Apologies for the gap in transmission. I had to see a man about a dog. Speaking of excuses, I heard a good one the other day about a student (not a student of mine). He couldn’t submit his course work for reasons or arson, he said; his books had been destroyed. And his evidence for this? A charge sheet detailing his conviction for arson.
While I haven’t been busy burning anything down, I have at least been writing about Derek Mahon’s New Collected Poems, at some length, here.
3 comments:
The edition which I love---and grew up with---is Poems 1962-1978, although there are incipient signs of revisionitis already. I always felt that The Hunt by Night was a slight falling off. After that, a speedier decline.
I also think that the NCP is an exquisite example of book production.
Still - revisionitis or not, the amount of wordage devoted to the review of this book suggests an enduring fascination with this poet, whose work still places him as THE Irish poet for many. Less output than some, but the route to the life, and to lives, is more direct.
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