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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: MAHON, DEREK Matches Found: 166 Mahon, Derek Poet's Biography poems available by this author A DISUSED SHED IN CO. WEXFORD Poem Text First Line: Even now there are places where a thought might grow Subject(s): Social Commentaries A GARAGE IN CO. CORK Poem Text First Line: Surely you paused at this roadside oasis Subject(s): Ireland - Emigrants A LIGHTHOUSE IN MAINE Poem Text First Line: It might be anywhere Subject(s): Lighthouses; Hopper, Edward (1882-1967) A REFUSAL TO MOURN Poem Text First Line: He lived in a small farm-house Subject(s): Death; Dead, The ACHILL Poem Text First Line: I lie and imagine a first light gleam in the bay Subject(s): Emptiness; Longing; Nostalgia ACHILL First Line: I lie and imagine a first light gleam in the bay Last Line: As I glance through a few thin pages and switch off the light Subject(s): Emptiness; Longing; Nostalgia AFTER PASTERNAK: 1. WHITE NIGHT First Line: In the distant past I can see Last Line: Night which had seen so much AFTER PASTERNAK: 2. THE EARTH First Line: Spring bursts in the houses Last Line: The heart-constraining ice AFTER THE TITANIC Poem Text First Line: They said I got away in a boat Subject(s): Titanic (ship) AFTER THE TITANIC First Line: They said I got away in a boat Last Line: Include me in your lamentations AFTERLIVES Poem Text First Line: I wake in a dark flat Subject(s): Homecoming AFTERLIVES First Line: I wake in a dark flat Last Line: And learnt what is meant by home ALIEN NATION First Line: Rx gotham drug gay cruises sony liquors marlboro Last Line: Whisks me up hudson st in a thunderstorm AN IMAGE FROM BECKETT First Line: In that instant / there was a sea, far off Subject(s): Beckett, Samuel (1906-1989) ANDEAN FLUTE First Line: He dances to that music in the wood Last Line: Who said the banished gods were gone for good? Subject(s): Environment ANTARCTICA First Line: I am just going outside and may be some time.' Last Line: At the heart of the ridiculous, the sublime Variant Title(s): Antartic APOTHEOSIS OF TINS First Line: Having spent the night in a sewer of precognition Last Line: And crisis, perhaps we can learn from them ARAN Poem Text First Line: He is earthed to his girl, one hand fastened Subject(s): Aran Islands, Ireland; Love AUTOBIOGRAPHIES: 1. THE HOME FRONT First Line: While the frozen armies trembled Last Line: Clutching the empire news AUTOBIOGRAPHIES: 2. THE LOST GIRLS First Line: In ancient shadows and twilight Last Line: In the allegory of spring AUTOBIOGRAPHIES: 3. THE LAST RESORT First Line: Salad-and-sand sandwiches Last Line: Bun with its parting light AUTOBIOGRAPHIES: 4. THE BICYCLE First Line: There was a bicycle, a fine Last Line: The bright spokes glittering BANISHED GODS First Line: Paros, far-shining star of dark-blue earth Last Line: And wisdom a five-minute silence at moonrise Subject(s): Rivers BEAUTY AND THE BEAST First Line: I go night-shopping like frank o'hara I go bopping Last Line: We want you to know we love you and root for you still BEYOND HOWTH HEAD First Line: The wind that blows these words to you Last Line: On shadows of the encroaching night BLACKBIRD First Line: One morning in the month of june Last Line: Breaking the silence of the seas Subject(s): Environment BRIGHTON BEACH First Line: Remember those awful parties Last Line: Turning in for the night BURBLES First Line: Far end of void Last Line: Dentures grinned on him at last CAMUS IN ULSTER First Line: Deprived though we were of your climatic privileges Last Line: An old blues number playing to the plague wind CHINATOWN First Line: ...And whips the pagodas of confucius square Last Line: For, as confucius said, fine words are seldom humane CHINATOWNJ Poem Text First Line: And whips the pagodas of confucius square Subject(s): Chinatown, New York City CHINESE RESTAURANT IN PORTRUSH First Line: Before the first visitor comes the spring Last Line: And whistles a little tune, dreaming of home CONSOLATIONS OF PHILOSOPHY First Line: When we start breaking up in the wet darkness Last Line: Like daisies from a clover field in summer COURTYARD IN DELFT; PIETER DE HOOCH, 1659 Poem Text First Line: Oblique