Maggot: Poems

by Paul Muldoon

Of Plan B , an interim volume that included several of the poems in Maggot , Robert McCrum recently said in the London Observer that "Paul Muldoon, who has done so much to reimagine the poet's task, has surpassed himself with his latest collection." In his eleventh full-length book, Muldoon reminds us that he is a traditional poet who is steadfastly at odds with tradition. If the poetic sequence is the main mode of Maggot , it certainly isn't your father's poetic sequence. Taking as a starting point W. B. Yeats's remark that the only fit topics for a serious mood are "sex and the dead," Muldoon finds unexpected ways of thinking and feeling about what it means to come to terms with the early twenty-first century. It's no accident that the centerpiece of Maggot is an outlandish meditation on a failed poem that draws on the vocabulary of entomological forensics. The last series of linked lyrics, meanwhile, takes as its subject the urge to memorialize the scenes of fatal automobile accidents. The extravagant linkage of rot and the erotic is at the heart of not only the title sequence but also many of the round songs that characterize Maggot , and has led Angela Leighton, writing in The Times Literary Supplement , to see these new poems as giving readers "a thrilling, wild, fairground ride, with few let-ups for the squeamish."

Genres: Poetry, Irish Literature, British Literature

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

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

[Goodreeds User · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't get it if I'm honest...

[Amanda Cora · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was recommended by a friend and I tried really hard but nope. Some of the wordplay was mildly entertaining/interesting but overall I just ended up frustrated with him. These poems are a prime example of everything I dislike about the mentality that writing needs to be difficult to be good. I like to think of myself as a pretty intelligent person but even so many of his allusions and vocabulary flew over my head and left with no idea what I was reading about or how I was supposed to feel.

[Haydn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly whimsical for a book called maggot with a skull on the cover. Nothing too profound in here though.

[SB · Rating 3 out of 5]

i am a fan of muldoon's poetry. he's one of my favourite poets. but, this collection of poetry is a tough one to read. or maybe, its my weak vocabulary strength that has failed me to love this book. it felt like that one should take a dictionary to decipher most of the poems. overall, it was good.

[Liam Guilar]

Before Moy Sand and Gravel I enjoyed almost everything the man had written, since then it feels like Muldoon has been writing The Muldoon Poem. It's very clever, it's full of word play and rhythmic mastery and the pyrotechnics are always dazzling. But the poems feel empty. It's like turning up to a concert and watching a superb musician demonstrate how fast he or she can play scales.

No stars because in one sense these are excellent poems but a type of poem that seems to do little but draw attention to how clever the poet is.

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unaffecting.
Word play too labored.

[Konstantin R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

[ratin = B-]

I have grown to like Muldoon better. Though he is the sort of intellectual writer whose work sometimes throws the reader, he is also a consistent poet. Consistent as in, he uses rhyme and strict stanza length. This, ultimately (I think), hurts his poetry because he is forced into using peculiar diction, and sometimes syntax, that leads to a more difficult reading.

One particularity of his work is the sequence poem. Here he introduces a subject, like the holidays or highway death-memorials, and continually adds (but also recapitulates the old) so as to make an interesting combination. These are most efficacious when the rhyme scheme does not bog down the flow. This technique is most successfully done in "Wayside Shrines".

Some of the poems just weren't for me; they either had very personal takes on Irish events or used slang that is now obsolete or specific to a location. I would certainly try Muldoon again, but I am still wary of him, of how to read him correctly.

[Scott Pomfret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notwithstanding the Title

Wonderful internal rhyming and a sense of chaotic playfulness infuse this collection. Muldoon has a keen eye for singular coincidence and an ability to make meaning from any two objects juxtaposed. Notwithstanding the title, this is a lighthearted collection full of verbal twists and turns.

[Caroline Harbour · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm usually more of a prose person but these were haunting and lovely to read.

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

His inventiveness with language is evident but I found the forms very self-consciously clever and had real trouble connecting emotionally to most of the poems.

