Rising to the Rising collects Paul Muldoon’s various responses in English and Irish to commissions from the Irish Writers’ Centre, New York University, RTÉ and others to compose verses to mark seminal moments in a country’s history. They evoke tragic aspects and the aftermath of the Easter Rising of 1916 and the Battle of the Somme just a few months later.
The work of a limitlessly gifted writer, it includes what might be the most enduring achievements of a nation’s celebrations and commemorations.