Help with poem...

[Seraphina]

Hi all, I am trying desperately to find a poem that I used to love. It's called 'Ireland', and is a very short poem, maybe 5-10 lines. It uses imagery of a car engine ticking over and two men, the implication is that it has sinister overtones because it's in Ireland and may be some sort of sectarian violence, that this wouldn't have the same effect in any other country.

Can anyone help with the author or the poem? Thanks! It's probably quite an interesting one to discuss on here if anyone can find it.

[megustaleer]

It's by Paul Muldoon, but I haven't found it online yet.

[Adrian]

I couldn't find it online either, but I found it in the library in his book Why Brownlee Left:



The Volkswagen parked in the gap,
But gently ticking over.
You wonder if it's lovers
And not men hurrying back
Across two fields and a river.

Ireland, Paul Muldoon

[Seraphina]

Thank you! I thought it was Paul Muldoon. I started thinking about it because one of his poems is currently on one of the posters on the tube. I think it's a really nice idea to have poetry on the tube as often if you're standing you can't read a book, so you read the poem instead. If you're as guilty as I am of reading poems too fast when they're in a book it's a great chance to really think about the words the poet has chosen. :)