What Is Poetry?

Hey folks,

At long last I am posting my final paper for ENGL 210.  It has been a wild ride.

What Is Poetry?

Such a historic and diverse art as poetry often shuns definition.  With so many subjects addressed and styles used over time, it is imprudent to attempt to constrain the meaning of poetry with broad and overarching rules of what it must be.  As illustrated by the numerous poetic revolutions over time, poetry is an art that continually changes.  To answer the question “What is poetry?” is to both decide what qualities a work must have to be considered a poem, and what the purpose of poetry is.  I recognize something as a poem when it has a style that is deliberately visually different than a prose piece.  The parts of a poem that are most important to me are how it is unique to the poet and how it is meant to influence the reader.  Poetry is an artistic rhythmic organization of language designed to express the poet’s emotion and influence the reader.  I classify a work as poetry by its form and style.

For me to acknowledge a work as poetry, the language must be organized in a form distinct from a prose piece.  Writing in a form distinct from prose indicates the author’s intent for the work to be viewed as something other than a typical essay.  Along with being spaced in an organized form, language in poetry must make use of rhythm and other artistic devices such as metaphor or metonymy.  While obvious use of rhythm and imagery in essays may be distracting from the purpose of the paper, rhythm and artistic language are the foundation of poetry influence on the reader.  The form and style of a poem are the tools that enable unique expression and emotion.  Combining an organized form with artistic rhythmic language is what I see as the criteria for a poem.  Until recently, poems have been  rather easy to visually distinguish from prose pieces.  Some postmodern begins to make visual identification more difficult, but I am not as concerned with the labeling a poem as I am analyzing it’s content. In her introduction to The Best American Poetry 2004, Lyn Hejinian hesitates to attempt to define requirements for poetry, “What is, or isn't, a poem? What makes something poetic? These questions remain open. And the fact that there are no final answers is one source of the vitality of the art form (The Best American Poetry 9).”  While I agree that the criteria for what exactly makes a poem can be subject to change, I don’t think this ambiguity is what is a source of vitality for the art form.  The main source of vitality for poetry is the way it allows poets to express themselves.  I consider personal expression one of the key purposes of poetry.

Poetry is an expression of the poet’s inner emotions and feelings.  It is a tool for translating a passion to the world.

In his introduction to The Best American Poetry 2003, Yusef Komunyakaa argues for the importance of expression in poetry.  He cites a quote from Miles Davis to reflect on expression and originality, “I believe it was Miles Davis who said ‘The reason I stopped playing ballads is because I love them so much.’” Davis developed an original way of playing Jazz ballads, and when he felt he had become too complacent in his playing, he stopped until he felt he could be more original.  Komunyakaa goes on to warn against stifling originality, “Indeed, maybe that’s the problem with some of the exploratory poets, where the text of a poem may seem muddled through over-experimentation (Komunyakaa 17).”  Komunyakaa is cautious of the experimentations with form and style that remove the creativity of the poet from the process.  Once a work has been labeled a poem, and is given an honest contribution from the poet, it is the function of the poem that matters.

An example of poetry by a postmodern poet that still meets my definition of poetry is the work in Disclamor by G. C. Waldrep.  Waldrep strays from traditional notions of form and style, and yet uses the poetry to express himself rather than simply exploring form.  Many of the poems have odd spacing of words all over the page, and most use enjambment.  What is important about Waldrep’s poetry is that he still seems to use form to aid his expression in the poem – they aren’t merely experiments with form.  “Battery Mendell” has the line “I squat, and with the muscles of my calves 
               suspend my rhythm 
                                             --the dirge, the waltz--
                              over these sea-cliffs,” and is ultimately aided by the formatting (Waldrep, 30).  The form is used in tandem with the language to express Waldrep’s unease with the haven for children that the old war stations have become.  Waldrep’s poetry purposeful expresses his thoughts and emotions to the reader.

