Poem Poem ‘Kinsale’


Language/Language/ImageryImagery


 Pathetic fallacy/alliteration: ‘The kind of rain we knew is a thing of the past — / deep-delving, dark, deliberate’


 Metaphor/sibilance: ‘ our sky -blue slates are st eaming in the sun’


 Simile/onomatopoeia: ‘our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay/ like racehorses’


‘The


Chinese Restaurant in Portrush’


 Metaphor/sibilance: ‘Before the first visitor comes the spring/ softening the sharp air of the coast/ in time for the first seasonal “invasion”’


 Observation/historic reflection: ‘the doors that were shut all winter/ against the north wind and the sea mist/ lie open to the street’


 Symbolism: ‘an old wolfhound dozes in the sun’


 Simile: ‘ the proprietor of the Chinese restaurant/ stands at the door as if the world were young’


 Metaphor: ‘ watching the first yacht hoist a sail —/ an ideogram on sea-cloud’


‘Day Trip to Donegal’


 Hyperbole/alliteration: ‘ the nearby hills were a deeper green/ than anywhere in the world, and the grave/ grey of the sea the grimmer in that enclave’


 Assonance/personification: ‘ a squirming glimmer of gills  herring and mackerel, flopping about the deck/ in attitudes of agony and heartbreak’


 Alliteration/personification: ‘Around midnight we changed down into suburbs/ sunk in a sleep no gale- force wind disturbs’


Personal observation/ universal reflection


Personal observation/ universal reflection


 The rain of the past is used to represent the bleak history of conflict in Ireland


 The observations of Kinsale in the sunlight after rain are used to symbolise what the poet views as a more optimistic future for the entire country


 Mahon describes the tranquillity of the seaside town on the first mild spring day to symbolise a wider period of transition in Irish society


 The ‘opening’ of the doors represents a general openness of Irish society as a new spirit of accommodation of multiculturalism is cultivated


 A cautionary note – the ‘wolfhound’ of past violence is sleeping, but could possibly awaken


 Proprietor sees the same vista as the poet, but for him it is new and unusual; reflecting a new era of multiculturalism/ peace


 Donegal is an enclave of the Republic of Ireland; to a Belfast Protestant’s eyes the coast is beautiful yet also slightly menacing


 Keen eye for detail observing the fish in their death throes establishes the poet’s compassion for all creatures


 Contrast between the untamed, enchanting Atlantic coast of Donegal and the subdued city suburbs


374 VERSE 2025


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