For 'mythical' read 'empathic' : Paul Muldoon's 'Third Epistle to Timothy' and 'The Bangle (Slight Return)' as exercises in empathy

Vol.44,No.1(2018)

Wit Pietrzak

https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2018-1-9

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/138673

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Abstract
The paper focuses on the notion of empathy in contrast to systemic ethics in" Paul Muldoon's two poems, "Third Epistle to Timothy" and "The Bangle (Slight Return)," from his 1998 collection, Hay. Ethics is here entwined with what T. S. Eliot described as the mythical method. It is argued here that Muldoon resorts to the formal paradigm but works his way beyond the transcendental, religion-motivated position adopted by Eliot, particularly in his later social critiques. On the one hand, in "third Epistle to Timothy," I investigate the biblical context of the poem to demonstrate that all externally-imposed codes of ethic can be subject to corruption. On the other, in "The Bangle (Slight Return)," I show that the mythical references, rather than corroborate an elitist agenda, indicate that to embody an experience of another person's different a polymorphous language is needed that would simultaneously be used with full responsibility for whatever it should evoke.

Keywords:
Paul Muldoon; contemporary Irish poetry; T. S. Eliot; empathy

Pages:
153–165
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