In the last poem of Paul Muldoon’s “January journal” of 1992 (published as
The Prince of the Quotidiantwo years later), a cigarette-smoking, horse-headed familiar challenges the poet from the flower-beds into which he has just parachuted:
he slaps my cheek; “Above all else, you must atonefor everything you’ve said and doneagainst your mother: meet excess of lovewith excess of love; begin on the feast of Saint Brigid.”
he slaps my cheek; “Above all else, you must atonefor everything you’ve said and doneagainst your mother: meet excess of lovewith excess of love; begin on the feast of Saint Brigid.”
Muldoon’s mother had always featured as an antagonistic presence within the poet’s work (see “The Mixed Marriage” in Mules, for instance, or “Profumo” in
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Citation: Phillips, Ivan. "The Annals of Chile". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1605, accessed 25 November 2024.]
