Mahon on the Pulpit

The troubles in Ireland all stem from the tension between the pro-British Protestants and the pro-Irish Catholics. While both sides resorted to violence on many occasions, the Protestant group, the ones in power, was the more militant of the two sides. In “Ecclesiastes,” Mahon uses the language of a protestant preacher to mock, criticize and reject his Protestant, northern Irish identity and all those who fervently resort to sectarian violence.

Mahon wrote “Ecclesiastes” with varying line rhythm and in blank verse; however, the internal rhyme and alliteration increase the speed of the poem, charging it with the voice of a manic preacher orating to a crowd. The first three lines illustrate this effect well: “God, you could grow to love it, God-fearing, God- / chosen purist little puritan that, / for all your wiles and smiles…” (1-3). The four alliterating g sounds, along with the internal rhyme created by the repetition of ‘God’ in the first line, ‘purist’ and ‘puritan’, in the second, and “wiles and smiles” found in the third, work together to create the effect of an orating preacher. Of course, Mahon beginning the poem by taking the lord’s name in vain sets the reader up to understand that the poem will be anything but praise for the church.

Throughout the rest of the poem, Mahon continues to channel the oratory powers of a preacher to scathe the protestant church and culture. This ranges from the culture’s repressiveness of “the / dank churches, the empty streets,” to the faults of self-righteous beliefs: “and not / feel called upon to understand and forgive / but only to speak with a bleak afflatus,” and to finally the dogmatic protestant leaders that “stand on a corner stiff / with rhetoric, promising nothing under the sun” (3-5; 10-12; 21-22). Finally, in the last sentence, Mahon mirrors the first three lines closely by again repeating the word ‘God,’ and using a small internal rhyme in the last line. The effect of this is to give the poem one last emphatic charge before reaching the climax.

In conclusion, Mahon creates a dichotomy in “Ecclesiastes” between the oratory style of a preacher and the language he would use — namely by criticizing the church instead of teaching it’s beliefs. Mahon employs a multitude of literary devices from alliteration, internal rhyme, and allusion to create a scathing review of how he perceives the state of the protestant church. Ultimately concluding that it’s teaching offers “nothing under the sun” in worth.

Mahon, Derek. Collected Poems. Ed. Peter Fallon. Ireland: The Gallery Press, 1999.