SOURCE: Frazier, Adrian. “Proper Portion: Derek Mahon's The Hunt by Night.” Eire-Ireland 18, no. 4 (winter 1983): 136-43.

In the following essay, Frazier suggests that The Hunt by Night reflects a change in Mahon's work, away from regionalism, and away from attention-seeking tricks of poetic form and style.

In a review of Derek Mahon's Poems 1962-1978 (Spring 1981), Arthur McGuinness concluded that the poet's work had undergone an “overall change in theme and tone” as a result of the revision of old poems and the addition of new ones. Instead of writing about the despair of cities, Mahon was turning toward the curative comforts of the countryside. Along with John Hewitt and Seamus Heaney, he had become a regionalist; along with Heaney, he was looking for “doors out of the dark.” The dark was one the young poet once sought: twilight of the gods, soul's dark night, eternal darkness of world annihilation...