Poem

The Order of Baptism

Title The Order of Baptism
Author Paul Muldoon

Instances of Publication

A published appearance of this poem.

Collection/Anthology Year of Publication Medium View Details
The Fifty Minute Mermaid 2007 Print Collection View Details

Translations

Connected translations of this poem.

Title Author Collection/Anthology Year View Details
Nation Pól Ó Muirí D-Day 1995 View Details
Publication Instance Details #791
Collection/Anthology Details
Collection/Anthology The Fifty Minute Mermaid
Date of Publication 2007
Publisher The Gallery Press (Ireland)
Page Number(s) 97
Publication Overview
Translation Is Multilingual Explicit Irish Context? Ekphrasis Has Paratext? Reference to News, Media or Technology
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Details
Human Rights Issues
Irish Context
Languages
Original Language
Original Poem
Original Author
Genre Part Of Lyric Sequence
Medium Print Collection
Notes This sequence of poems, 'Na Murúcha a Thriomnaigh', makes use of the international folk tale of the mermaid to construct an allegorical world in which the merpeople have left the water and now live uneasily among humankind on land. The speaker in this poem describes the mermaids' use of wine rather than water during the baptism ritual. Their refusal to use water serves to highlight the traumatic nature of their displacement from it. The Great Famine and Irish cultural loss are understood to be implicit in this sequence of poems, but other cultural contexts could also be imagined.
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