On Muldoon
I would have to agree with the Irish poet who quoted in the article Reading Paul Muldoon, that Muldoon’s technique is very much like “walking on air.” The forms he takes, sestinas, sonnets, etc, are highly mastered. His line breaks and rhymes are well thought and never teeter on trite or cliché, instead lines that may be capable of these qualities read sarcastically or ironically. He throws in so many Irish place names, names of people, from those in his personal life to Greek Gods, that unwinding one of his poems takes thorough research and contemplation. I often found myself looking up words which had many definitions. I found myself struggling with which definition to fit into the poem, and often found that perhaps multiple ones could work. I found myself skeptical of my readings, feeling I had not gotten the entire picture of what Muldoon was after, even in his shorter pieces that require less investigation. Poems such as “At the Sign of the Black Horse, September 1999” could take years to master, or perhaps the entirety of their meaning is impossible to possess by anyone other than Muldoon himself. In a few readings of this poem all I could accomplish was the fact that it carried themes of destruction, due to a hurricane, stability and instability in both actual structures and people, memories of places, individuals, and objects. It contained found language of street signs and postings found in buildings, and it often found itself describing the poet’s son Asher, how he looked and the movements he was making.
Monday, March 30, 2009
What I Found Most Interesting
in Moy, Sand and Gravel was Paul Muldoon's playfulness with form, of which Joel makes brief mention in his post. I'm particularly interested in form because I am so incapable of experimenting with it myself, so after reading this collection I spent a significant amount of time trying to understand why he writes into a form so often and so well.
On one level, a lot of the consistencies of the book, such as rhyme and coupletting and the occasional alliteration seem to be working internally, within the confines of what it means to actually produce manuscript that is entertaining and lively and fun to read. Muldoon has a fantastic awareness of the sonic value of words and language, one that I think is often overlooked by a lot of poets because it calls for a sacrifice of emotion or meaning. For instance, on page 13, "The Braggart" (I don't know for sure if we were even supposed to read this particular one), he writes,
He sucked, he'll have you know,
the telltale sixth toe
of a woman who looked like a young Marilyn Monroe,
her hubby getting a little stroppy
when he found them there in the back of that old jalopy.
Other papers please copy.
The satirical content of this piece cannot be overlooked and it is so easily incorporated into this AAA rhyme scheme that I kept wondering if maybe it was a song or something extremely pop culture. He loves this juxtaposition of serious and funny, the formal and the informal. I wonder if his use of form and rhyme is intentional so that readers who are not typically moved by poems about Marilyn Monroe (or the like) will become more instantly engaged with the piece and want to know more.
Looking at the book as a manuscript/a group of pages all linked together into a book (as I suspect we were supposed to do also), I was pretty fascinated by his choice of font and titling, as well as his cover art. Muldoon's poetry (I've only read one other of his books) has always resembled something beautiful but grey and elusive. It's a rabbit-like sort of catch-me-if-you-can style of writing and I love to see myself trying to grab at it and fail. Even though he has fantastic and obviously complicated language and word choice (Kate and Shannon's entries both involve definining words that are basically unknown to 90% to the rest of universe) he always manages to create sort of uncomplicated images...he's got mad talent.
On one level, a lot of the consistencies of the book, such as rhyme and coupletting and the occasional alliteration seem to be working internally, within the confines of what it means to actually produce manuscript that is entertaining and lively and fun to read. Muldoon has a fantastic awareness of the sonic value of words and language, one that I think is often overlooked by a lot of poets because it calls for a sacrifice of emotion or meaning. For instance, on page 13, "The Braggart" (I don't know for sure if we were even supposed to read this particular one), he writes,
He sucked, he'll have you know,
the telltale sixth toe
of a woman who looked like a young Marilyn Monroe,
her hubby getting a little stroppy
when he found them there in the back of that old jalopy.
Other papers please copy.
The satirical content of this piece cannot be overlooked and it is so easily incorporated into this AAA rhyme scheme that I kept wondering if maybe it was a song or something extremely pop culture. He loves this juxtaposition of serious and funny, the formal and the informal. I wonder if his use of form and rhyme is intentional so that readers who are not typically moved by poems about Marilyn Monroe (or the like) will become more instantly engaged with the piece and want to know more.
