'Erudite, witty and musical' Paul Muldoon wins Queen's gold medal for poetry

Muldoon has produced 12 major collections of poetry as well as children's books and song lyrics.

Poet Laureate Dame Carol Ann Duffy said: "Paul Muldoon is widely acclaimed as the most original and influential poet of the past 50 years and is rightly celebrated alongside Seamus Heaney.

"His poetry displays a restless playful brilliance, forever searching for new ways to channel his ideas and new language to dress them in."

Muldoon was born in Portadown in Co Armagh in 1951 and published his first poetry collection in 1973.

In 1981 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

He has lived chiefly in the United States for the last 30 years, teaching at Princeton University and more recently editing poetry for The New Yorker magazine, before giving that up earlier this year.

Dame Carol Ann added: "He is ambitious, erudite, witty and musical. He can experiment with form and stand tradition on its head, craft a tender elegy or intimate love poem with equal skill.

"His work is of major significance internationally - poetry of clarity, invention, purpose and importance which has raised the bar of what's possible in poetry to new heights."

Muldoon is the youngest of a famous group of poets from Northern Ireland, including Seamus Heaney and Michael Longley, centred around Queen's University in Belfast, who gained prominence in the 1970s.

He delivered a tribute to Heaney at the Nobel Prize winner's 2013 funeral in Dublin.

Muldoon will be presented with his medal by the Queen in 2018.