In To Ireland, I, the Clarendon Lectures in English 1998, Paul Muldoon produces a firework display of scholarship, wit, and intrigue, in an idiosyncratic wander through the alphabet of Irish literature. From a mischievous beginning in AmerginDSthe first poet of IrelandDSMuldoon forges link after link between the disparate and the unlikely, until modernists and medievalists appear as congenial neighbours on the half-lit, literary streets of Ireland. From Beckett and Bowen, through MacNeice, Swift, and YeatsDSand ever-guided by JoyceDSTo Ireland, I tiptoes through the long grass of Irish writing, pirouetting at borders, diverting streams, into a landscape of pure Muldoon: of brilliant connections and irreverent asides, of improbable byways and unconventional leapsDSbut always a landscape of luminous engagement and genuine revelation. Muldoon's Ireland, shrouded in the feth fiada or magical mist of Gaelic literature, emerges as a strange estate, half-in, half-out of what he calls the fairy realm. A provocative A to Z, with a particular emphasis on the continuity of the tradition, To Ireland, I is an extremely enjoyable jaunt through Irish literature from one of the most important poets of his generation.
Review quote:
Some poets who turn their hand to criticism adopt a sober academic guise, as if to atone for their verbal transgressions. Paul Muldoon is not one of them. (Clair Wills)
Muldoon's kind of word-weaving is a joy to behold ... It is refreshing to read this tricksy collection of four lectures delivered by the current Professor of Poetry at Oxford, Paul Muldoon, because he is way offside, bouncing around with every kind of hunch, suggestion, allusion, illusion, might-have-been, might-be, entertaining some relation or guess, conjuring up whatever association or downright dodgy possibility that is imaginable. (Gerald Dowe, Irish Times, 4/3/00)
A provocative re-reading of the major Irish authors from A to Z, with a particular emphasis on the continuity of the tradition. An extremely enjoyable and idiosyncratic jaunt through Irish literature, from one of the most important poets of his generation.
Review quote:
Some poets who turn their hand to criticism adopt a sober academic guise, as if to atone for their verbal transgressions. Paul Muldoon is not one of them. (Clair Wills)
Muldoon's kind of word-weaving is a joy to behold ... It is refreshing to read this tricksy collection of four lectures delivered by the current Professor of Poetry at Oxford, Paul Muldoon, because he is way offside, bouncing around with every kind of hunch, suggestion, allusion, illusion, might-have-been, might-be, entertaining some relation or guess, conjuring up whatever association or downright dodgy possibility that is imaginable. (Gerald Dowe, Irish Times, 4/3/00)
A provocative re-reading of the major Irish authors from A to Z, with a particular emphasis on the continuity of the tradition. An extremely enjoyable and idiosyncratic jaunt through Irish literature, from one of the most important poets of his generation.