Object Lessons: Derek Mahon's Material Ekphrasis

Abstract

Ekphrastic mode, with its emphasis on visual art, affords poets unique opportunities for exploring the limits of verbal art: for some writers, ekphrasis becomes almost a form of ars poetica by proxy. This is the case in many of Derek Mahon's ekphrases, as is well documented: Hugh Haughton proposes that for Mahon, paintings 'become…a site of metamorphosis and a figure for poetry'; 1 Terence Brown observes that 'Mahon's poems on paintings are striking occasions in his work when the claims of art itself are tested.' 2 Mahon's self-reflexive use of ekphrasis has received substantial critical attention not only from Haughton and Brown but also