light on the trite, on brick and tile Variant Title(s): Courtyards In Delft - Pieter De Hooch, 1659 Subject(s): Delft, Netherlands; Hooch, Pieter De (1629-1684); Hoogh, Pieter De COURTYARD IN DELFT; PIETER DE HOOCH, 1659 First Line: Oblique light on the trite, on brick and tile Last Line: And sword upon parched veldt and fields of rain-swept gorse Variant Title(s): Courtyards In Delft - Pieter De Hooch, 165 Subject(s): Delft, Netherlands; Hooch, Pieter De (1629-1684) CRAIGVARA HOUSE First Line: That was the year Last Line: As over and step out into the sunlight CURIOUS GHOST First Line: While your widow clatters water into a kettle Last Line: They found unfinished poems in your sea-chest DAWN AT ST PATRICK'S First Line: There is an old %statue in the courtyard Last Line: Casts now upon everyone %in ancient shadow Variant Title(s): Dawn At St. Patrick' DAWN CHORUS First Line: It is not sleep itself but dreams we miss Last Line: We yearn for that reality in this Subject(s): Environment DE QUINCEY IN LATER LIFE First Line: Tonight the blessed state, that long repose Last Line: With anne, looking for some such panacea DEJECTION Poem Text First Line: Bone-idle, I lie listening to the rain Last Line: Who have twice come in from the cold? Subject(s): Melancholy; Dejection DEJECTION First Line: Bone-idle, I lie listening to the rain Last Line: Who have twice come in from the cold? Subject(s): Melancholy DERRY MORNING First Line: The mist clears and the cavities Last Line: A russian freighter bound for home %mourns to the city in its gloom DIRGE First Line: I live here on this harsh and lonely cliff Last Line: To one who lights time past and time to come DISUSED SHED IN CO. WEXFORD First Line: Even now there are places where a thought might grow Last Line: Let not our naive labours have been in vain!' DOMNEI First Line: Now that we all get laid and everyone swings Last Line: I see the house she goes to blaze with light DRAWING BOARD First Line: You think I am your servant but you are wrong Last Line: I speak to you now as your indispensable medium DREAM PLAY First Line: The spirits have dispersed, the woods Last Line: Angels-evolved from snails and worms DYING ART First Line: That day would skin a fairy Last Line: Her plug tobacco with one to this day ECCLESIASTES Poem Text First Line: God, you could grow to love it, god-fearing, god Subject(s): Bible; Religion; Theology ECCLESIASTES First Line: God, you could grow to love it, god-fearing, god Last Line: With rhetoric, promising nothing under the sun Subject(s): Bible; Religion EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT First Line: How should I not be glad to contemplate Last Line: Everything is going to be all right EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT Poem Text First Line: How should I not be glad to contemplate Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Optimism FIRST LOVE First Line: This is a circling of itself and you Last Line: Love of your silence; you are the soul of silence FORD MANOR Poem Text First Line: Even on the quietest days the distant Subject(s): Love - Erotic; Love FORD MANOR First Line: Even on the quietest days the distant Last Line: Deep in the dripping lilac bush Subject(s): Erotic Love; Love GALATEA First Line: Pygmalion lived for years alone Last Line: From whom the city takes its name GARAGE IN CO. CORK First Line: Surely you paused at this roadside oasis Last Line: But with a sure sense of its intrinsic nature GHOSTS First Line: We live the lives our parents never knew Last Line: White curtains blew like ghosts into the room GIPSIES First Line: I have watched the dark police Last Line: Of scrap metal in my %garden grows daily GIRLS ON THE BRIDGE First Line: Audible trout, %notional midges. Beds Last Line: A mile from where you chatter, %somebody screams Subject(s): Bridges; Munch, Edvard (1863-1944); Women GLENGORMLEY Poem Text First Line: Wonders are many and none is more wonderful than man Subject(s): Modern Man GLENGORMLEY First Line: Wonders are many and none is more wonderful than man Last Line: Necessity, if not choice. I live here too Subject(s): Modern Man GLOBE IN CAROLINA First Line: The earth spins to my fingertips and Last Line: Listening to that