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Photo courtesy of the UA Poetry Center
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Irish poet Paul Muldoon mixes old-world language with contemporary lyricism. Muldoon reads tonight at 8 p.m. in the Modern Languages Auditorium.
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By Lauren Eichenauer
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday Jan. 30, 2002
Paul Muldoon is an Irishman through and through, all the way down to his syllables.
According to some, the bard has transformed modern poetry. He has gained widespread popularity and respect for his uncanny ability to stir words into poetic bites of Lucky Charms.
Influenced and instructed by famed Irish poet Seamus Heaney, Muldoon employs the techniques of dialect and humor to convey his truths. The poet chooses funny Irish expressions to weave stories of the old country, blending old-fashioned wordage with new-fangled ideas.
Tonight, Muldoon will read at the University of Arizona.
Alison Deming, director of the UA Poetry Center, said Muldoon's deployment of exciting contemporary style and firm Irish background sets his work above the rest.
"Muldoon has revitalized formal conventions in poetry, in particular the tradition of rhyming," Deming said in an e-mail interview. "He uses such fresh and surprising language. Muldoon comes from the rich bardic culture of Ireland, so his work carries with it some of the magic of that deep engagement with poetic form. The breadth, intelligence and wit of his work give him a wide following."
Muldoon's early poem "Loaf" is an example of his authentic Irish style:
When I put my finger to the hole they've cut for a dimmer switch
in a wall of plaster stiffened with horsehair
it seems I've scratched a two-hundred year old itch
with a pink and a poink and a pinkie-pick
When I put my ear to the hole I'm suddenly aware
of spades and shovels turning up the gain
all the way from Raritan to the Delaware
with a stink and a stink and a stinky-stick
Frances Shoberg, events coordinator for the UA Poetry Center, arranged Muldoon's performance tonight and has observed Muldoon's ability to engage and entice poetry lovers of all kinds.
"Muldoon is like a circus ringleader, and his poems are all three rings in one. As you're swept up by his whimsy and pleasure, he might undermine it all with a tragic image," Shoberg said in an e-mail interview. "But I'm attempting here to describe poems that by design defy description - you've just got to hear him."
Muldoon's talent and reverence have led him to discover his pot of gold as a poetry professor at Princeton University and also as an Honorary Professor of Poetry at Oxford, where he gives three lectures a year. He has won numerous awards, including The Irish Times 1997 Irish Literature Prize for Poetry.
Audience members can experience Muldoon's words live and free of charge at the Modern Languages Auditorium at 8 tonight.
The poet will also participate in an informal, free colloquium tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m. in Room 205 of the "Swede" Johnson Building.