Looking at the book as a manuscript/a group of pages all linked together into a book (as I suspect we were supposed to do also), I was pretty fascinated by his choice of font and titling, as well as his cover art. Muldoon's poetry (I've only read one other of his books) has always resembled something beautiful but grey and elusive. It's a rabbit-like sort of catch-me-if-you-can style of writing and I love to see myself trying to grab at it and fail. Even though he has fantastic and obviously complicated language and word choice (Kate and Shannon's entries both involve definining words that are basically unknown to 90% to the rest of universe) he always manages to create sort of uncomplicated images...he's got mad talent.
Muldoon's Homesickness
As I read Moy Sand and Gravel, the first Muldoon book I've read, one of the things I found myself most curious about was the idea of the person fitting into a whole. This is seen throughout the book, as the speaker regularly draws on wife & child to invoke a poem. Further though, Muldoon himself raises an interesting scenario in which he is both an Irish poet and an American poet. The landscapes of the book run from Muldoon's youth in Moy to the speaker's driveway in New Jersey. How does Muldoon find a balance between these two different experiences? The effort to maintain the two worlds is apparent in his poem Homesickness (p. 71), where he uses extended metaphors (see p. 70, p. 53 for further examples from this book) as an important device in the poem. Perhaps more noteworthy, and that which first drew my attention, is the use of 2-line, italicised, refrain-like stanzas following each body stanza. The precise nature of these refrains lead me to suspect they were part of some established tradition - an Irish folk song, most likely. In researching these lines, I found that they seem nothing more than the invention of Muldoon. They, do however, have a very important significance to bridge Muldoon in America to the Irish Muldoon. The refrain is a nod to the lord of Irish poets, W B Yeats - and one that Muldoon uses often in his poetry. A very interesting essay on this device's use by Muldoon, which includes selections of exclusive Muldoon interview, can be found here:
http://heldref-publications.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,13,14;journal,11,21;linkingpublicationresults,1:119956,1
It seems the most important thing for students to notice in reading Muldoon is his intense attention to craft. Homesickness features a end-rhyme scheme of "abcdacbd," meticulously structured. Muldoon has surpassed mere linguistic talent though, as his poetry, for all its structure and form, is able to find meaning that is often lost in the use of form by lesser-skilled writers.
http://heldref-publications.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,13,14;journal,11,21;linkingpublicationresults,1:119956,1
It seems the most important thing for students to notice in reading Muldoon is his intense attention to craft. Homesickness features a end-rhyme scheme of "abcdacbd," meticulously structured. Muldoon has surpassed mere linguistic talent though, as his poetry, for all its structure and form, is able to find meaning that is often lost in the use of form by lesser-skilled writers.
Close Reading of Muldoon pp. 16-17
Kate Litterer here. First, so sorry that this is so long. I’m going to imitate
Collegeland is a small village in
Catechisms are doctrinal manuals often in the form of questions followed by answers to be memorized, a format that has been used in non-religious or secular contexts as well.
“
“
Bounty refers to a ship that was purchased by the Royal Navy for a single mission in support of an experiment: she was to travel to Tahiti, pick up breadfruit plants, and transport them to the
Jean Francois Gravelet (aka The Great Blondin) was the person “who cooked and ate an omelette / midway across the Niagara Falls
Setanta was a mythic character who was born of God and woman (human). He killed a vicious hound to save the fort of Culain and thenafter was known as Cuchulain and had to guard the fort.
Diogenes was a celebrated Greek cynic philosopher who is said to have lived in a tub, wearing the coarsest clothing and living on the plainest food. Many of his sayings have been preserved, and serve for occasional quotation.
Maid of the Mist is a tour boat at Niagara Falls
Paul Muldoon’s “A Collegelands Catechism” asks its reader to do some research right away. The title suggests that the poem will use a serious form (doctrinal manual) and will investigate the Irish county in which Muldoon grew up. The idea that Muldoon himself is writing a catechism allows me to read the poem as if he may provide specific memories in place of widely known facts or concepts…he does this, kind of.