Poetry must have a purpose that connects with the reader.  If the poem is merely an experiment that isn’t meant to connect with the reader on an emotional level, then the poem is ineffectual.  The poetry anthology Against Forgetting is an excellent collection of poems that have obvious intents and purposes.  These poems all bear witness to tragic events.  The poets exemplify how poetry is an artistic tool for expressing their emotions to others.  While Against Forgetting is a very clear case of poetry acting with a purpose, all poetry should serve as witness in some way.  It is impossible to read a line such as “O you chimneys / O you fingers / And Israel’s body as smoke through the air!” from O the Chimneys and not be aware of the poem’s lament over the Holocaust (Forché 361).  The poet doesn’t even need to directly condemn the atrocity; the poem’s expression of emotion works to stand against the Holocaust.  Poetry must relate to the reader and influence them in some way.

Poetry is a fluidly changing medium of art.  As a tool with many designs, poetry advances individual expression.  I have lenient criteria for what makes up a poem, but what is truly important is the content and message of the work.  The style and form of a poem allows the poem to be a more efficient tool.  Techniques of rhythm and artistic language help convey the poet’s emotion to the reader.  Poetry is an artistic rhythmic organization of language designed to express the poet’s emotion and influence the reader.

Works Cited

Forché, Carolyn. Against Forgetting: Twentieth-century Poetry of Witness. New York:

W.W. Norton, 1993. Print.

Hejinian, Lyn. Introduction. Lyn Hejinian and David Lehman, eds. The Best American

Poetry 2004. Scribner, 2004. 9-14. Print.

Komunyakaa, Yusef. Introduction. Yusef Komunyakaa and David Lehman, eds. The Best

American Poetry 2003. New York: Scribner, 2003. 11-21. Print.

Waldrep, George Calvin. Disclamor: Poems. Rochester, NY: BOA Editions, 2007. Print.

Paul Muldoon’s Mules: Clearing Confusion in Confusing Ways

Here is my final paper on the Northern Irish poet Paul Muldoon's second collection, Mules.

Paul Muldoon’s Mules: Clearing Confusion in Confusing Ways

            When reading through Northern Irish poet Paul Muldoon’s second major poetry collection, Mules (1977), it is best to either have an encyclopedia in hand, or be Paul Muldoon yourself.  If the latter is not an option, then a bit of research and patience will suffice.  After deciphering Muldoon’s poetry, the reader is left to reflect on topics.  In Mules, Muldoon expands on topics such as politics, his native country of Northern Ireland, and religion that weren’t as prevalent in his first collection New Weather.  The poems in Mules aren’t grouped with an obvious order, but they are consistent in size and style.  The first, title, and last poems are perfect representations of Muldoon’s dealings with political, national, and spiritual questions, and his adept use of allusion respectively. Paul Muldoon’s second collection of poetry, Mules, is difficult to decipher, but ultimately provides a refreshing view of situations of political, religious, Irish cultural, and other types of turmoil.

            Mules’ first poem “Lunch with Pancho Villa” is written in a colloquial style typical of Muldoon, makes numerous allusions to religion and politics, and introduces a tension between politics and art that is present throughout the book.  Pancho Villa was a Mexican Revolutionary general who helped a Venustiano Carranza become President of Mexico, but later overthrew Carranza to put a different man in power.  Including Villa in the title is an example of how Muldoon uses historical references to add depth to his poetry.  Villa was himself a player of dual roles, first bringing power to a man, and then later removing that same man from power.  “Lunch with Pancho Villa” is written from two perspectives that change without notice to the reader.  The basic idea is that a young poet is visiting an older writer whom the younger one admires.  The older poet tells the younger one to stop writing about trivial matters such as “stars and horses, pigs and trees.” By opening his book with “Pancho Villa,” Muldoon immediately addresses questions all Irish poets had to face at the time he was writing Mules.  Northern Ireland was in the midst of a sort of civil war between British-supported Protestants and Irish Catholics informally called The Troubles, that was causing sharp divisions among the Northern Irish population.  The poem is full of allusions, a characteristic of Muldoon’s work that is apparent throughout the collection.  By illustrating the multiple sides of the political problems in Ireland, and giving the narrator multiple personas, Muldoon in “Lunch with Pancho Villa” is introducing the collection’s common theme of multiple meanings in single objects.

