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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IMMRAMA by PAUL MULDOON

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: I, TOO, HAVE TRAILED MY FATHER'S SPIRIT
Last Line: His children asleep under their mosquito-nets
Subject(s): FATHERS;
I, too, have trailed my father's spirit
From the mud-walled cabin behind the mountain
Where he was born and bred,
TB and scarletina,

The farm where he was first hired out,
To Wigan, to Crewe junction,
A building-site from which he disappeared
And took passage, almost, for Argentina.

The mountain is coming down with hazel,
The building-site a slum,
While he has gone no further than Brazil.

That's him on the verandah, drinking rum
With a man who might be a Nazi,
His children asleep under their mosquito-nets.



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