Paul Muldoon

Paul Muldoon was also born in Northern Ireland, twelve years after Heaney was born. Muldoon was very critical of the Catholic Church, but he was also very strongly for Irish nationalism. His poem, “Meeting the British” compares the Northern Irish Catholics with the plight of the American Indians (Greenblatt 2869). Muldoon writes in this poem that the British “gave us six fishhooks / and two blankets embroidered with smallpox” (Muldoon 2870, ll. 17-18). Muldoon is showing how the British brought havoc to Ireland, just like the Europeans brought havoc and illness to the America. Our classmate Annie Prak also shows how this poem uses imagery to represent the feelings of the British people. Annie refers to Muldoon’s image of a “lavender sky” in this poem when she states, “Through Muldoon's words, I recall the way in which the sky turns purpley blue in the winter, and how that color is reflected upon the snow. It is a beautiful thing to behold, and yet it is chilling, for such a color seems to betray a lack of life” (Annie Prak, “Open Letter to Matthew Streit on Paul Muldoon”). Annie’s analysis of Muldoon superbly shows how Muldoon’s use of color can communicate the deep resentment that many Irish feel towards the British by using a “chilling” color that “seems to betray a lack of life.” Muldoon is another present-day writer still bringing up the concerns (of the present and past) of the Irish people.