[Steve Clayton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Difficult, lots of obscure literary references

[Caspar "moved to storygraph" Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

possibly the most 2.5 star collection of poetry I've read? I'm sure Paul has his merits and I look forward to getting to them but this mostly sent me to sleep

[Megan Nicholson · Rating 3 out of 5]

maybe I’m not a contemporary poet, maybe I just need to have an Irish lit dictionary besides me, or maybe, it’s got some prose, but also, a little gibberish

[Teagan Rath · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creative poems, with a good flow. My favourite being "Humours of Hakone."

[Alina]

some great, some pretentious, rarely have i read someone this eloquent, yet this doesnt always count for greatness. favorite poems: Ohrwurm, Maggot, Extraordinary Rendition, Sod Farm

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

i enjoyed this book of poems. It wasn't exatctaly my thing, but I enjoyed it just the same. he uses repetition of lines and whole stanzas through his work. Because of enjambment, the rhyme is tucked away and never really beats you over the head.

I liked that I had to use a dictionary a lot. There were many words I didn't know, and I have an MA in literature...so I do have a fairly good vocab. He used a lot of botanical terms too.

Solid book. I'd like to pick up the one that won the Pulitzer. I won't read this again, probably, but I'll keep it in my bookshelf.

[Liam Malone · Rating 3 out of 5]

This makes for the most difficult collection I have encountered. I have no idea what I read even as I was reading it I was lost. Can't tell if it was funny or serious. Not sure of the constant references to maggots and phrases appearing throughout the collection. These make the works appear to play off of each other and to read as a body instead of individual pieces. I will reread this at some point, but may return it first to Amazon. I am baffled.

[Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muldoon can do better. This is not a bad book of poems-- even the worst of Muldoon is more exciting than most of the poetry written today, but the book is more concerned with craft than impact. I admire a lot of these while feeling cold about them, which is something people have said about the poet before: he's clever, but so what? I've always defended Muldoon against such accusations. This time, I can't.

[hh · Rating 4 out of 5]

muldoon's wordplay and sense of rhyme and rhythm are infectious and devastatingly on-point. he makes me wish i were a rhyming poet. i'm not, but i am a poet of repetition, and he is excellent at that as well. going to read more muldoon and hope to imbibe a few good tricks. the weaving together of different threads of thought and event is impressive.

[Jordan S · Rating 1 out of 5]

Though the author possesses brilliant technical mastery, the overall feel of Maggot Poems is laborious and uninspiring. Perhaps all the accolades that accompany this work are in references to previous achievements by the author. Though the book is no place to call home it makes for an interesting day trip. Muldoon was successful in creating a trully unique and cohesive collection of poems

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is there a name for this form? For now I'll call them punky boppy son-of-limericks. Wah. They celebrate life, despite (because of?) (with?) how close that stench of death sure is. ("...nothing can confirm one's sense of being prized / like another's anathematized.")

My first Muldoon.

[The Book : An Online Review at The New Republic]

IN ONE OF Aesop’s fables, an overambitious frog tries to puff himself up to the size of an ox, and explodes. Paul Muldoon mocked this type of moralizing animal tale in his poem “The Frog,” in 1983.Read more...

[Ken French · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muldoon is one of the best poets writing today. I love the way his poems circle around themselves, bringing back an image he had tossed in earlier. I also enjoy the imagery of Ireland with the occasional nod to New Jersey (where Muldoon lives now).

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't finish it. He is just not to my liking. I think I understand now the so-called divide in contemporary poetry. I will also never again look to The New Yorker for advice new poets to read.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super dense & super fun, mostly. Sometimes I think Paul Muldoon is making fun of me, but that's okay.

[Julia · Rating 1 out of 5]

despite repeated readings I found some of the poems in this collection almost impenetrable/. The result is a book which left me, the reader feeling like I was too stupid somehow to "get it". -*

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a strange collection of poetry. Muldoon did an amazing job of forcing a form onto his work and then stretching it as far as possible.