Like many of Muldoon's recent collections, Horse Latitudes contains a long poem – in this case a sonnet sequence ostensibly describing battle scenes through time and place.
[5] The New York Times noted the clever and obscure references which Muldoon used to convey the anger and sadness in his poetry, and said "the poem's weird levity only darkens the tone".
[3] The review of Robert Potts in The Telegraph echoed this, saying the "ludic nature" of Muldoon's work "has occasionally irritated less patient readers" but that his "fun does not preclude his seriousness".
[4] The Irish incarnation of The Independent said understanding Muldoon "is often about as easy as to imagine Finnegans Wake outselling the Farmers Journal", but added "however much the subject-line veers, in the end it comes home, surprisingly enough, to simplicity and clarity".
He concluded "Muldoon more often than not manages by dint of skill to bring the private and public momentarily into balance, to achieve the calm associated with the oceanic standstill found at the latitudes of the title".