The Annals of Chile

By Paul Muldoon

Book Overview

Winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, The Annals of Chile confirms Paul Muldoon's stature as one of the most talented poets of his generation. The heart of the book is the long poem "Yarrow," in which Muldoon's powers of insight and wordplay and surprising association are on exuberant display: evoking the 1960s, the poet conjures up a boundless historical present peopled at once by Davy Crockett and Tristan Tzara and Wild Bill Hickok, by Maud Gonne and Michael Jackson, all bought swifly and vividly to life by his fantastical imagination. The collection also contains a group of shorter poems, including "The Birth," a delicate lyric which celebrates the arrival of a baby girl; "Incantata," a deeply felt elegy to a former lover; a Muldoon's inspired adaptation of an episode from Ovid's Metamorphoses.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374524564
• ISBN13: 9780374524562
• Release Date: September 1995
• Publisher: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux-3pl
• Length: 191 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Muldoon's best

Lordy, it would be ANYBODY'S best. Paul Muldoon's work has always been great but *The Annals of Chile* is a breakthrough. "Cows" and "Twice" are pitch- and picture-perfect and the intricacies and expansiveness of "Yarrow" could keep me occupied and entertained for months, but more than anything else it is the unforgettable "Incantata" that makes this book a treasure. Who knew that poets like this still existed? (Only in Ireland, I suppose -- and by the way, if you like Muldoon make sure to check out conationals like Michael Longley and Ciaran Carson. A good time is guaranteed to be had by all.)