Dana Lengel
Prof. Jacobs
December 8, 2010
English 165W
Poetry Event Description
I attended the Paul Muldoon reading at the Rosenthal library on Tuesday, December 8, 2010. I really enjoyed Muldoon’s reading and his poetic style. The reading was very humorous and interactive, much more than I had expected. The audience chimed in during many parts of the poems. The first poem he recited, The Loaf, incorporated a continuing theme of alliteration. He introduced the poem first and had the crowd repeat the first instance of alliteration, “With a Pink, and a Pink, and a Pinkie-Pick”. The audience continued to chime in for every repeating line, following with “With a clink, and a clink, and a clinkie-click. I though his combined use of alliteration, repetition, and assonance was very creative, and it was a very interesting poem to hear him recite. Muldoon incorporates a lot of repetition throughout his poems, such as “Julius Caesar Was a People Person”, “Rachel…If that’s Your Name”, and “It is What It is”, to name a few that he recited. “Julius Caesar Was a People Person” is a great example of his use of sarcastic humor. He lists infamous dictators in history, including Caesar, Hitler, and Stalin, and describes them one by one as a “people person”. He also has an entertaining sense of humor and sarcasm in his poetry, which he does a great job of expressing live. I also enjoyed his poem, “Symposium”. He introduced his concept of “a jumbling of phrases” before reciting the poem. Some of the best lines were, “A bird in the hand is better than no bread”, Rome wasn’t built between two stools”, and “A hair of the dog is a friend indeed”. It was a very funny play on phrases, and that was probably the poem the audience enjoyed the most. He also recited a few of his “song poems”, including “cover”. What I found most striking about his poetic style is his unique play on forms. His poems seem very open ended and boundless. He incorporates many unexpected twists into many of his poems. He also is able to write many different forms of poetry, such as song-poetry, sonnet, and prose. The amusing and intricate rhyme scheme Muldoon incorporates into much of his poetry also adds to its amusing effect. He is able to make rhyme sound more natural than most other poets I have heard. I found it very impressive that he is able to make his poetry sound so natural and free-flowing. My favorite poem of the evening was The Loaf. It was a great introduction to the poetic style that would follow the rest of the evening. I found it to be one of his most humorous poems. It sort of reminds me of an adult version of Dr. Seuss. I can picture the poem being read from a children’s story book, with bright vibrant pictures. That poem has a great use of imagery. He concluded the evening with a Question and Answer round, in which most people inquired about his use of form and rhyme and how he writes his material. He explained that he doesn’t think about the form of a poem when he begins writing it. He starts off with an idea, and he lets it evolve naturally. That is a very effective way to write in my opinion. You can tell when a poem is forced into a certain rhyme scheme or a certain form. The best thing about his poetry is that it feels natural. He also expressed his thoughts on rhyme, and how rhyme should grow naturally out of language, not language out of rhyme. On another note, a few of his poems covered some serious material concerning his childhood and political turbulence in his homeland of Ireland. These include “The Sightseers” and “Anseo”. I loved the climax of “Anseo”, completely changing the mood and plot of the poem. Despite the serious topics covered about Irish history, the night could only be described as light and humorous. Even when using depressing subject matter, Muldoon manages to add some aspect of lightheartedness and humor into his readings.