Paul Muldoon Summary

Paul Muldoon is generally associated with Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, Derek Mahon, and James Simmons. These poets, who emerged in Northern Ireland over a short span of time and achieved, in varyin... Read more

Critical Essay by Hugo Williams [Paul Muldoon] represents a painfully accurate rendezvous for the exacting requirements of traditional skill, youthful experiment and popular demand. But the poems [in... Read more

Critical Essay by Rodney Pybus Paul Muldoon's third collection [Why Brownlee Left] is as humane, ingenious and formally skilful as one would expect after New Weather and Mules, and just a mite... Read more

Critical Essay by John Mole The obscurity in Paul Muldoon's work is … evasive, and often downright teasing. He's a sophisticated high-gloss technician, managing rhyme and stanza ... Read more

Critical Essay by Dillon Johnston In his first book, New Weather (1973), [Paul Muldoon] distinguishes himself, through his use of metaphor, from Seamus Heaney, whose disciple he is often proclaimed. ... Read more

Critical Essay by Colin Falck In his first book New Weather Paul Muldoon seemed to be controlling a native Irish airiness with a certain determination to be modern and realistic, but he also showed a... Read more

Critical Essay by Anne Stevenson [Paul Muldoon has written] elegantly turned out pastorals in Mules. Here, every cowpat is carefully placed just where you have to notice it for authenticity's ... Read more

Critical Essay by Seamus Heaney [The essay from which this excerpt is taken was originally broadcast over Radio Telefis Eireann in 1978.] Paul Muldoon's first book was aptly titled New Weat... Read more

In the following excerpt, Lucas compliments Muldoon's poetic techinques in Meeting the British, calling the collection “the best of his five full volumes of poetry.” Like its p... Read more

In the following review, McNamara lauds the symbiotic relationship between Muldoon's two collections The Annals of Chile and The Prince of the Quotidian. In 1794, the English poets Robert So... Read more

In the following review, McCarthy discusses Muldoon's decision to write a new poem for every day in 1992 and praises the subsequent collection of the works in The Prince of the Quotidian. In... Read more

In the following interview, originally conducted on April 4, 1996, Muldoon comments on his national identity and influences, his approach to writing, and the composition of “The Briefcase, ... Read more

In the following excerpt, Reeve offers a favorable review of The Prince of the Quotidian and The Annals of Chile. Wake Forest University Press and Farrar, Straus and Giroux teamed up to present Pau... Read more

In the following excerpt, Vendler compliments both Selected Poems: 1968-1986 and The Annals of Chile, though she expresses reservations over Muldoon's tendency toward emotional detachment and c... Read more

In the following review, Korn asserts that there is “much to praise” in The Faber Book of Beasts, calling the work a “subtle and provoking collection.” “In poetry... Read more

In the following essay, Wills provides an overview of Muldoon's poetic style, his personal and intellectual perspective, and critical approaches to his work. What makes a poem by Paul Muldoo... Read more

In the following excerpt, Kitchen praises Muldoon's verse in Hay, though finds the collection inferior to his previous volume, The Annals of Chile. It's early morning. I'm sitt... Read more

In the following review, Wheatley lauds To Ireland, I, Bandanna, and Muldoon's translation of Aristophanes's The Birds. Marcel Aymé's novel Le Passemuraille, about a man... Read more

In the following essay, Wheeler presents an overview of Muldoon's poetry, literary career, and personal history, along with Muldoon's own comments on these subjects. Volumes of the co... Read more

In the following review of Poems 1968-1998, Newey contends that Muldoon's “ludic” poetry often lacks “any substantial core” and risks falling into self-parody. I ... Read more

In the following excerpt, Bedient lauds Muldoon's rejection of the traditional motifs of Irish poetry in Meeting the British and Selected Poems: 1968-1986. 1 In the recent work of two Belfas... Read more

In the following interview, originally conducted between April 22 and 23, 1993, Muldoon discusses the creative origins and artistic aims of Shining Brow and Madoc: A Mystery, his incorporation of hist... Read more

In the following review, Roberts offers a positive assessment of The Annals of Chile, noting Muldoon's “sharp observation.” These are poems obsessed with language. The reader s... Read more