The Watcher Of Homeland-on Paul Muldoon’s Poetry

As a contemporary Irish poet, Paul Muldoon holds an important position in theEnglish world. Based on Postcolonial Studies and New Criticism theories, this thesisintends to take―homeland‖as a focal point, following a line of time and space from―Homeland in Memory‖,―Homeland in Reality‖to―Homeland Across the Ocean‖,and to analyze how the poet handles personal, familial and social conflicts undercomplicated historical and realistic background. This thesis falls into five chapters andthe first serves as an introduction. Chapter Two restores the national and personalmemories concealed in Muldoon‘s poems. By back-tracking the poetic resources ofmyth, folklore and epic, the thesis uncovers the poet‘s yearning for an ancient Celtichome; by analyzing depictions of parents and childhood anecdotes reveals the poet‘ssense of home as a site of longing and return. Chapter Three constitutes the centralpart of this study. Through the dissecting of various hybrid animal metaphors, thethesis observes the poet‘s plight in the turbulent national and ethical situation andsketches his concern on departure in accordance with poems based on Irish voyagemyth. Chapter Four probes into the dilemma facing Muldoon after his emigration: thepoet cannot escape from the past—horrors of history, memories of past violence—andis unable to move on. Yet he composes plenty of poems connecting the past and future.Via exploring the constant parallels between the Celtic and Native Americans and thefusion of Irish and American cultural history, the thesis attempts to extract the poet‘sattitudes towards issues like nationality and identity. Chapter Five summarizes theviewpoints and findings of the thesis. The author believes that Muldoon‘s concept ofhomeland has transcended the parochial nationalism, glowing with universalsignificance. When confronted with inescapable religious and ethnic strife, the poetgrants himself a voluntary exile, maintaining a necessary critical distance. Havingundergoing certain predicaments, he succeeds in finding a right way to move on.Muldoon, as an adult, can be a child in the Armagh countryside once more even as helives life in America. And consequently the significance of homeland is best sublimed.