ABSTRACT
In Wintering Out Seamus Heaney began to make a journey, Heaney was to repeat, back into the remote past, of Ireland and of prehistoric man. North was immediately recognised as a triumph. It included poems that were colloquial, even anecdotal, relaxed and yet sharp, such as 'Freedman', 'Whatever You Say Say Nothing' and the group under the overall title 'Singing School'. Derek Mahon has often proclaimed his allegiance to Louis MacNeice, who has given him licence and authority to use a wide range of manners and modes in exploring his sceptical and gloomy sense of doom and exile: for much of his life he has been away from Ireland. The most surprising and idiosyncratic poet to emerge from the South in recent years has now won a loyal audience not only throughout Ireland but in England too. Paul Durcan is emphatically not a devotee of 'the well-made verse'.
