이 연구는 데렉 마혼의 시 세계가 역사에 대한 시인의 죄의식과 시인의 책임감을 거쳐 예술의 자율성에 대한 추구로 발전되었음을 고찰한다. 첫째, 마혼은 개신교도로서 북아일랜드 사태에 대한 죄책감을 경험하는데, 이것이 그의 시의 기저를 이룬다. 둘째, 이러한 죄책감에 기인하여 마혼은 아일랜드뿐만 아니라 세계 역사에서 희생된 이들에 대한 관심을 표현하며 시인으로서의 책무를 수행한다. 마지막으로, 마혼은 엑프래시스의 독특한 시적 형식과 빛의 이미지를 사용하여 초월성 및 예술의 자율성을 추구한다.

Motivated with the poetic utterance that "all this is signified by their language" as Heaney's own word, this essay shows that Seamus Heaney, not just by resisting past colonial domination with a decolonial literary system, has successively served for playing the colonial language in his poetic representation and finally achieved the poetic autonomy. Under and after the colonial experience, Most of Irish poets have continually struggled against English political system and its language as a colonial one. But Heaney has consistently defended poetry as agent for redressing injustices in the corrupt world and at the same time as something to be re-established and celebrated in his own right. The process of Haney's quest for playing colonial language of his Irish identity as a poet can be effectively understood by examining the way in which he employs the poetic of redress. The main subject of Heaney's poetry is to find out his Irish identification with the past linguistic tradition and its continuity. The subject is linked with the questioning of how to turn to playing the colonial language between English language and Irish language so called Gaelic which has been dominated by the ideology of colonialism. The major focus of this essay is in his redress of poetic language and playing colonial language as well as how he appropriate language in his poetry. In this regard, This essay tries to search for the true linguistic attitude which Heaney has made every effort to materialize in his poetry. In short, Heaney's poetics can help his writings maintain the positionality of the decolonial dicourse and the decolonial literature.