“All this debris of day-to-day experience”: The Poet as Rhythmanalyst in the Works of Louis MacNeice, Derek Mahon and Paul Muldoon

Abstract

This article examines the work of three Irish poets, namely Louis MacNeice, Derek Mahon and Paul Muldoon, and particularly focuses on their poetic journals or journalistic poetry. The word “journal” bridges private and public discourses. Its root is the Latin diurnālis, pertaining to anything taking place “daily,” and thus to repetitive action, record-keeping or reporting carried out by private individuals in the form of a diary (latin diārium), or to journalism contributing to public communications or discourse. To examine the poetic journals of these three writers, the article employs the French philosopher Henri Lefebvre’s concept of rhythmanalysis to discuss the rhythmic, repetitive and changing processes of both poetry and the social and phenomenal experience.