Paul Muldoon's poetry has always been known for its complexity, its use of various forms, its allusions, as it opens up to all the contemporary and modernist forces of disorder, contingency, and confusion. For this reason critical studies of his work are most helpful, and Clair Wills's new study examines all his poetry, including his latest collection Hay. She offers close readings of many of the major poems, assesses his unmistakable style, and looks at his relation to significant predecessors such as Frost and Heaney. She also examines such issues as autobiography, the question of origins, sexuality, Irish myth and legend, Northern Ireland, and the dynamics of cross-cultural encounters.