lonesome whistle blow Variant Title(s): The Globe In North Carolin Subject(s): Constellations GOING HOME First Line: I am saying goodbye to the trees Last Line: As if it belongs there Variant Title(s): A Departur HERACLITUS ON RIVERS Poem Text First Line: Nobody steps into the same river twice Subject(s): Rivers HERACLITUS ON RIVERS First Line: Nobody steps into the same river twice Last Line: All these things will pass away in time Subject(s): Rivers HOMAGE TO MALCOLM LOWRY First Line: For gear your typewriter and an old rugby boot Last Line: The gates of ivory with the gates of horn HUDSON LETTER, SELS. First Line: Winter; a short walk from the 10th st pier Last Line: At eight; but first the nightingale. Sing, muse HUNGER First Line: While a late thaw began in the boarded eaves Last Line: Your heavenly mansions blazing in the dark HUNT BY NIGHT First Line: Flickering shades, %stick figures, lithe game Last Line: Spectacle put on for fun %and not for food I AM RAFTERY First Line: I am raftery, hesitant and confused among the Subject(s): Raftery, Anthony (1784-1835) I AM RAFTERY First Line: I am raftery, hesitant and confused among the Last Line: A grinning disc-jockey between commercials Subject(s): Raftery, Anthony (1784-1835) IMAGE FROM BECKETT First Line: In that instant %there was a sea, far off Last Line: And light enough, to read it Subject(s): Beckett, Samuel (1906-1989) IN CARROWDORE CHURCHYARD Poem Text First Line: Your ashes will not stir, even on this high ground Variant Title(s): In Carrowdore Churchyard; At The Grave Of Louis Macneice Subject(s): Churchyards; Macneice, Louis (1907-1963) IN CARROWDORE CHURCHYARD First Line: Your ashes will not stir, even on this high ground Last Line: Rinsing the choked mud, keeping the colours new Variant Title(s): In Carrowdore Churchyard; At The Grave Of Louis Macneic Subject(s): Churchyards; Macneice, Louis (1907-1963) J.P. DONLEAVY'S DUBLIN First Line: When you stop to consider Last Line: Like clock hands in a bar mirror JAIL JOURNAL First Line: For several days I have been under Last Line: Or a sleepless night-crossing KATIE AT THE POOL First Line: My four-year-old daughter Last Line: Of the water on the sky!' KEY WEST First Line: Somewhere along route 1 - plantation, tavernier Last Line: Who long ago gave up on the land and settled among the rocks KINSALE First Line: The kind of rain we knew is a thing of the past Last Line: Shining windows, a future forbidden to no one LAST OF THE FIRE KINGS First Line: I want to be %like the man who descends Last Line: But to die their creature and be thankful LEAVES Poem Text First Line: The prisoners of infinite choice Subject(s): Leaves; Autumn; Fall LIGHT MUSIC: 1. ARCHITECTURE First Line: Twinkletoes in the ballroom Last Line: Light music in space LIGHT MUSIC: 10. MORPHOLOGY First Line: Beans and foetuses Last Line: A dust of stars LIGHT MUSIC: 11. ENTER First Line: The steel regrets the lock Last Line: The wood awaits your knock LIGHT MUSIC: 12. DAWN MOON First Line: A slip of soap in the sky Last Line: Of an alien dispensation LIGHT MUSIC: 13. ELPENOR First Line: Edacity in the palace Last Line: Pointing towards home LIGHT MUSIC: 14. EAST STRAND First Line: Tedium of sand and sea Last Line: Obscures the winter sun LIGHT MUSIC: 15. ABSENCE First Line: I wake at night Last Line: Somewhere my daughter LIGHT MUSIC: 16. WATERFRONT First Line: I cover the waterfront Last Line: Go down to the sea in ships LIGHT MUSIC: 17. OUTSIDE First Line: The sculpted bird-bath and the pine Last Line: The post-box and the telephone line LIGHT MUSIC: 18. DONEGAL First Line: The vast clouds migrate Last Line: A tiny bike squeaks %into the wind LIGHT MUSIC: 19. SMOKE First Line: Vertical, horizontal Last Line: The smoke of last resorts LIGHT MUSIC: 2. HISTORY First Line: The blinking puddles Last Line: To the low sky LIGHT MUSIC: 20. ROGUE LEAF First Line: Believe it or not Last Line: I am letting go LIGHT MUSIC: 21. REVELATION First Line: A colour the fish know Last Line: There will be no more sea LIGHT MUSIC: 22. FLYING First Line: A wand of sunlight Last Line: Is the life to come LIGHT MUSIC: 3. NEGATIVES First Line: Gulls in a rain-dark cornfield Last Line: Crows on a sunlit sea LIGHT MUSIC: 