[Derek Mahon's collection Night Crossing] suffers from gentility…. He writes deftly, levelly, subtly, reminding one of the controlled mild ironies of Larkin, though he lacks Larkin's nostalgia and Larkin's particular usage of ennui and anxiety. Moreover, he does, from time to time, edge into romanticism and, in his Legacies, after Villon, he reveals considerable rhythmical vitality and some sardonic gusto. This is a good book, but a safe book. It was the Choice of the British Poetry Book Society and some of the poems won an Eric Gregory Award. One can see why, even while yet again realizing that the very coherence and control which makes the book an award winner is also that which makes one restlessly wish for poems whose idiosyncratic originality would make for more excitement and more controversy. (p. 400)

Robin Skelton, "Five Poets and Their Stances," in Poetry (© 1969 by The Modern Poetry Association; reprinted...