The collection’s title poem, “Mules,” is a good example of Muldoon exploring the combination of different concepts within one entity.  “Mules” is an extended metaphor that Muldoon uses to explore his fascination with multiple concepts and meanings in one creation.  In the case of this poem, Muldoon explores the combination of the earthly and the divine as represented by the conception of a mule: offspring of a horse and a donkey.  Because this poem has fewer allusions than usual, it makes it easier to grasp the purpose.  The simple biblical references to a star and a cross in the first stanza, “Her feet of clay gave the lie/ To the star burned in our mare’s brow/ Would Parsons’ jackass not rest more assured/ That cross wrenched from his shoulders?” introduce the religious duality in the poem.  By using a pair of barnyard animals, Muldoon suggests the infinite ways religion is combined with other subjects in the world.  The way Muldoon takes the reader from a simple question, “Should they not have the best of both worlds?”, through the conception and birth of a mule, while all the time really questioning how the earthly and the divine are combined in an everyday animal, is typical of Muldoon’s work.  Muldoon poses the question so that the reader is prompted to reflect on how the mule contains both world – the earthly and the divine.  Arriving at a deep question after working through what can seem like trivial details or informal style is Muldoon’s ultimate technique in the collection Mules.  Muldoon’s style itself reinforces the theme of multiple meanings in unexpected places; Muldoon’s writing can see plainly written, but he jams as much meaning into his poems as possible.

Unlike “Mules,” the collection’s seven-part final poem, “Armageddon, Armageddon,” is full of allusion, and yet it still brings the reader to a state of reflection. Almost as if he wants to remind the reader of how crafty he can be, Muldoon fills the final poem in Mules with allusion upon allusion, and does little to clue the reader into the subject matter of the poem.  In an interview at Washington University in St. Louis, Muldoon described “Armageddon, Armageddon” as a “nightmarish journey” set in Northern Ireland and a play of words on his home county, Armagh (“Paul Muldoon and the Multiverse” 2).  The poem draws the reader through a mass of allusions including those to British poets, Irish mythology, and Northern Irish politics and events, but as is the case with the other poems in Mules, ends up asking important questions.  As pointed out by Jonathan Hufstader in Tongue of Water, Teeth of Stones: Northern Irish Poetry and Social Violence, Muldoon “conjoins the cosmic and local” (143).  Muldoon references many constellations that relate back to Irish mythology (Hufstader, 1999).  A key strength of Muldoon is that he takes readerz to very esoteric places, but ultimately brings them back to a relevant question if the reader is willing to work along the way.  Muldoon does just this in the third part of “Armageddon, Armageddon.” Muldoon moves through a peaceful depiction of carefree Northern Ireland, “Follow the course of a pair of whippets,” to addressing the Orange political party, “And where the first Orange Lodge was founded.”  After highlighting the multiple facets that make up Northern Ireland, Muldoon points to what really matters in the combination of these parts, “We could always go closer if you wanted, … Then the scene of the Armagh Rail Disaster.  Why not brave the Planetarium.”  The Armagh Rail Disaster and Planetarium are both reminders of Ireland’s struggles and accomplishments.  The Rail Disaster was a freak accident where a railcar split from a train and crashed down the hill it was ascending.  The Armagh Planetarium was a technologically advanced result of many years of Irish struggling for funding and support.  By including reference to the Rail Disaster and Planetarium, Muldoon reminds the reader of what Ireland has been through, and what it can accomplish.  Muldoon acknowledges the political problems that divide Ireland, but ultimately stresses that Ireland is more than political struggles, and that the people of the country and the country’s accomplishments are more important than the political squabbles.