4. NORTH SEA First Line: The terminal light of beaches Last Line: Where a gull blinks on a pole LIGHT MUSIC: 5. PLEASE First Line: I built my house Last Line: Beat a path %to my door LIGHT MUSIC: 6. RORY First Line: He leads me into Last Line: His shadow in mine LIGHT MUSIC: 7. SPRING First Line: Dawn light pearling the branches Last Line: A glimpse of skin in the woods LIGHT MUSIC: 8. TWILIGHT First Line: A stone at the roadside Last Line: The stone is one with the stars LIGHT MUSIC: 9. MOZART First Line: The clarinet concerto Last Line: On the other planets! LIGHTHOUSE IN MAINE First Line: It might be anywhere Subject(s): Travel LIVES Poem Text First Line: First time out Variant Title(s): Lives; For Seamus Heaney Subject(s): Life LIVES First Line: First time out %I was a torc of gold Last Line: Or teach himself to pray Variant Title(s): Lives; For Seamus Heane MATTHEW V.29-30 First Line: Lord, mine eye offended Last Line: Only then was I fit for human society MAYO TAO First Line: I have abandoned the dream kitchens for a low fire Last Line: I think it might come out right this winter MORNING RADIO First Line: The silence of the ether Last Line: To the strains of a horn concerto NO REST FOR THE WICKED Last Line: Slightly the worse for wear NOON AT ST MICHAEL'S First Line: Nurses and nuns - %their sails whiter than those Last Line: Re-reading years in a feminist light, %I am there with you NORTH WIND: PORTRUSH First Line: I shall never forget the wind Last Line: Sings now and for ever NORTHERN STAR First Line: Ancestral voices bicker; ghosts Last Line: Drowning out any further words.' NOSTALGIAS First Line: The chair squeaks in a high wind Last Line: A lost tribe is singing 'abide with me' OLD SNAPS First Line: I keep your old snaps in my bottom drawer Subject(s): Erotic Love; Love ONE OF THESE NIGHTS First Line: A pregnant moon of august Last Line: And life begins tonight OVID IN TOMIS First Line: What coarse god %was the gearbox in the rain Last Line: To its candour %and weep for our exile OVID ON WEST 4TH First Line: When his wronged wife procne sat him down to eat Last Line: And the encoded mysteries of the human heart PENSHURST PLACE First Line: The bright drop quivering on a thorn Last Line: Come live with me and be my love POEM BEGINNING WITH A LINE BY CAVAFY First Line: It is night %and the barbarians have not come Last Line: Breaks loose and rolls down like a stone. %include me in your lamentations RAGE FOR ORDER First Line: Somewhere beyond %the scorched gable end Last Line: Long now till I have need of his %terminal ironies RATHLIN First Line: A long time since the last scream cut short Last Line: Whether the future lies before us or behind REFUSAL TO MOURN First Line: He lived in a small farmhouse Last Line: After the bird has flown ROCK MUSIC First Line: The ocean glittered quietly in the moonlight Last Line: Unanimous in their silent inquisition ROMAN SCRIPT First Line: Rain in the night; now cock-crow and engine-hum Last Line: May we find peace in the substance of the true SAPPHO IN 'JUDITH'S ROOM' First Line: The reed-voiced nightingale has been my guide Last Line: Didn't I say we'd live again in another form? SEA IN WINTER First Line: Desmond, what of the blue nights Last Line: While a new day crawls up the beach SHAPES AND SHADOWS' First Line: The kitchens would grow bright Last Line: A long-sought community SMALL RAIN First Line: Once upon a time it was let me out and let me go Last Line: We have been too long in the cold. - take us in; take us in! SNOW PARTY First Line: Basho, coming %to the city of nagoya Last Line: And the hills of ise Variant Title(s): The Snow Party; For Louis Asekof SPRING IN BELFAST First Line: Walking among my own this windy morning Last Line: Exact more interest than my casual pity Variant Title(s): The Spring Vacation; For Michael Longle ST MARK'S PLACE First Line: Auden, floppy-slippered bear of st mark's place Last Line: Sustaining us now as we face a more boring future ST. PATRICK'S DAY First Line: Down the long library each marble bust Last Line: A young woman hitching a lift on a country road SWIM IN CO. WICKLOW First Line: Spindrift, crustacean patience Last Line: And this the only life THE ANDEAN FLUTE Poem Text First