‘Mere Technique and True Vision’: Derek Mahon’s Early Works in Little Magazines

Abstract

This article explores the small press publishing trends of 1960s Dublin and identifies how Derek Mahon benefitted from the coteries of editors and poets inhabiting the city while composing his early works, which are marked by a divided sense of self, experimentation with perspectives and awareness of socio-historic realities. I shall combine close readings with methods postulated by book historians, that assess the publishing contexts in which the texts are produced along with the poems, to derive a deeper understanding of Mahon’s poems and literary ideology. I shall provide a new and historical perspective on aspects of the poet’s style that were shaped during his years in Dublin before he witnessed the Troubles in Northern Ireland.