Why Brownlee Left is Paul Muldoon's third book, and like its predecessors is written in a style which aspires to the condition of clear glass. There are no outbursts of recherché language, and no strong rhetorical gestures. Just plain phrases and conversational cadences. The result is to make his poetry look simple—child-like, even, at times. Children themselves make a significantly large number of appearances in his work, but even when not actually present, their wide-eyed straightforwardness is recreated. In 'October 1950', for instance:

         Whatever it is, it all comes down to this:
         My father's cock
         Between my mother's thighs.
         Might he have forgotten to wind the clock?

For all its lack of ornament—Shandyan reference notwithstanding—this child-begetting poem suggests that Muldoon's simplicity isn't quite what it seems. Typically, we look straight through his unclouded language, and are made to concentrate on oddities and difficulties in the...