As the first major book-length study of the poetry of Derek Mahon, this volume of fourteen essays represents a long overdue account and assessment of one of the foremost living English-language poets. In considering the central issues of Mahon's poetry--the relation between poetry and politics, the conflicting claims of art and nature, the representation of gender, the importance of place, the poet's response to violence, and his characteristic techniques of displacement, ambiguity, and intertextuality--these essays also represent a variety of critical approaches to the poetry.
