[1153] Meeting the British

Guest poem sent in by Mel Benson <winterblue18@>

We met the British in the dead of winter.
The sky was lavender

and the snow lavender-blue.
I could hear, far below,

the sound of two streams coming together
(both were frozen over)

and, no less strange,
myself calling out in French

across that forest-
clearing. Neither General Jeffrey Amherst

nor Colonel Henry Bouquet
could stomach our willow-tobacco.

As for the unusual
scent when the Colonel shook out his hand-

kerchief: C'est la lavande,
une fleur mauve comme le ciel.

They gave us six fishhooks
and two blankets embroidered with smallpox.

	-- Paul Muldoon

I find this poem slightly chilling, to be honest. It seems almost innocent
until the final word, which suddenly makes the entire poem incredibly
ominous. The half rhymes increase the growing sense of unease as the native
Americans in Canada meet the British colonisers and the reader becomes
gradually aware of all the consequences of this meeting. There is no real
point of first contact between the two sides shown in the poem - the native
American narrator is already able to describe the sky and snow as lavender,
which blurs the narrative voice somewhat [That would have been through their
earlier contact with the French, though. Still, I see Mel's point -martin].
Muldoon makes full use of hindsight and poetic device to create a poem sinister
yet political.

Mel

Links:

Biography of Muldoon:
  http://www.interviews-with-poets.com/paul-muldoon/muldoon-note.html

Some Paul Muldoon pages:
  http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~angl/muldoon/muldoon.htm
  http://www.complete-review.com/authors/muldoonp.htm

A very readable interview:
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4185192,00.html

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