one in each stanza, has the effect of introducing the issues of
representation and interpretation being subjective and visual. The
stanzas are separated or interrupted in a way that complements the
image of rain stopping suddenly at one point. Yet the punctuation is
continuous with enjambment between the lines and this has the formal
effect of blurring the boundary between the stanzas to undermine the
visual image of the clean cut ëshower of rainí. The opening question
of ë[y]ou rememberí, appeals to the other figure to respond and the
perspectives of each of the figures joins; so there is no clear division
between the vision of the male figure and the poetic voyeur; it is as if
they see and ëwonderí the same thing.
Second, there is a division between natural and unnatural
boundaries or the ëshower of rainí and the ëwall of glassí. The
comparison of the rain and glass merges visually. How then do we
perceive the differences between rain and glass? The sheet of glass is
evocative of a mirror and within the poem there is a mirroring effect
where things become the opposite of what they are expected to be.
The rain stopping ëcleanly across Golightlyís laneí seems a freak of
nature or unnatural. While the ëwall of glassí or the Partition between
the North and South of Ireland is artificial, political and ideological,
yet within the everyday context of a border village, where ëthe butcher
and bakerí are ëin different statesí, this is normalized. With the use of
two perspectives, and the elision of the image of the rain and wall of
glass, the differences between perception and representation are
thrown into question. This is comparable with the preoccupation with
how the Partition is to be perceived that was found in discussion of
Tom Paulinís ëLine on the Grassí in the last chapter.^31
The borderline in ëLine on the Grassí is represented as a no
manís land that is identified within the poem, whereas in Muldoonís
poem the frontier disappears. One is either in the rain or not, so where
is the middle point that is neither in the rain nor out of the rain? In
Muldoonís poem, it is as if the middle point disappears when put
under any pressure. Muldoon both highlights a medium point and
magics it away. In the poem frontiers do not hold because perception
of them is uncertain, so the boundary ëmight have been a wall of glass/
31 Tom Paulin, ëLine on the Grassí, Selected Poems 1972ñ1990 (London: Faber,
1993), p.29.