Paul Muldoon reads as part of Bishop series

Lauren Tennenbaum Assistant Arts Editor

As part of the Elizabeth Bishop Poetry Series, 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon gave a well-received reading of his work at Vassar on Thursday, Sept. 28 in Sanders Auditorium. Currently a professor at Princeton University, Muldoon taught for five years at Oxford University and has been the recipient of several honorary awards, including the T.S. Eliot Prize and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for literature. His work has been reviewed by nearly every major literary journal and magazine, including The New York Times, which classified Muldoon’s work as “witty, oblique poetry that in the best post-modernist fashion focuses on the slippery equivocations of language itself.”

In his unconventional and clever style, Muldoon read a selection of poems, addressing a range of intimate topics including love, the birth of his children, his dog Angus and his sister’s terminal illness. At times it felt as if Muldoon was reading from a poetic journal of his life, but his poetry was never tired, even when his subjects were quotidian.

Always sprinkled with playful humor and inventive rhymes, his work often references nature, and even more frequently recalls Ireland, Muldoon’s homeland (“The sonogram of Jean’s womb/resembled nothing so much/as a satellite map of Ireland” from “Sonogram”). This allusion creates the sense that Muldoon understands his work as continuing the legacy of Irish poets who have preceded him.

Muldoon’s 11th major collection of poetry, Horse Latitudes, was published on Tuesday, Oct. 3, and was released concurrently with a collection of 15 lectures he delivered at Oxford University from 1999-2004.

Muldoon’s biography, a list of his works, and locations of his upcoming readings are available at paulmuldoon.net.