In 1982, Irish poet Paul Muldoon was one name among a number of rising stars in the important anthology, The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry.

Now he is hailed by some critics as the natural heir to Seamus Heaney and "the most significant English-language poet born since the Second World War".

On stage in the Community Centre, Ledbury, Mr Muldoon's mannerisms and engaging personality soon won over the audience.

He read from his newly-published Poems 1968-1998, and seemed to weigh every word, often taking a strong, careful breath before each phrase, and occasionally switching the weight from one leg to another with a curious kind of jig, in keeping with the rhythms.

Many members of the audience were clearly entranced. One young man silently mouthed large swathes of verse in perfect time with the poet, like a teenager responding to a pop tune.

And Muldoon is popular; but is he as significant as some critics would claim?

The answer will differ among aficionados, but surely depends on whether his subject matter is seen to have wider significance beyond the orbit of his own circumstances.

This is because Muldoon usually focuses on his own life experiences, not just on Ireland, not merely on his own family dramas, but even down to minutiae, such as in the poem Quoof, which celebrates his family word for a hot water bottle.

Muldoon is a master of both the image and the phrase. A baby in the womb is "a gladiator in his net, passing judgement on the crowd".

He delights in words and weighs them, and this makes him an interesting modern poet, to my mind; if not the most important in the pack.

Gary Bills Geddes