Book Review: Hay: Poems by Paul Muldoon

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Book Review: Hay: Poems

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At first, I hated the Hay Poems. I couldn’t get through it. It made me realize how easy it is to hate something when you don’t understand it – ignorance ties in perfectly with hate. After studying the poems more closely; I did not hate them. I do not fully understand or like the poems in this collection. But it is interesting to see Muldoon’s take on pastoral poetry and different poetry stanzas form. My favorite poems were: “The Mudroom,” “Lag,” and “The Train,” which funnily enough are all three poems I have used in my essays for my poetry class. Muldoon, being an Irish man living in America, is focused on the concept of hybridity all while concealing himself and keeping a distance from his readers. Overall, a very complicated and interesting and at times frustrating poetic read.

“Those we love never truly leave us, Harry. There are things that death cannot touch.” 

“In every shining moment of happiness is that drop of poison: the knowledge that pain will come again. Be honest to those you love, show your pain. To suffer is as human as to breathe.” 

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