Gendered Spaces in Contemporary Irish Poetry

potentially rebellious impulses. It is a paradigmatic gesture of spontaneity in an

increasingly manipulated world.^3

In spite of his posturing as a hardened political poet, in Writing
to the Moment (1996) Paulin makes an important statement about
what constitutes political poetry and aligns his poetry closer to the
lyric tradition of John Clare than would be expected from the
ëresistance fighterí:

Although the imagination can be strengthened rather than distorted by ideology,

my definition of a political poem does not assume that such poems make an

ideological statement. Instead they can embody a general historical awareness ñ

an observation of the rain ñ rather than offering a specific attitude to state

affairs.^4

Here, Paulin redefines what we take to be political arguing beyond
crude Marxist models which suggest that ëa specific attitude to state
affairsí constitutes a truly political and historical poem. Instead, he
talks of the poem embodying a ëgeneral historical awarenessí. How
then is such an ëhistorical awarenessí achieved, what does it mean for
the poet to be politically engaged, and what is the relationship
between aesthetics and politics in Paulinís poetry?
It is necessary to notice from the start that the position of Paulin
as a poet is not always the same as his role as a critical essayist. An
example of this is found in his collection of essays, Writing to the
Moment, when Paulin clearly states his position in the theory wars of
the late 1970s and early 1980s. Melodramatically, he expresses
contempt for a new generation of critics who, in his opinion, possess a
ëbizarre critical vocabularyí and take everyone ëfor a rideí. He attacks
the theorist who takes ëliterary texts apartí, explaining ëtheir
contradictions, those abysses of meaningí into which the theorists ëare
forever recedingí.^5 However, in spite of his professed allergy to
theory, Paulinís recent poetry confronts these ëabysses of meaningí as
he tests the medium within which he works.

3 Elmer Andrews, ëTom Paulin: Underground Resistance Fighterí, Poetry in
Contemporary Irish Literature, ed., Michael Kenneally (Bucks: Gerrards Cross,
1995), p.334.
4 Paulin, Writing to the Moment (London: Faber, 1996), pp.104ñ5.
5 Ibid., pp.279, 277.