            In the end, Muldoon’s poetry is most satisfying after the reader has made the effort to understand the allusions and given the poems time to sink in.  As illustrated by Christina Mahony in Contemporary Irish Literature: Transforming Tradition, not all critics are favorable toward Muldoon’s constant allusions.  Hunt refers to some of the references to Irish mythology as “unproductive pairings” (Mahony 95).  Critics are right to ask whether Muldoon’s eclectic references are ultimately worth it, but in the end, his use of allusion is essential to the theme of Mules.  Muldoon is constantly looking at how different parts add up to make a whole piece, and he himself illustrates that idea in composing his poems by including numerous diverse allusions.  Muldoon takes the reader on an academic adventure in almost every one of his poems in Mules, but he never does so without good reason.  If the reader is willing to follow, Muldoon leads to a refreshing reflective state that encompasses all the stray components that make up a topic.

            Although its constant reference to outside sources can be daunting and even off putting at times, Paul Muldoon’s second collection of poetry, Mules, is an ultimately rewarding work.  As best illustrated in “Armageddon, Armageddon,” it is the path to a final revealing point of information that refreshes the reader’s view of poetry.  “Armageddon, Armageddon” is laden with obscure allusion, but eventually Muldoon reminds the reader of the merit of reflecting on topics that encourage unity and growth.  Muldoon’s poems help to readjust the reader’s view of politics, Northern Ireland, and religion, among other topics, by revealing the multitude of sides that make up a problem. Through his signature playful style and expansive encyclopedic knowledge, Muldoon’s Mules sheds light on topics that benefit from a fresh reflection.

Works Cited

Paul Muldoon and the Multiverse. Arch Literary Journal (2008). Web.

            13 Feb. 2011.

Hufstader, Jonathan. Tongue of Water, Teeth of Stones: Northern Irish Poetry and Social

Violence. Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1999. Google Book Search. 

Web. 18 Feb. 2011.

Mahony, Christina Hunt. Contemporary Irish Literature: Transforming Tradition. New

York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. Google Book Search.  Web. 24 Feb 2011.

Paul Muldoon and Mules: A Brief Biography in Context

Paul Muldoon and Mules: A Brief Biography in Context

            Paul Muldoon was born in County Armagh in Northern Ireland in 1951.  His mother was a schoolteacher, and his father held various farming jobs.  His family wasn’t particularly well off, but were able to provide for Muldoon to have elocution lessons, and buy a piano for him and his siblings.  He wrote poetry from an early age, and was initially only influenced by American poets such as T. S. Eliot, and Robert Frost.  In an interview with the Guardian, Muldoon said he had a love for reading as an early child, but his family barely had any books in the house (Potts 1).  Muldoon secondary school education at St. Patrick’s College, Armagh included education in Gaelic as well as a background in Irish folk tales (Potts 2).  As a teenager Muldoon became exposed to Northern Irish poets such as Seamus Heaney, and his style changed to acknowledge his rural Irish upbringing.  In 1969 Muldoon went to Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland and studied under Heaney.  Heaney recognized Muldoon’s talent and arranged for his first full collection of poems, New Weather, to be published through the acclaimed British press Faber and Faber in 1973.

            Even though it was just his first work, New Weather features Muldoon’s unique, sly style of writing.  Critics of the collection felt the work was effective in shining new light on the world, while writing with multiple meanings and layers (Kendall, McDonald 1).  In a review for Eire-Ireland, Roger Conover proclaims that Muldoon’s poetry “sees into things, and speaks of the world in terms of its own internal designs and patterns.” (Conover 127).  As has become common with most of Muldoon’s work, New Weather was mostly well received, but some described its many intricacies and complex allusions as off-putting.  With his first publication, Muldoon was held in the same regard by his European readers as his mentor Seamus Heaney, and other Northern Irish poets including Michael Longley, and Derek Mahon (Kendall, McDonald 1).  Muldoon followed up New Weather with a second collection of poems in 1977 entitled Mules.