The poem opens with the catechism form: “Which is known as the ‘
Muldoon concludes the first stanza with another question about the “captain of the Bounty,” asking the reader again to do research outside of the poem in order to find the answer; I did the research and I believe the answer to his question is William Blighe, the captain of the Bounty. While the first stanza’s first two lines work well together, this third question works almost like a trivia question, again turning the reader from one scene to another and leaving the reader to ponder the power of the places (Ireland, America, the ocean/Tihiti/Fugi).
The second stanza opens with another water scene and another question: “Who cooked and ate an omlette / midway across
Mythology continues (sort of) as Muldoon asks the reader to identify a Greek philosopher based on his random act of hanging out in a tub, which to be sounds completely random. From here, Muldoon again mixed reality with fiction and mythology…the philosopher “might overhear, / as he went to rub / an apple on his sleeve, the mutineers / plotting to seize the Maid of the Mist” (14-17). Muldoon has laid out his preliminary questions, with separate scenes and themes, and now he is using that information to construct his poem’s mega-question From here, the scene is again Niagara Falls (“crossing the Niagara gorge”), the philosopher’s tub is now “the tub in which he might light a stove / and fold the beaten / eggs into themselves” (20-23).
Whoa! Now I see how my research is paying off…I never could have gotten to the ridiculous place that I am now in the poem if I hadn’t known the details of the images and places that are being melded together. Muldoon continues to ask some questions for which I could find no trivia-like answers: “Who unearthed the egg-trove? / And who, having eaten / the omelette, would marvel at how the Mounties / had so quickly closed in on him, late / of the ‘
Ahh…so the poem completes its circle now and places the reader back between
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Muldoon
I’ve chosen to take a closer look at Tell on page 19. First, I’m going to define any words I didn’t quite get:
Scullery- a small room or section of a pantry in which food is cleaned, trimmed, and cut into cooking portions before being sent to the kitchen.
Comanche- a member of a Shoshonean tribe, the only tribe of the group living entirely on the Plains, formerly ranging from Wyoming to Texas, now in Oklahoma.
Muster- to assemble (troops, a ship's crew, etc.), as for battle, display, inspection, orders, or discharge.
Score- a notch, scratch, or incision; a stroke or line.
Pare- to cut off the outer coating, layer, or part of.
Tilley- seeds of a small tree.
Keeping in mind that Muldoon experienced a lot of political unjust in Ireland, I see a lot of parallels to this throughout his collection. I feel that he blends aesthetic imagery that is simplistic and seems innocent with the violence destroying the beauty, particularly in fruits. This poem in particular introduces nature with a delicate harshness as a metaphor for a family in the Comanche tribe. The poem hints at war-like behavior. The first stanza introduces a temporary rhyme scheme of ABAB, CDCD…etc. The tone is set with the idea of wind being ‘raw,’ illuminating hints of anxiety, turmoil. The use of the word ‘scullery’ also sets the tone for physical violence: the pantry where food is cut and trimmed. This poem also sets up like an epic-highlighting one character in almost a heroic-like anxiety. The second stanza provides the reader with concrete information about the character, as possibly a Comanche Indian, suggesting his name was ‘Crow.’ Again, the violence is portrayed with scalps hanging in the tepees, in association with the word ‘muster,’ suggests to discharge orders or an on-coming battle. This idea of war in the Alps focuses on the physical continuity, while the metaphoric idea of fruit represents the violence, creating an aesthetically pleasing poem. In stanza 3, the epic seems to tell the story about a supposed male (here is free verse, the rhyme is violated), and the association between peeling apples and peeling the scalps of men in battle parallel each other in metaphor. ‘Score’ and ‘pare’ suggest more violence but associated with fruit: the cutting of something. Again, the poem suggests battle or ‘bloodshed,’ paralleling it to apple coring and being an apple peeler. The tension of the poem builds as an idea of surrender, when ‘the red-cheeked men put down their knives,’ while the idea of a ‘father connives’ as if there is a mutiny in the tribe. Does this suggest killing one’s own tribe or member? Is this backstabbing? Showing the true violence of war and battle is one-sided? Does the apple at the end suggest he missed? Does the apple represent a head? So many questions, but I’m wondering if the title Tell suggests something along the lines of knowing like in poker, someone has a tell, or does this talk about the oral telling of a story or narrative/epic poem? Just some thoughts. Overall, this was my favorite poem of the collection. I enjoyed Muldoon’s use of fruit in an age of political instability and turmoil.
