Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Paul Muldoon's poem "Symposium" is a playful and intricate exploration of language, particularly the way idioms and proverbs are often used, misused, and recombined in everyday speech. By merging and mixing familiar sayings, Muldoon creates a tapestry of absurdity that forces the reader to reconsider the meaning and utility of these well-worn phrases. The poem’s title, "Symposium," hints at a gathering of ideas or a conversation, suggesting that the poem itself is a kind of dialogue with the language we take for granted.

The poem opens with the phrase, "You can bring a horse to water but you can't make it hold / its nose to the grindstone and hunt with the hounds." Here, Muldoon blends the idioms "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink" and "Keep your nose to the grindstone" with "If you run with the hounds, you’ll catch the fox." The resulting hybrid creates a humorous and confusing image of a horse being asked to perform contradictory tasks. This opening sets the tone for the entire poem, where the familiar is made strange through linguistic manipulation.

Muldoon continues this method with "Every dog has a stitch in time," which combines "Every dog has its day" with "A stitch in time saves nine." The phrase, now devoid of its original meanings, becomes a nonsensical yet intriguing statement, highlighting how idioms, when misaligned, lose their power to communicate effectively. This fusion of language underscores the arbitrary nature of these phrases and how they often serve as placeholders for deeper thought.

As the poem progresses, phrases like "Two heads? You've been sold / one good turn" blend "Two heads are better than one," "You've been sold a bill of goods," and "One good turn deserves another." The dissonance created by these juxtapositions not only adds humor but also invites the reader to reflect on how often language is used without genuine engagement. The idioms, once filled with practical wisdom, become empty vessels through their overuse and misapplication.

The poem also includes lines like "A bird in the hand is better than no bread," which combines "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" with "Half a loaf is better than none." By juxtaposing these proverbs, Muldoon underscores the potential for language to obscure rather than clarify meaning. The next line, "To have your cake is to pay Paul," similarly blends "You can’t have your cake and eat it too" with "Rob Peter to pay Paul," further emphasizing how idioms can be twisted to the point of absurdity.

The couplet "Make hay while you can still hit the nail on the head. / For want of a nail the sky might fall" merges "Make hay while the sun shines" with "Hit the nail on the head" and "For want of a nail the shoe was lost," creating an image of urgency and precision that ultimately collapses under the weight of its own incongruity.

Muldoon continues this technique with "People in glass houses can't see the wood / for the new broom. Rome wasn't built between two stools." Here, "People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" is merged with "Can't see the forest for the trees," "A new broom sweeps clean," and "Rome wasn't built in a day." The result is a chaotic jumble that forces the reader to question the coherence of these phrases when stripped of their context.

The closing lines, "A hair of the dog is a friend indeed. / There's no fool like the fool / who's shot his bolt. There's no smoke after the horse is gone," continue this pattern of blending, mixing sayings like "A friend in need is a friend indeed," "There's no fool like an old fool," "He's shot his bolt," and "No smoke without fire." The final image, "There's no smoke after the horse is gone," evokes the proverb "Closing the stable door after the horse has bolted," bringing the poem full circle to the idea of futile actions.

"Symposium" is both a satire of and a meditation on the ways language can be emptied of meaning through overuse and cliché. Muldoon's playful recombination of proverbs forces the reader to confront the often nonsensical nature of the idioms we casually deploy. By stripping these phrases of their original coherence, the poem reveals the fragility of language and the ease with which meaning can be lost. In doing so, Muldoon invites us to engage more thoughtfully with the words we use and the wisdom we claim to convey through them.

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