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“Voiceprints of an Astronaut” is a multi-faceted collection of poems that explores the fluid borders between memory and the imagined, the personal and the sociohistorical. The “voiceprints” of the title poem are the words, both imagined and real, of the only twelve men who ever walked on the moon. My own device, of an imagined ‘interview’ with figures from history, is deployed in the title poem. It is also used, for example, in the form of voiceprints from R.L. Stevenson, (“Tusitala”), Mary Queen of Scots’ maidservant, (“Beheaded”,“A Prayer fir James VI”), an acrobat-magician from the Qin Dynasty, (Bi xi Terracotta) and a time-travelling 14th century monk transposed to the Scottish Poetry Library (“In the Library”). In poems such as “Earthrise”, “Starlight from Saturn”, “In the Library”, and “Lines for Edwin Morgan” the tone is lyrical, taking the form of the sonnet, or sometimes simply reflecting the ghost of a sonnet framework. Recent events such as the Haiti earthquake are reflected, at times, by a purely personal response, such as in “Beads”, while poems about the Aids epidemic in the 80’s, (“Lunch-times with Rick”, “The Quilts”) spring from a period as Medical Correspondent for the Guardian, covering Aids conferences in London, Stockholm, Montreal and San Francisco. Others, such as “Roosevelt’s Bats”, “Fire-and-Forget” and “At Sea” are responses to modern war and conflict. In all of these, my aim has been to explore the political through the personal. The poems in this collection reflect an adult life split, almost equally, between two cities: Edinburgh and London. Regular visits too, to North America are another influence. An important part of the journey involved in writing these poems was a discovery of a Scots voice I thought I’d misplaced, only to find again, in poems such as “Beheaded” or “Haud tae me”. Some of these poems are autobiographical, dealing with parenthood, childhood, and growing up. Others, such as “Dana Point” or “Boy with Frog” celebrate a moment, a time and a place. In the case of the series of poems beginning with “Jim” and ending with “Black and White” the places and times take the form of memories, both in Scotland and Canada, of a much older sister. The critical essay that forms the second part of this thesis is entitled “Politics and the Personal in the Sonnet and Sonnet Sequence: Edwin Morgan's “Glasgow Sonnets”, Tony Harrison's “from The School of Eloquence” and selected sonnets by Paul Muldoon”. The first chapter examines the use of the sonnet form in Edwin Morgan’s “Glasgow Sonnets”; the second chapter concerns the sonnets written by Tony Harrison in from The School of Eloquence and Other Poems, published in 1978, while the third chapter looks at selected sonnets by Paul Muldoon.

All information for this study was obtained by original source documents, interviews with the principal participants and the personal observations of the writer. A complete transcript of interviews with Daron Aric Hagen Michael Haithcockand Robert De Simone are included as appendices. In1961 the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) created its commissioning project for the purpose of contracting prominent composers to contribute works of high quality to the growing wind repertoire. Recently, CBDNA commissioned works that sought to collaborate with other disciplines within the artistic community. These collaborative works added new depth to the wind repertoire and helped advance the genre to new levels of prominence. CBDNA commissioned Daron Aric Hagen to write an opera using winds in the pit. He titled the work Bandanna, based on Shakespeare's Othello. Hagen contracted Paul Muldoon to write the libretto. A consortium of 79 member schools contributed to the project. A total of $100,000.00 was paid to the composer. The Director of Bands at Baylor University conducted the premiere performance of Bandanna during the 1999 CBDNA convention on 25 February 1999. Hagen assigned instrumental, thematic and harmonic attributes to each character. There are literally thousands of interactions between these elements that weave a tight pattern of organic unity into the entire work, making it exceptionally rich with symbolism and innuendo. Though still in its infancy, the uniqueness of this work both in the manner in which it came into being and through its artistic merits are fascinating. Only the future will determine whether Bandanna has true longevity or will fade into the background as a historical curiosity.

Les images textiles parsèment l’œuvre de Paul Muldoon (né en 1951), où les tissus recherchés comme le « dimity », le « buckram » et le « barège » côtoient des articles de linge tel que les nappes brodées à la main, les couvertures souillées, et les tuniques en lin. L’ampleur et la fréquence des images textiles au fil de l’oeuvre constituent un trope qui occupe une place privilégiée dans l’univers de Muldoon. Procédant d’une lecture « textile » de sa poésie, l’hypothèse est posée que l’œuvre de Muldoon s’inscrit dans une tradition où texte et textile sont étroitement liés. Elle remonte à l’Antiquité grecque en passant par Jonathan Swift, W. B. Yeats et les poètes irlandais de l’après-guerre. En outre, cette thèse démontre comment Muldoon intègre l’héritage économique, politique et culturel de l’industrie textile en Irlande du Nord dans la trame même de ses textes. / The Textile Poetics of Paul Muldoon (1951-) Paul Muldoon’s poetry has consistently made reference to textiles. Alongside descriptions of highly specialised fabrics such as dimity, buckram and barège, his work also features numerous textile images including hand-embroidered tablecloths, soiled blankets and linen shifts. Indeed, the detail and scope of Muldoon’s textile imagery suggests that the trope is central to his poetic. By examining the various ways he incorporates textiles into his poetry, this thesis posits the argument that Muldoon’s poetic is essentially a textile one. Moreover, by considering the relationship between texts and textiles, this thesis also aims to show how Muldoon’s textile poetic draws on a tradition extending from classical Greek poetry through to Jonathan Swift, W. B. Yeats and post-War Irish poetry. In addition it will also study how the economic, political and cultural legacy of Ireland’s textile industry is threaded through Muldoon’s work.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2006. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: N. R. Pope.