COLLECTED POEMS

First edition, first printing. Hardcover issue. Publisher's original black cloth with titles in gilt to the spine, in the Sir John Lavery illustrated dustwrapper. A fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents are clean throughout, and without previous owners' inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the fine original dustwrapper that is without fading, loss, or tears. Not price-clipped (£25.00 to the front flap).

The first edition was published in simultaneous paperback and hardback editions, on 30 November 1999. Widely regarded as one of the most talented and innovative Irish poets of the late 20th century, Derek Mahon was best known for illuminating the ordinary aspects of daily life through his skillfully crafted verse. A recipient of numerous literary and poetry prizes in his lifetime, Mahon's poetry has been critically compared to that of Auden, MacNeice, and Beckett. He passed away peacefully at age 78 in County Cork, Ireland in 2020 (Poetry Foundation, 2025). This updated edition brings together, as the jacket copy states, the work the author 'wishes to preserve' from the work of forty years. Further revision was made for Mahon's later collection 'New Collected Poems' (2011), which reissued the poet's works in 'new form'. As Hugh Haughton notes in his fine study of the poet (Oxford, 2010), such wording suggests that for Mahon revision was "not only a question of his critical conscience, but a desire to re-situate [...] past work in the cultural present."