Muldoon was born, the eldest of three children, on a farm inCounty Armagh[4] outsideThe Moy, near the boundary withCounty Tyrone, Northern Ireland.[5] His father worked as a farmer (among other jobs) and his mother was a school mistress. In 2001, Muldoon said of the Moy:
It's a beautiful part of the world. It's still the place that's 'burned into the retina', and although I haven't been back there since I left for university 30 years ago, it's the place I consider to be my home. We were a fairly non-political household; my parents were nationalists, of course, but it was not something, as I recall, that was a major area of discussion. But there were patrols; an army presence; movements of troops; and a sectarian divide. And that particular area was a nationalist enclave, while next door was the parish where theOrange Order was founded; we'd hear the drums on summer evenings. But I think my mother, in particular, may have tried to shelter us from it all. Besides, we didn't really socialise a great deal. We were 'blow-ins' – arrivistes – new to the area, and didn't have a lot of connections.[6]
Talking of his home life, he continues: "I'm astonished to think that, apart from someCatholic Truth Society pamphlets, some books on saints, there were, essentially, no books in the house, except one set, the Junior World Encyclopaedia, which I certainly read again and again. People would say, I suppose, that it might account for my interest in a wide range of arcane bits of information. At some level, I was self-educated." He was a '"Troubles poet" from the beginning.[6]
In 1969, Muldoon read English atQueen's University Belfast, where he metSeamus Heaney and became close tothe Belfast Group of poets which includedMichael Longley,Ciarán Carson,Medbh McGuckian andFrank Ormsby. Muldoon said of the experience, "I think it was fairly significant, certainly to me. It was exciting. But then I was 19, 20 years old, and at university, so everything was exciting, really." Muldoon was not a strong student at Queen's. He recalls: "I had stopped. Really, I should have dropped out. I'd basically lost interest halfway through. Not because there weren't great people teaching me, but I'd stopped going to lectures, and rather than doing the decent thing, I just hung around".[6] During his time at Queen's, his first collectionNew Weather was published byFaber and Faber. He met his first wife, fellow student Anne-Marie Conway, and they were married after their graduation in 1973. Their marriage broke up in 1977.
Muldoon is married to novelistJean Hanff Korelitz, whom he met at anArvon writing course. He has two children, Dorothy and Asher, and lives primarily inNew York City.[6][8]
His poetry is known for his difficult, sly, allusive style, casual use of obscure or archaic words, understated wit,punning, and deft technique in meter andslant rhyme.[9] As Peter Davidson says inThe New York Times review of books "Muldoon takes some honest-to-God reading. He's a riddler, enigmatic, distrustful of appearances, generous in allusion, doubtless a dab hand at crossword puzzles".[10] In 2001, Robert Potts, former editor of Poetry Review ofThe Guardian, cited him as being "among the few significant poets of our half-century"; "the most significant English-language poet born since the second world war" – a talent off the map.[6] (Notably,Seamus Heaney was born in 1939.) Muldoon's work is often compared with Heaney, a fellow Northern Irish poet, friend and mentor to Muldoon.
Most of Muldoon's collections contain shorter poems with an inclusion of a long concluding poem. As Muldoon produced more collections, the long poems gradually took up more space in the volume, until in 1990 the poemMadoc: A Mystery took over the volume of that name, leaving only seven short poems to appear before it. Muldoon has not since published a poem of comparable length, but a new trend is emerging whereby more than one long poem appears in a volume.
Madoc: A Mystery, exploring themes of colonisation, is among Muldoon's most difficult works. It includes, as "poetry", such non-literary constructions as maps and geometric diagrams. In the bookIrish Poetry since 1950, John Goodby states it is "by common consent, the most complex poem in modern Irish literature [...] – a massively ambitious, a historiographicalmetafiction".[11] The post-modern poem narrates, in 233 sections (the same number as the number of Native American tribes), an alternative history in whichSamuel Taylor Coleridge andRobert Southey come to America to found autopian community. The two poets had, in reality, discussed but never undertaken this journey. Muldoon's poem is inspired by Southey's workMadoc, about a legendary Welsh prince ofthat name. Critics are divided over the poem's success. Some are stunned by its scope[6][12] and many others, such asJohn Banville, have professed themselves utterly baffled by it – feeling it to be wilfully obscure.[13] Muldoon says of it: "I quite enjoy having fun. It's part of how it is, and who we are."[6]
Muldoon has contributed the librettos for four operas byDaron Hagen:Shining Brow (1992),Vera of Las Vegas (1996),Bandanna (1998), andThe Antient Concert (2005). His interests have not only included librettos, but rock lyrics as well, penning lines for the bandThe Handsome Family as well as co-writing the title track ofWarren Zevon's albumMy Ride's Here. Muldoon also writes lyrics for (and plays "rudimentary" rhythm guitar in) his own Princeton-based rock bands.Rackett (2004–2010)[14] was disbanded in 2010. Another of Muldoon's bands, Wayside Shrines,[15] has recorded and released thirteen of the lyrics included in Muldoon's collection of rock lyrics,Word on the Street. His current group is known as Paul Muldoon & Rogue Oliphant. In 2025 they released their acclaimed album, "Visible From Space" on Soul Selects Records.
Muldoon has also edited a number of anthologies, includingThe Lyrics: 1956 to the Present by Paul McCartney, published in 2021, written two children's books, translated the work of other authors, performed live at thePoetry Brothel.[16] and published critical prose.
^Wills, Clair (1998).Reading Paul Muldoon. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Bloodaxe Books. p. 9.ISBN1-85224-348-1.
^"Darkness at Muldoon",The New York Times review, 13 October 2002. Accessed 27 February 2010.
^For an extended discussion of the poem see: Goodby, John (2000),Irish poetry since 1950: from stillness into history Manchester University Press, p. 296.
^"Paul Muldoon".Poetry Foundation. 14 September 2019. Retrieved15 September 2019.
^"Madoc by Paul Muldoon". completereview.org. Retrieved27 May 2009.I cannot help feeling that this time (Muldoon) has gone too far – so far, at least, that I can hardly make him out at all, off there in the distance, dancing by himself.
^Val Nolan, 'Lets go make some noise!',The Stinging Fly, Volume 2, Issue 8 (Dublin: Winter 2007/08), pp. 11–13; Feature on Paul Muldoon’s band Rackett, specifically their concert at the Róisín Dubh, Galway, during their 2007 Irish tour.
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