Derek Mahon Flashcards
(32 cards)
[Grandfather 1] Grandfather’s personality
He is described as “wounded but humorous”. He makes the most of a bad situation. Additionally wounded suggests violence rather than an accident.
“he soon recovered” suggests resilience
[Grandfather 2] grandfather’s oppressive workplace
“Boiler-rooms, row upon row of gantries” references the harsh confined work environment of Harland and Woolf, where mahon’s grandfather was a foreman.
[Grandfather 3] grandfather has become childlike
Nowadays the grandfathers oppressive working life has “rolled away to reveal the landscape of a childhood”. Now that mahon’s grandfather is retired he has become more childlike.
[Grandfather 4] chaotic nature
“banging round the house like a four-year-old”
The grandfather is stress free in his old age, the poet suggests that as we get older we gradually return to a child-like state
[Grandfather 5] mysterious nature
His grandfather is can be quite secretive; he is “shrewd”, his actions are done “discreetly” and he is “never there when you call”. He is unpredictable. He defies logic and likes to “set the clock against the future”. Mahon’s grandfather is unusually active despite his age.
[Grandfather 6] end
“Nothing escapes him; he escapes us all”
Although Mahon is close to his grandfather, he can never truly understand him, he is an enigma to the family and Mahon celebrates that in this poem. His grandfather seems to know all and Mahon admires him for it.
[After the Titanic 1] Ismay pleads with the reader
“I tell you” suggests an emphatic and pleading tone with Bruce Ismay begging the reader to listen
[After the Titanic 2] Ismay may be alive but he might as well be dead
“I sank as far that night as any hero”
he suffered as greatly as those who died
[After the Titanic 3] Metaphor of death
“I turned to ice to hear my costly life go thundering down”. Ismay is described as a dying victim of the titanic to represent how his reputation was annihilated that night
[After the Titanic 4] broken alliteration
Ismay descrines the Titanix sinking as a “pandemonium of prams, pianos, sideboards, winches, boilers bursting and shredded ragtime”.
We first get the impression that alliterative “p” words are going to be used to but that is soon broken and this subversion of our expectations gives us a greater sense of just how chaotic the tragedy was.
[After the Titanic 5] Ismay seclusion
Ismay “hides behind the sea” to escape his past yet the sea still leaves reminders of “broken toys and hatboxes silently” Ismay feels a constant guilt, the “toys and hatboxes” being symbols of the dead children and women whose deaths he is partly responsible for.
[After the Titanic 6] Ismay relives the disaster + personification
Ismay often relieves the moment stating “I drown again with all those dim lost faces”.
Ismay appears to be suffering from PTSD as his “soul screams out”. The use of personification illustrates the depths of his mental anguish.
[After the Titanic 7] Final line
“Include me in your lamentations”
Ismay’s final line is a final request for the reader to re-evaluate their view on his part in the sinking of the titanic and perhaps have a bit of sympathy for him. Ultimately i is up to the reader to decide.
[As It Should Be 1] dehumanization
Mahon takes the persona of an anti-treaty soldier killing a man during the Irish Civil War. He describes his victim as a “mad bastard” that he “hunted”. Likening a fellow human being to a fox or pheasant that is gunned down for sport.
[As It Should Be 2] contrast
Beautiful imagery is employed, describing a “star-lit west”. This tranquil scene is incongruous in the context of a murder taking place.
[As It Should Be 3] symbol
The speaker’s victim is gunned down “in a blind yard”. This description is symbolic of the officer’s own blind devotion to his cause. He disregards those on the opposing side and has no care for their lives.
[As It Should Be 4] Personification
The speaker says “Let us hear no idle talk”. This use of personification informs us of the soldier’s harsh world view. He sees any attempt to come to an understanding as useless and ineffective.
[As It Should Be 5] Mention of children
The victim is buried “during school hours”, bringing to mind the many innocent children at play who, according to the speaker, “have known no bad dreams”.
[As It Should Be 6] Justification
The poet justifies his actions believing, “This is as it should be” he is making a brighter future for the next generations, but he has failed to account for the fact that the “mad bastard” he murdered may have children of his own. His children will not “thank” them “when they grow up” as the poet states. The loss of their father will cause great grief and affect the rest of their lives. This ultimately illustrates that speaker didn’t even consider that the man he killed might have people who loved him. To the speaker, the man was simply an entity of evil.
[As It Should Be 7] Irony
The poet hopes for “a world with method in it” but he fails to see the irony that his dehumanisation and ruthless violence can not lead to such an ordered world
[A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford 1] Uncertainty
Mahon asks the reader to consider “places where a thought might grow”. There is uncertainy as not all places will provoke any deep or profound thought. Mahon mentions “Peruvian Mines” and “Indian Compounds”, places where once hundreds if not thousands of people worked but now they are “worked out and abandoned”
[A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford 2] symbol of hope
In stanza 2, Mahon describes a “thousand of mushrooms” who “crowd to a keyhole”. The keyhole is a symbol of hope, that the mushrooms will one day see light and no longer be abandoned, “it is the one star in their firmament”.
[A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford 3] mushroom symbol
Furthermore, the mushrooms themselves are a symbol of the people forgotten by history, “waiting for us in a foetor” to gain recognition. More specifically, they represent the nameless victims the Irish civil war, since they have been in the shed “since civil-war days”.
[A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford 4] personification
Mushrooms “nearest the door grow strong”. This personification further strengthens the mushrooms as a representation as those lost to time. Mahon even goes as far as to add dialogue ” ‘Elbow room! Elbow room!’ “
