Moy Sand and Gravel

by Paul Muldoon

Paul Muldoon's ninth collection of poems, his first since Hay (1998), finds him working a rich vein that extends from the rivery, apple-heavy County Armagh of the 1950s, in which he was brought up, to suburban New Jersey, on the banks of a canal dug by Irish navvies, where he now lives. Grounded, glistening, as gritty as they are graceful, these poems seem capable of taking in almost anything, and anybody, be it a Tuareg glimpsed on the Irish border, Bessie Smith, Marilyn Monroe, Queen Elizabeth I, a hunted hare, William Tell, William Butler Yeats, Sitting Bull, Ted Hughes, an otter, a fox, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Joscelyne, un unearthed pit pony, a loaf of bread, an outhouse, a killdeer, Oscar Wilde, or a flock of redknots. At the heart of the book is an elegy for a miscarried child, and that elegiac tone predominates, particularly in the elegant remaking of Yeats's "A Prayer for My Daughter" with which the book concludes, where a welter of traffic signs and slogans, along with the spirits of admen, hardware storekeepers, flimflammers, fixers, and other forebears, are borne along by a hurricane-swollen canal, and private grief coincides with some of the gravest matter of our age.

Moy Sand and Gravel is the winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Genres: Poetry, Ireland, Irish Literature, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 17, 2002

About the author

Born in Northern Ireland, Muldoon currently resides in the US and teaches at Princeton University. He held the chair of Professor of Poetry at Oxford University from 1999 through 2004. In September 2007, Muldoon became the poetry editor of The New Yorker.

Awards:
1992: Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for Madoc: A Mystery
1994: T. S. Eliot Prize for The Annals of Chile
1997: Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Poetry for New Selected Poems 1968–1994
2002: T. S. Eliot Prize (shortlist) for Moy Sand and Gravel
2003: Griffin Poetry Prize (Canada) for Moy Sand and Gravel
2003: Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Moy Sand and Gravel
2004: American Ireland Fund Literary Award
2004: Aspen Prize
2004: Shakespeare Prize

Reviews

[Sherry Chandler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't always understand everything Muldoon is doing but I'm charmed by the way he does it.

[Hao Guang Tse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who cares if I don't get all his references to Ireland or the US? It is the road that Muldoon is interested in, and the journey he brings the reader on is shot through with surprise and delight. His words make music like crystals make music. His rocks vibrate at witchy intervals. With a shoulder to the wheel, his engine drives me to look for roots, for the texture of Moy sand and gravel.

[Ellen Mcgrath · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is like verbal mosaic. The more I read Muldoon, the more I'm sold. He's an engineer of poems. "At the Sign of the Dark Horse" is a genuine palimpsest...and I will be trying to figure out "Affairs of State" like it's a Rubik's Cube for years to come.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I loved Muldoon's wordplay, these poems at times felt too heavy with references that will, I think, feel dated and unwieldy in the coming years.

[Logan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on how positive the reviews are, I feel like I'm missing something from these poems. There were a few I really liked, but for the most part the poems in this collection didn't connect with me. I didn't hate the poems but I didn't really like them either.

Paul Muldoon is great with poetry formatting and creative rhyme schemes; I'll give him that. Even when I wasn't enjoying the poems, I could appreciate how they were constructed.

These poems definitely weren't for me but they weren't horrible.

[Morbid Swither · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ultimately, my take away here (3.5) is that this author’s formal and structural grasp of rhyme, meter, etc. is unparalleled; Muldoon also has seemingly endless points of reference at the fingertips of his mind. I look forward to more work from him, and I hope I can rise to the challenge. I’d have to say, thus far, he is a “difficult” poet for me.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful imagery and coupled with a lucid liquidity in the language that he uses makes these poems a true masterpiece. Not entirely accessible to the mass poetry audience, a good example of 'high-brow' poetry which could be seen to exclude many readers.

[Emmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paul Muldoon's work is beautiful. It's lyrical. And I rarely understand what the poem is actually about, metaphorically, literally, or otherwise. Still, I enjoyed this collection.

