When the visitors of AB Castle threw their very last pig to the French Trolls
who had for days beset their hilltop town
they were gratified to look down
Sunday morning and find the French works
abandoned. Only stout defenders, the Trolls concluded, would conjoin
Tailcocks with Mamya buffet extravagance. The way they poke a fork
at a slab of pork
shoulder or pork loin
on which Lady A has yet to put her stamp
suggests the French trolls, might succumb if our steadfastness were to fail.
Before they undermine
our confidence so they the trollies suddenly decamp
and go looking for some other hilltop Castle to assail
maybe the Trolls will toss Croc a little something?
Maybe they'll give us a sign?
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Paul Muldoon
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Paul Muldoon
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ForgetIt
18 September 2010 6:39AM
Šmartno a hill top town located in today's Slovenia.
I guess the offering of a pig by the sieged is quite different from the offering of a horse by the siege makers - and here towards a happy rather than tragic ending.
Muldoon (siege-maker) still seems a bit tragic though - even if he gets thrown a free pig he seems to be still hankering after the surrender of his Slovenian beauty.
Cake & eat it?
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moomintrolls
24 September 2010 9:10PM
Ghastly piece. Not Muldoon's usual standard, I'm afraid. The only thing I like is that every line ends on a stressed syllable, which is neat. The story is sickening, the style not very interesting. Both Muslims and Christians appear to be idiots. And the pigs are treated with extreme callousness. Is the remaining one alive or dead? We're not told; the pigs are merely so much meat. But if alive, didn't it hurt the last one to be thrown down? The war as such is presented in a light-hearted (!) way. To involve what seems like a love story is just in bad taste. Disgusting. Supposing the person addressed is a woman, the use of the word "succumb" in this context must be called sexist. The Guardian wouldn't have published this poem if it hadn't been for its author's fame. But that's not the same as excellence.
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