In his first book, New Weather (1973), [Paul Muldoon] distinguishes himself, through his use of metaphor, from Seamus Heaney, whose disciple he is often proclaimed. In contrast to Heaney's elemental analogies, Muldoon's metaphysical metaphors fleetingly reflect correspondences that grow in one's mind into truths or tease one out of thought. Whereas he offers these correspondences ironically or non-committally, they often suggest an innocent pre-Newtonian view of an interrelated universe, an impression enforced by Muldoon's habit of structuring poems on the four elements, with water and air predominant.

"Seanchas" represents his typical use of metaphor. The seanchai is an unschooled oral historian whom the poet visits in rural Ulster. He "can adlib / No other route. If we play back the tape / He may take up where he left off." His flock flows similarly: "their bellies / Accumulate and, are anonymous again. But having shape, / Separate and memorable."

Occasionally, his metaphors are...