Scullery- a small room or section of a pantry in which food is cleaned, trimmed, and cut into cooking portions before being sent to the kitchen.
Comanche- a member of a Shoshonean tribe, the only tribe of the group living entirely on the Plains, formerly ranging from Wyoming to Texas, now in Oklahoma.
Muster- to assemble (troops, a ship's crew, etc.), as for battle, display, inspection, orders, or discharge.
Score- a notch, scratch, or incision; a stroke or line.
Pare- to cut off the outer coating, layer, or part of.
Tilley- seeds of a small tree.
Keeping in mind that Muldoon experienced a lot of political unjust in Ireland, I see a lot of parallels to this throughout his collection. I feel that he blends aesthetic imagery that is simplistic and seems innocent with the violence destroying the beauty, particularly in fruits. This poem in particular introduces nature with a delicate harshness as a metaphor for a family in the Comanche tribe. The poem hints at war-like behavior. The first stanza introduces a temporary rhyme scheme of ABAB, CDCD…etc. The tone is set with the idea of wind being ‘raw,’ illuminating hints of anxiety, turmoil. The use of the word ‘scullery’ also sets the tone for physical violence: the pantry where food is cut and trimmed. This poem also sets up like an epic-highlighting one character in almost a heroic-like anxiety. The second stanza provides the reader with concrete information about the character, as possibly a Comanche Indian, suggesting his name was ‘Crow.’ Again, the violence is portrayed with scalps hanging in the tepees, in association with the word ‘muster,’ suggests to discharge orders or an on-coming battle. This idea of war in the Alps focuses on the physical continuity, while the metaphoric idea of fruit represents the violence, creating an aesthetically pleasing poem. In stanza 3, the epic seems to tell the story about a supposed male (here is free verse, the rhyme is violated), and the association between peeling apples and peeling the scalps of men in battle parallel each other in metaphor. ‘Score’ and ‘pare’ suggest more violence but associated with fruit: the cutting of something. Again, the poem suggests battle or ‘bloodshed,’ paralleling it to apple coring and being an apple peeler. The tension of the poem builds as an idea of surrender, when ‘the red-cheeked men put down their knives,’ while the idea of a ‘father connives’ as if there is a mutiny in the tribe. Does this suggest killing one’s own tribe or member? Is this backstabbing? Showing the true violence of war and battle is one-sided? Does the apple at the end suggest he missed? Does the apple represent a head? So many questions, but I’m wondering if the title Tell suggests something along the lines of knowing like in poker, someone has a tell, or does this talk about the oral telling of a story or narrative/epic poem? Just some thoughts. Overall, this was my favorite poem of the collection. I enjoyed Muldoon’s use of fruit in an age of political instability and turmoil.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Obadike & Bohince
Obadike’s collection uses simple language. Her poems most often consist of short lines. Yet, these factors do not make her poetry elementary at all. It is still intensely packed with emotion. She gets down to the raw simplicity of the heart, mind, and body. The poems are packed with feelings of uncertainty dealing with love, and self-identification. In several poems, the speaker does not want the person they are with to look at them though they still seem to want that person present.
“I just like how your hands / Hold on to me so tight. / Don’t watch me when we dance” (26).
The speaker wants the other there, not because they love them, but because they don’t seem to want to be alone with only themselves, who they seem afraid of or ashamed of at times.
The poems often show the simple thoughts going through the heads of the young. A girl that wants to ride with boys just because of their older age and their nice stereo, thoughts about puberty, the body, sex, etc. These poems often use slang, for instance, dope, dibs, jinx, you owe me a coke, etc, to show the immaturity and imagination of youth.
Bohince’s collection seems like a journey through different times and landscapes of her, or the speaker’s life, mixing childhood occurrences with feelings she has as an adult, with lovely and sometimes violent descriptions of her father’s farmhouse and property. Sometimes these times are specific, like a time she was swimming or a time her father was sleeping, other times the poems describe something more generic, like the feelings of the first day of hunting season which happens year after year.