            Mules is also very characteristically Muldoon in that the poems have many layers of meanings, and many of the poems discuss the dual nature of different creations.  The title poem is a fine example of his exploration with dualities.  “Mules” ponders the possibilities of the divine being combined with the earthly, and it is a common theme throughout the collection.  While maintaining a similar style of writing to his previous work, Mules covers different topics ranging from politics, love, and death.  Mules had developed while a series of violent internal conflicts in North Ireland called the Troubles were escalating.  “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” is a good example of the mingling of Muldoon’s classic style of multiple layers of meaning with his new interest in political and social affairs.  It depicts a Japanese solider who has come out of hiding after World War II and finds he is in a different world.  There are subtle comparisons between the shell-shocked soldier and the state of the Irish citizens during the Troubles.  Mules helped to solidify Muldoon’s place among the group of Northern Irish poets who were growing ever more popular.  While Muldoon gained a following in Ireland and England with his initial works, it wasn’t until his eighth collection Quoof that he gained much attention in America (“Paul Muldoon” 2).

            As was the case with Mules after New Weather, most critics felt each new collection of Muldoon’s was an example of his increased sophistication as a writer.  He didn’t become any more structured by form, but he wrote with a greater sense of what his personal style was.  Roger Eder in a New York Times Book Review (June 10, 2001) felt "It is as if the universe were no longer there to be grasped. Some vast catastrophe has exploded it and Muldoon, from this side of the postmodern divide; sifts shards, sorts them, tries them out in pleasing patterns."  Muldoon’s works were trying to make sense of the world as a whole, and also of his homeland of Ireland.  Muldoon emigrated from Ireland to America in 1987, and has taught at Princeton University ever since.  Muldoon continues to write in his sly style that requires multiple readings and prompts readers to catch sometimes obscure allusions.  Muldoon won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for his collection Moy Sand and Gravel and continues to publish collections of poetry.

Bibliography of Paul Muldoon’s Individual Poetry Books

            • Knowing My Place. Belfast: Ulsterman Publications, 1971

            • New Weather. London: Faber and Faber, 1973

            • Spirit of Dawn. Belfast: Ulsterman Publications, 1975

            • Mules. London: Faber and Faber, 1977

            • Names and Addresses. Belfast: Ulsterman Publications, 1978

            • Immram. Loughcrew: Gallery Press, 1980

            • Why Brownlee Left. London: Faber and Faber, 1980

            • Out of Siberia. Loughcrew: Gallery Press, 1982

            • Quoof. London: Faber and Faber, 1983

            • The Wishbone. Loughcrew: Gallery Press, 1984

            • Meeting the British. London: Faber and Faber, 1987

            • Madoc: A Mystery. London: Faber and Faber, 1990

            • The Prince of the Quotidian. Loughcrew: Gallery Press, 1994

            • The Annals of Chile. London: Faber and Faber, 1994

            • Kerry Slides. Loughcrew: Gallery Press, 1996

            • Hay. London: Faber and Faber, 1998

            • Moy Sand And Gravel. London: Faber and Faber, 2002

            • Horse Latitudes. London: Faber and Faber, 2006

            • Plan B. London: Enitharmon, 2009

            • Wayside Shrines. Loughcrew: Gallery Press, 2009

            • Maggot. London: Faber and Faber, 2010

           

Works Cited

Conover, Roger. Review of New Weather. Eire-Ireland, summer, 1975 p. 127

Eder, Roger. “To Understand Is to Be Perplexed.” New York Times Book Review, June

10, 2001.

Kendall, Tim, and Peter McDonald. Paul Muldoon: Critical Essays. Liverpool: Liverpool

UP, 2003. Google Books. Web. 26 Mar. 2011.

"Paul Muldoon." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Gale

Biography In Context. Web. 6 Feb. 2011.

“Paul Muldoon.” The Poetry Archive. Web. 6 Feb 2011.

Potts, Robert. “The Poet at Play.” The Guardian, May 12, 2001

The Duality of Heaven and Earth Hidden In Mules - Revised

The Duality of Heaven and Earth Hidden In Mules

Paul Muldoon is very adept at hiding different layers of meaning and imagery in his poetry.  A tennis match can be two boys exploring each other’s physical prowess, while also being a simple game of tennis.  “Mules” can also be read on multiple levels.  The most basic level of the poem is a child’s recounting of the conception and birth of a mule.  The form of the poem works well to take the reader full circle from asking a question, to explaining a position, and finally pondering an answer.  The poem is an extended metaphor that compares lowly barnyard animals to biblical figures.  The poem poses a question about duality of the worldly and divine in the first line, and then illustrates the narrator’s opinion through the depiction of a mule’s conception and birth.  Muldoon’s simple form succinctly contains a great deal to reflect on.

