Hay (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

From the time his first book of poetry, NEW WEATHER (1973), was published while he was still a student at Queens University, Belfast, Paul Muldoon’s dazzling technical skill, verbal invention and off-beat wit have impressed critics like Michael Hofmann, who wrote that “he began as a prodigy and has gone on to become a virtuoso.” HAY, arguably his finest achievement yet, combines the cultural heritage and command of craft that has been evident in his work from the start, with a deeply personal, very contemporary vision that displays his remarkable erudition and his continuing fascination with the nuances, peculiarities, and myriad idiosyncracies of the English language.

Muldoon is particularly fond of the way in which words and ideas suggest other words and ideas in an associative pattern that extends through a poem, and often through a sequence of poems. The play of his mind—the connections he makes, the links he establishes, the flow of thought—maintains a high energy level in his work which keeps it interesting even when he is using esoteric references and allusions which may be difficult for the reader to fully follow. Yet in spite of his obvious erudition, Muldoon grounds his work in the type of individual experience and immediacy that resonates with a kind of universality beyond its local setting or sometimes obscure literary connections.

While his early life in County Tyrone, Ulster, informs the poems that respond to the three century legacy of political turmoil in Ireland, Muldoon;s marriage to an American woman of Jewish descent and their life in New Jersey are at the center of some very emotionally evocative lyrics, and his delight in song has resulted in a sequence called “Sleeve Notes” where he responds to the musical presence of the major rock singers of an era. Ninety rhyming haiku “Hopewell Haiku” offer sharp images of deft precision, his numerous sonnets show how contemporary and agile that form still is, and a thirty-poem group “The Bangle” combines autobiography, extraordinary linguistic facility, and historical profundity in a kind of collage that resembles nothing else being written today. The combination of intellectual adventure, emotional honesty, and lyric capability is unique, giving Muldoon’s voice its singular appeal and demonstrating that his eighth collection is certainly comparable to the achievement of any other poet writing in the language.

Sources for Further Study

The Guardian. October 17, 1998, p. SAT10.

The New Republic. CCXIX, November 30, 1998, p. 56.

Publishers Weekly. CCXLV, June 29, 1998, p. 52.

The Village Voice. September 8, 1998, p. 133.