Line: He dances to that music in the wood Subject(s): Environment; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation THE BANISHED GODS Poem Text First Line: Paros, far-shining star of dark-blue earth Subject(s): Rivers THE BLACKBIRD Poem Text First Line: One morning in the month of june Subject(s): Environment; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation THE DAWN CHORUS Poem Text First Line: It is not sleep itself but dreams we miss Last Line: We yearn for that reality in this Subject(s): Reality THE GLOBE IN CAROLINA Poem Text First Line: The earth spins to my fingertips and Variant Title(s): The Globe In North Carolina Subject(s): Constellations THE SEASONS Poem Text First Line: Day-stars like daisies on a field of sky. Subject(s): Seasons THE SNOW PARTY Poem Text First Line: Bash??, coming Variant Title(s): The Snow Party; For Louis Asekoff Subject(s): Snow TO MRS MOORE AT INISHANNON' First Line: No. 1, 5th avenue, new york city, sept. 14th, 1895 Last Line: I remain %yr. Loving daughter, %- bridget moore Variant Title(s): To Mrs. Moore At Inishanno TOLERABLE WISDOM First Line: You keep the cold from the body, the cold from the mind Last Line: And rocked him to a tolerable wisdom TRACTATUS First Line: The world is everything that is the case' Last Line: The steam rising wherever the edge may be? TRAVEL SECTION First Line: I'm reading about life on the prairie and frontier Last Line: Blithe and post-modern, for the post-pastoral folks Variant Title(s): Albums: The Wild Wes TWO SONGS FOR DOREEN: 1. HIS SONG First Line: Months on, you hold me still Last Line: The shadows I lie with now TWO SONGS FOR DOREEN: 2. HER SONG First Line: A hundred men imagine Last Line: Blossom on a blackthorn bush UNBORN CHILD First Line: I have already come to the verge of %departure Last Line: Or take a day or two, my days are numbered WATERFRONT First Line: Chaste convalescents from an exigent world Last Line: - subvert the dominant paradigm. Gabriel 141 WOODS First Line: Two years we spent Last Line: Confront the darkness in another place YADDO LETTER First Line: Here among silent lakes and dripping pines Last Line: Write to me soon in dublin. %my love, as ever, %- daddy YELLOW BOOK: 1. NIGHT THOUGHTS First Line: Night thoughts are best, the ones that visit us Last Line: Like a storm lantern the lonely planet swings YELLOW BOOK: 10. THE IDIOCY OF HUMAN ASPIRATION First Line: No one in his right mind would want to be Last Line: I leave you to the delights of modern life YELLOW BOOK: 12. APHRODITE'S POOL First Line: I dive and rise in an explosion of spindrift Last Line: A star-net hums in the aphrodisiac sea-lanes YELLOW BOOK: 13. DUSK First Line: Night now, bewitching night, friend of the evil-doer Last Line: Of house and home, being outcast in this life YELLOW BOOK: 14. RUE DES BEAUX-ARTS First Line: The new art is everywhere with its whiplash line Last Line: The greatest men fail, or seem to have failed.' YELLOW BOOK: 15. SMOKE First Line: Bone-idle, I lie listening to the rain Last Line: Used his own manuscripts as cigarette paper YELLOW BOOK: 16. AMERICA DESERTA First Line: Often enough you've listened to me complain Last Line: And a nation singing its heart out in the business pages YELLOW BOOK: 17. THE WORLD OF J. G. FARRELL First Line: A huge house (trouble) at the water's edge Last Line: Do nothing do nothing and everything will be done YELLOW BOOK: 18. A BANGOR REQUIEM First Line: We stand - not many of us - in a new cemetery Last Line: Ranch houses, dusty palms, blue skies of the republic YELLOW BOOK: 2. AXEL'S CASTLE First Line: Rain all day; now clouds clear; a brief sun, the winds die Last Line: Computer talks to computer, machine to answering machine YELLOW BOOK: 20. CHRISTMAS IN KINSALE First Line: After the fairy lights in seaside lounge and bar Last Line: Again the white islands shouting, 'come on; come on! YELLOW BOOK: 3. AT THE SHELBOURNE First Line: Sunrise in the irish sea, dawn over dublin bay Last Line: However late the hour, however dark the night YELLOW BOOK: 8. HANGOVER SQUARE First Line: The snowman infants from the nursery school Last Line: One letter at a time, fur round the edges |
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