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.