Memory and Reminiscence

The poem begins with the poet-speaker's recollection of his first encounter with a pineapple, as a young adolescent of thirteen. He recalls the excitement he felt, and the fruit's seductive and exotic qualities. The speaker also remembers realizing that part of the fruit's seductive appeal lay in its mystery and in its symbolic importance. He notes too, however, that as a young person he did not know that the fruit was a "worldwide symbol of munificence." This largely sweet memory is soon overlaid with references to the memory of civil violence, which marked the poet's later adolescence in Northern Ireland. Muldoon makes the transition from positive memory to disturbing memory by invoking a series of similar sounding words, starting with "munificence" and "munitions."

Mutability/Impermanence

Throughout the last six lines of the poem, words mutate or change, as the speaker free associates from one idea to...