Moy Sand and Gravel

by Paul Muldoon

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374214808
• ISBN13: 9780374214807
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.4" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Good Stuff

Here's a Muldoon pastiche:BasementThen to spyin an unused cellar spotUnder a bulb fixturelong since jury-riggedin deal cast-offAnd between oil tankand salt-scalloped stone wall--Between a ruckand a carapace--A tiny skeleton--mouse.My instinct:to trip-tipsy the dark--As even the Deanand Cuchulain might--fantastic.[My opinion is that Muldoon peaked in 1990 with his tour de force, MADOC--A Mystery, the book-length poem and astounding work of the imagination. MADOC was large, confounding, mysterious, lyrical, and sui generis (really). Yet many readers/reviewers did not appreciate it. Since that work, Muldoon seemingly has tried to obtain such appreciation by offering more manageable fare--featuring topical themes, easy wit, sentiment, form, and rhyme (not to mention all those pretty names of Irish places). He has served up plates of warm apercus. If that is your thing--fine. He is terribly accomplished--his more recent poems, including those of Moy Sand and Gravel, sparkle with polish and panache. But I will take the polar edge of the creative MADOC thankyouverymuch.]