ABSTRACT
Various kinds of cultural transmutation recur as topics within Paul Muldoon's verse, and his elegies offer a particular opportunity to explore this subject matter in relation to the poet's own life. The economic complexity of Irish immigration in America may seem a world away from the personal sadness of a pallbearer and, indeed, Muldoon distances himself here from those "Irish-Americans" whose response to death constitutes something different from his own. But the proximity of these two subjects—grief and displacement—also suggests that they represent comparable challenges to a poet trying to reconcile a private sense of loss with the public performance of it. Muldoon's elegies do not hide their performative qualities; what is crafted or artificial in them becomes a part of their strategy of grieving. Muldoon's transnational identity, as a husband, father, and most importantly, a poet, represents a crucial aspect of his inner life that finds expression safely and almost seamlessly in his elegiac poems.
