Poem

The Mermaid's Gift of Prophecy

Title	The Mermaid's Gift of Prophecy
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
An Guth 5	2008	Print Anthology	View Details

Translations

Connected translations of this poem.

Title	Author	Collection/Anthology	Year	View Details
The Defeated	Pearse Hutchinson	Earth Voices Whispering: An Anthology of Irish War Poetry, 1914-1945	2009	View Details

Publication Instance Details #803

Collection/Anthology Details

Collection/Anthology	The Fifty Minute Mermaid
Date of Publication	2007
Publisher	The Gallery Press (Ireland)
Page Number(s)	141

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	Displacement/Forced Migration
Irish Context	Emigration (from Ireland) Irish Language/Culture Great Famine (Ireland)
Languages	English
Original Language	English
Original Poem	Fáidhiúlacht na Murúiche
Original Author	Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
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 earth. This short poem describes the failing health of the mermaid and her 'prophecies', which the speaker of the poem refers to as being akin to the mermaid talking up at them from the bottom of a well. A sense of disconnection and displacement with reality. The Great Famine and Irish cultural loss is understood to be implicit in this sequence of poems. This poem was first published in 'Fifty Minute Mermaid' and did not appear in the original collection, 'Cead Aighnis'.

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