Bohince’s poems are rich with adjectives. These adjectives don’t seem overdone, but necessary to the books flowing pace. The adjectives she uses are also often unusual and fresh, such as “kit foxes,” “gauzy ruin,” and “self-same branches” (6).
Bohince seems like she may use the act of hunting, killing deer, to compare to her father’s murder. She talks about some people seeing death for mere profit, and how they don’t think about the act of killing the deer but think of the profit of its parts; skull, ribs, spine, meat, etc… There are extremely beautiful images of nature throughout this collection. Bohince seems to notice the tiniest animals and plants around her and captures them into her words as if to not let them be forgotten to the world. Often though, she takes her skill at naturalistic images and turns them violent, showing that both nature and man have violent tendencies.
“I just like how your hands / Hold on to me so tight. / Don’t watch me when we dance” (26).
The speaker wants the other there, not because they love them, but because they don’t seem to want to be alone with only themselves, who they seem afraid of or ashamed of at times.
The poems often show the simple thoughts going through the heads of the young. A girl that wants to ride with boys just because of their older age and their nice stereo, thoughts about puberty, the body, sex, etc. These poems often use slang, for instance, dope, dibs, jinx, you owe me a coke, etc, to show the immaturity and imagination of youth.
Bohince’s collection seems like a journey through different times and landscapes of her, or the speaker’s life, mixing childhood occurrences with feelings she has as an adult, with lovely and sometimes violent descriptions of her father’s farmhouse and property. Sometimes these times are specific, like a time she was swimming or a time her father was sleeping, other times the poems describe something more generic, like the feelings of the first day of hunting season which happens year after year.
Bohince’s poems are rich with adjectives. These adjectives don’t seem overdone, but necessary to the books flowing pace. The adjectives she uses are also often unusual and fresh, such as “kit foxes,” “gauzy ruin,” and “self-same branches” (6).
Bohince seems like she may use the act of hunting, killing deer, to compare to her father’s murder. She talks about some people seeing death for mere profit, and how they don’t think about the act of killing the deer but think of the profit of its parts; skull, ribs, spine, meat, etc… There are extremely beautiful images of nature throughout this collection. Bohince seems to notice the tiniest animals and plants around her and captures them into her words as if to not let them be forgotten to the world. Often though, she takes her skill at naturalistic images and turns them violent, showing that both nature and man have violent tendencies.
Obadike/Bohince
In thinking about the way these two collections unfold as entire books, I found each to have its merits.
Obadike was the more useful of the two to me. (Perhaps it is just because I enjoyed her writing more than Bohince's, but that's neither here nor there.) I liked that the book started out at one time in the author's life and then went off into unconnected territories. This book made me think about collections of poems in terms of constellations. I admire the way that Obadike used the book in a non-linear fashion, but at the same time achieved some sense of what we might call narrative. By starting at one place in time and then moving backward or into the metaphysical and then returning to the original place with a renewed sense of authority or uncertainty was an original approach to the lyric tradition.
It is for this reason that I enjoyed Obadike more than I enjoyed Bohince. Bohince's work all stemmed from a place of authority that did not seem earned. Perhaps the author deserves the kind of weight she was trying to impart onto the collection, but if it does not come from within the book itself, the reader is wary of such authority. The process mentioned above, of beginning, leaving and returning, employed by Obadike gave her final poems the kind of authority that Bohince's flatly try to assert.
Obadike was the more useful of the two to me. (Perhaps it is just because I enjoyed her writing more than Bohince's, but that's neither here nor there.) I liked that the book started out at one time in the author's life and then went off into unconnected territories. This book made me think about collections of poems in terms of constellations. I admire the way that Obadike used the book in a non-linear fashion, but at the same time achieved some sense of what we might call narrative. By starting at one place in time and then moving backward or into the metaphysical and then returning to the original place with a renewed sense of authority or uncertainty was an original approach to the lyric tradition.
It is for this reason that I enjoyed Obadike more than I enjoyed Bohince. Bohince's work all stemmed from a place of authority that did not seem earned. Perhaps the author deserves the kind of weight she was trying to impart onto the collection, but if it does not come from within the book itself, the reader is wary of such authority. The process mentioned above, of beginning, leaving and returning, employed by Obadike gave her final poems the kind of authority that Bohince's flatly try to assert.
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