            Muldoon begins by posing a question.  The rest of the poem is organized in four quatrains.  The stanzas have line counts of four, four, three, and four.  Most sentences in the poem use enjambment.  Enjambment is used to keep the stanzas evenly spaced, and subtly indicate the comparison between the earthly and divine.  The two sentences of the first stanza both use enjambment, and are split between the parts of the sentence that depicts earthly things, and the part that depicts divine.  “Her feet of clay gave the lie/To the star burned in our mare’s brow,” and “Would Parsons’ jackass not rest more assured/That cross wrenched from his shoulders?”  The order of events in the poem is also of note.  The poem moves linearly in time after the question is asked, and Muldoon makes a point of changing tenses as the poem progresses.  The poem begins in the past tense, “We had loosed them…” “They had shuddered…” and ends in the present, “dropped tonight in the cowshed.”  By first posing the question and then ending with the narrator pointing out the farmers’ reflection on the mule’s origins, Muldoon makes the reader reflect on the events in the same order they happened for the narrator.  Each line of the poem has a meaning that relates to the theme of duality between the divine and the earthly.

            Starting with the question asked in the first line, Muldoon introduces his technique of using common phrases to get at meanings of greater importance than initially expected.  While phrases such as “best of both worlds,”  “below their belts,” and “dropped tonight” can just be thought of as their everyday meanings, Muldoon is using them for more than expected.  By asking “Should they not have the best of both worlds?” Muldoon could really be saying “why shouldn’t a mule be of both God and the earth?”  A mule is a combination of two completely different species, and the result is a creature both like and unlike both.  The horse in the story has “feet of clay,” which is an allusion to when a hero appears almost god-like, but ultimately ends up being human.  Continuing the theme of combining the earthly with the heavenly, Muldoon marks the horse in a way that evokes the Virgin Mary.  Both the horse and the Virgin have a “star burned” overhead.  A similar allusion can be made for the donkey that bears the mark of God on his back.  The metaphor of the mule as a combination of earth and heaven is continued in the final stanza. “We might yet claim that it sprang from earth…” “That we would know from what heights it fell.”  Muldoon has the farmers contemplate the mule’s origins so that the duality is highlighted to the reader.

            In the same way Modernists were making the old new, Muldoon takes the simple, everyday mule, and gives it new meaning.  While one could take his rough writing at face value as plain, he always hides much greater meaning beneath the surface.  The mule could be thought of as simply a combination of donkey and horse, but Muldoon makes it out to be much more by referencing the earthly and divine in the first stanza.  Concluding his extended metaphor in the final quatrain, Muldoon provides one last image of the combination of Heaven and Earth, “We might yet claim that it sprang from earth / Were it not for the afterbirth / Trailed like some fine, silk parachute, / That we would know from what heights it fell.”  The mule is birthed like a normal barnyard creature, and yet Muldoon points out that trailing the earthly mule is its “fine, silk parachute.”  The mule is an earthly creature that’s descent is aided by a heaven-sent provision.  In his characteristic style and reminiscent of the Modernists making the old new, Muldoon fills his poem with much more than the birth of a mule.

            Muldoon’s “Mules” is a simple narrative that works as a large metaphor for the duality of earth and the heavens.  He introduces the theme by stating a question at the beginning of the poem that asks about having the best of both worlds.  The two worlds are then implied to be the earth and the heavens.  The poem is organized to take the reader through a reflective process on the conception and birth of a mule.  Muldoon includes allusions to the worldly and divine in almost every line of the poem. The poem introduces a question about duality of the worldly and divine in the first line, and then illustrates the narrator’s opinion through the depiction of a mule’s conception and birth.

On the "Recordings" section of his website, Paul Muldoon has a reading of "Mules."
Paul Muldoon reading "Mules"


http://www.paulmuldoon.net