[Caspar "moved to storygraph" Bryant]

I didn't dislike this I went in doing my best to apply Don Paterson's many approaches to PM and that helped! Phrasemic relitigation/inversion/nihilification metrical shenanigans & rhymes connected across several pages at times. It also helps that this is easily the strongest Muldoon collection all-round I've encountered so far. Unusually, he's at his best when he's being political.

So I didn't give up & we succeed. More Muldoon in time I shall crack the Paul nut

[Dave Christian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book presents many different approaches to poetry. It uses languages, cadence, rhythms, in MANY different ways. It is skillful in how each of the poems are written.

Yet, I could not care less about most of these. They simply did not speak to me. I appreciate the craft that has gone into each of these but I was simply not moved. At all.

I am guessing that this book got the Pulitzer Prize because of technical excellence. I can appreciate the technical quality of it. But it lacked depth and soul. I kind of think that's important in poetry.

[Tuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

high brow great poetry. thank god he makes no mention of college classes, college term papers, college teachers, or any other usual ivory tower tropes.

[Mark]

The Undertones and Siouxsie Sioux?
You know you're gonna break on through.

[Boston64329 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading poetry is difficult for me because I haven't done it in many, many years. Some of the material deals with geographical areas of the world, flora, rivers etc. that I don't know which takes a seemingly large amount of time to look up. There are Irish words and phrases here I didn't know and will more than likely never use or read again. Some references to the Sahara and sections of the U. S. Having said that, there were some I liked. The last, At the Sign of the Black Horse, September 1999 was the most difficult for me. I was tired and attempted to finish the book. I should have put the book down a read it today. I may go back to reread it to see if I can follow along.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Virtuosic and strikingly intelligent, but you really have to wrestle with it. The cores of the poems are often simple and satisfying, but I struggled to get much out of it before discussing it in a seminar. An admirable work, earning its four stars here easily, but hard to love, and while I will get back to it I can't necessarily recommend throwing yourself down this hole. If you're a poet, or into poetry, this is top tier stuff, but first reading is likely to reinforce any prejudices you may have if you're not a frequent flier on Page Poetry Airlines.

[Malachy Moran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ate this book like it was a cookie. I scarfed it down in one round trip train ride. I am so impressed by his ability to call on thr same images again and again throughout both a single poem and the collection. I love how he uses every meaning of the same word in a single poem. It felt like a masterclass in techniques that I want to try in my own work.

Not for everyone but I loved it

[Jayant Kashyap · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has been an unsettling book for me – and not in a happy manner. For all I know, Paul Muldoon is a great writer – I’ve laughed in this collection and connected with the sad moments – but I’d have loved to have a better opinion of this collection. It’s difficult to do that, however, I’m afraid.

[Kedooms · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poetry is an art form that succeeds only if the reader can share with the poet a vision communicated by the poem.
How this work won a Pulitzer price escape me!
As a reader the poems fail to take me anywhere but to the cliff of reason where I am just left without a bridge for crossing.

[Daniel P · Rating 4 out of 5]

I might revisit my rating once I have read more poetry, but at this time, this is my favorite book of poetry. I had to scour the internet and maps and such to even scratch the surface of some of the deep cuts in irish-american history.

[Muhammad Rajab Al-mukarrom · Rating 3 out of 5]

For all the references in this poetry collection that I did not completely understand, I—

[nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too bad I'm not that familiar with the place, but the imagery is very impressive!

[Cory · Rating 2 out of 5]

Won a Pulitzer. Probably genius. Not for me.

[Kenneth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Incomprehensible. I only finished it because I spent money on it that I wasn’t prepared to see go to waste.

[Atom Murata · Rating 3 out of 5]

while muldoon may be skilled in constructing poems i find him difficult at times (skill issue)

[Arminas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jack of all trades, master of none...

[Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

compared to what else is out there to be experienced, i just couldn't get into this book. just missing the grit and emotional punches i long for.

[Constance Merritt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not really get this book, what Mr. Muldoon was trying to do; the poems were an odd mix of retrograde and experimental.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

What if you took away Irish proper names (people and places) from Muldoon's poetry? Would there be a there there?

[Regine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rhythmically interwoven, oblique, allusive.

[OnatPF · Rating 1 out of 5]

It didn't read or even feel like poetry. That's the problem.