Poetry Prize is Canada's most generous poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin. Before 2022, the awards went to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English language. ...

; winner of the 2009

) * 2010: ''An Autumn Wind.'' Gallery Press * 2011: ''New Collected Poems.'' Gallery Press * 2016: ''New Selected Poems.'' Faber & Faber; Gallery Press * 2021: ''The Poems (1961-2020).'' Gallery Press

Translations / versions / editions

* 1982: ''The Chimeras'' (a version of '' Les Chimères'', by Nerval), Gallery Press * 1985: ''High Time'' (a version of

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and worl ...

's ''A School for Husbands''), Gallery Press * 1988: ''The Selected Poems of

Philippe Jaccottet Philippe Jaccottet (; 30 June 1925 – 24 February 2021) was a Swiss Francophone poet and translator. Life and work After completing his studies in Lausanne, he lived for several years in Paris. In 1953, he moved to the town of Grignan in ...

'', Viking, 1988. * 1996: ''The Bacchae'' of

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...

, and

Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...

's ''Phaedra'', Gallery Press * 2001. Jonathan Swift. Poems selected by Derek Mahon. Faber and Faber. . * 2002: ''Birds'' (a version of ''Oiseaux,'' by

Saint-John Perse Alexis Leger (; 31 May 1887 – 20 September 1975), better known by his pseudonym Saint-John Perse (; also Saint-Leger Leger), was a French poet-diplomat, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1960 "for the soaring flight and evocative ...

), Gallery Press * 2004: ''

Cyrano de Bergerac Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist. A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th cen ...

.'' (A version of the play by Edmond Rostand), Gallery Press * 2005: ''Oedipus'' (A conflation of

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...

' Oedipus Rex and

Oedipus at Colonus ''Oedipus at Colonus'' (also ''Oedipus Coloneus''; grc, Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ, ''Oidipous epi Kolōnōi'') is the last of the three Theban plays of the Athenian tragedian Sophocles. It was written shortly before Sophocles's ...

), Gallery Press * 2006: ''Adaptations'' (A collection of versions, rather than translations proper, from poets such as

Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...

Juvenal Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the '' Satires''. The details of Juvenal's life ...

, Bertolt Brecht,

Paul Valéry Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, mus ...

, Baudelaire, Rilke and

Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill (; born 1952) is a leading Irish poet. Biography Born in Lancashire, England, of Irish parents, she moved to Ireland at the age of 5 and was brought up in the Dingle Gaeltacht and in Nenagh, County Tipperary. Her uncle, Mo ...

), Gallery Press *

Non fiction

* 1996: ''Journalism: selected prose, 1970–1995.'' Ed. Terence Brown. Gallery Press

Critical studies and reviews of Mahon's work

* Enniss, Stephen (2014) ''After the Titanic: A Life of Derek Mahon'', Gill & Macmillan * Haughton, Hugh (2007) ''The Poetry of Derek Mahon'', Oxford University Press * Jarniewicz, Jerzy (2013) ''Ekphrasis in the Poetry of Derek Mahon'', NWP Piotrkow, * Review of ''Echo's grove''.

Honours

* 1965 – Eric Gregory Award for poetry * 1989 – Scott Moncrieff Translation Prize * 1990 – Lannan Literary Awards for Poetry * 1992 – The Irish Times-Aer Lingus Poetry Prize * 1995 – Honorary doctorate

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

. * 2001 – Honorary doctorate

NUI Galway The University of Galway ( ga, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe) is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. A tertiary education and research institution, the university was awarded the full five QS stars for excellence in 201 ...

– for work reflecting the enduring aesthetic of achievement in contemporary Irish writing. * 2007 – David Cohen Prize for Literature – in recognition of his ‘lifetime’s achievement’ * Member,

Aosdána Aosdána ( , ; from , 'people of the arts') is an Irish association of artists. It was created in 1981 on the initiative of a group of writers with support from the country's Arts Council. Membership, which is by invitation from current member ...

Irish Academy of Letters Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

Award * Guggenheim Fellowship * 2020 – Irish Times Poetry Now award

References

External links

*
Derek Mahon's page at Wake Forest University Press

Griffin Poetry Prize biography

Griffin Poetry Prize reading, including video clip
*
Achill
from poets.org. *

from The Poem. *

by Rajeev S. Patke.
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
Derek Mahon papers, 1948–2018Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
Derek Mahon collection, 1985–1988, 1991, 2000
*Letters and postcards from Derek Mahon to Louis Asekoff from 1963 to 1988
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
Letters to Louis Asekoff, 1963–1988
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mahon, Derek 1941 births 2020 deaths Aosdána members David Cohen Prize recipients French–English translators Writers from Belfast Male poets from Northern Ireland University of Paris alumni Alumni of Trinity College Dublin 20th-century writers from Northern Ireland 20th-century poets from Northern Ireland 21st-century British poets 21st-century British male writers 20th-century Irish translators 21st-century translators Male writers from Northern Ireland 20th-century British male writers People from Kinsale