Seamus Heaney IOC Digging Introduction Context: Digging is taken from Heaney’s first collection of poems, The Death of a Naturalist that deals with the loss of childhood innocence and the following transitions into adulthood. Similarly to poems such as Blackberry Picking and Death of a Naturalist In, Heaney draws inspiration from his rural upbringing as a child in order to uncover the person he is today. Subject Matter: In this poem Heaney sees his father, an old man, digging the flowerbeds. He remembers how his younger, stronger father used to dig in the potato fields when Heaney was a child, and how his grandfather, before that, was an expert turf digger. Heaney knows that he has no spade to follow men like them, he is a writer, not a farmer so he will dig with his pen similarly to how in this poem, Heaney 'digs' into his past. The personal memory evoked in the poem is simultaneously culturally collective in that there are many people who may well have grown up in an agrarian environment in Ireland, but who, as a result of the 1944 Education Act, progressed to an education they would not otherwise have had. This shift resulted in a new generation of people who like Heaney, earned their living in radically different ways from those of their parents, and hence felt the same disconnect to their roots that Heaney expresses in Digging. Outline: This discussion will take on a linear approach so as to trace the development of Heaney’s narrative perspective of berry picking as a child, while focusing mainly on the ideas of: The dual attitude that Heaney has towards agricultural work which shows that while Heaney admires those who engage in such work, he also acknowledges he is unable to find fulfillment in the work The significance of heritage and cultural roots in Heaney’s life Heaney’s attitude towards writing, and how he finds fulfillment in this career choice
Main Analysis “Between my finger and my thumb” In the first line, the use of the personal, first person pronoun “my” identifies the speaker of the poem as Heaney himself, which highlights to readers the autobiographical nature of the poem. “The squat pen rests, snug as a gun” The use of the words “rests” and “snug” implies a sense of familiarity and comfort that convey Heaney’s ease with a pen and hence his chosen profession as a writer. In the metaphor of a gun, Heaney likens his pen to a weapon, which symbolizes the power that Heaney feels when wielding his pen, and this . However, it also shows certain defensiveness on his part, and the need to use his writing as a weapon to protect his chosen career from the criticisms of others. “Under my window, a clean rasping sound When the spade sinks into gravelly ground My father, digging. I look down” In the following stanza, we are drawn from the image of Heaney to that of his father, digging. As the opening couplet is typographically separated on the page from this three line stanza, this contrasts the writer’s activity with that of his father who is engaged in the physical activity of digging, highlighting that his father’s physical actions are something that is observed by the poet but not shared. By describing his father as “under my window”, Heaney introduces a barrier between father and son that is central to Digging. The positional description of “under” and later in this same stanza, how Heaney describes looking “down” at his father all imply that Heaney not only feels a sense of disconnect to his father’s profession, but he also holds a level of contempt for it. The enjambment at “I look down” also emphasizes this line for the reader hence highlighting his attitude towards his father’s occupation. In the second line of this stanza, Heaney uses audio devices such as alliteration in “spade sinks” and “gravelly ground”, which reflects the “clean rasping sound” that Heaney describes in the preceding line. The repetition also shows how Heaney views the physical labor as a mundane, repetitive activity. “Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds Bends low, comes up twenty years away Stooping in rhythm through potato drills Where he was digging” The third stanza serves as a transitory stanza that shows Heaney drifting from the present situation to his memories of his father before, as can be seen in the line “comes up twenty years away”.
The description of his father’s “straining rump”, his “stooping” and how he “bends low”, indicate the tiring nature of the work as well as once again highlighting this idea that Heaney feels elevated in comparison, thus conveying how Heaney views such work as being of a low status. The phrase “bends low” can also imply the current agedness of Heaney’s father. “in rhythm” also reinforces the idea presented in the previous stanza, that Heaney views the work as mundane and repetitive. “The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft Against the inside knee was levered firmly. He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep To scatter new potatoes that we picked Loving their cool hardness in our hands.” In this stanza we begin to see a shift in Heaney’s attitude towards his father’s laborious work as he thinks about his father in his prime. Heaney moves away from the tedious, tiring physicality of the work and instead focuses on the images of “The coarse boot nestled on the lug” and “the shaft against the inside knee”. These two images describe separate parts of his father’s body, the foot and the knee, as though they are entwined with the various parts of the spade. This shows the natural way in which his father handles the spade, almost as though it is an extension of himself. The use of the word “nestled” also echoes the word “snug” used in the first stanza which implies that the way Heaney views his pen is similar to the way his father views the spade. This connection made, while seemingly minor, shows readers that Heaney is beginning to better understand his father’s craft. Following this, we see the idea of elevation in digging similar to the “bend[ing] low” and “[coming] up” that was seen in the previous stanza, except this time, Heaney focuses on the products of his father’s digging, the potatoes. The use of plosives in “buried”, “bright” and “potatoes” all draw the readers attention to the potatoes and the significance of Heaney’s father in uncovering them. The use of enjambment between the fourth and fifth lines, emphasizes the final line of the stanza that speaks of “Loving their cool hardness in our hands”, referring to the potatoes. The use of the word “loving” show how Heaney begins to recognize the importance of his father’s digging, and appreciate the products of his labor. Furthermore, the image of the “bright edge”, which brings to mind the image of a knife, and the words, “lug”, “shaft” and “levered” all bear associations to weapons. Even the “cool hardness in our hands” could refer to grenades instead of potatoes. This reminds readers of how Heaney had previously compared a pen to a gun, and this conveys how Heaney beginning to see digging as an equally powerful activity as writing. “By God, the old man could handle a spade. Just like his old man.” In the fifth stanza, we see more explicitly Heaney’s admiration for his father and the work that he does. The use of the phrase “By God” and the affectionate term “the old man” in reference to his father all contributes to showing the admiration Heaney now has. The second line draws the connection to Heaney’s grandfather, and the repetition of the term “the old man” connects the three generations as it implies that Heaney and his father feel a similar admiration to Heaney’s grandfather. “My grandfather cut more turf in a day Than any other man on Toner’s bog. Once I carried him milk in a bottle Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up To drink it, then fell to right away Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods Over his shoulder, going down and down For the good turf. Digging.” The beginning of the sixth stanza continues the admiration that had been seen directly before this. By saying that “My grandfather cut more turf in a day/Than any other man”, Heaney appears to be gloating about how skilled his grandfather was at his work. The casual mention of “Toner’s bog”, an actual place in Ireland, with no explanation whatsoever, allows the poem to feel more intimate to the reader as it seems as though Heaney is speaking to the readers with a familiarity and an assumption that the reader is as aware of the Irish landscape and culture as he is. Following this, we now focus on a specific memory of Heaney’s experience with his grandfather. Heaney describes him taking on the duty of carrying his grandfather a milk bottler that had been “Corked sloppily with paper.” This line is significant as the word “sloppily” especially in contrast with the word “neatly” that is later used to describe the work of Heaney’s grandfather, prepares readers for the idea that Heaney is not suited for work relating to that of his grandfather and father, as he is incapable of even properly assisting them in their work. Additionally, the use of paper in corking the bottle creates a small, subtle connection between the grandfather’s work of peat harvesting with Heaney’s later occupation of writing. In this stanza, we also see how the grandfather labors tirelessly and with great skill and strength. He only stops for a moment to rest and drink the milk before he “fell to [his work] right away”, to engage in the strenuous work that involves “heaving sods over his shoulder”. The choice of the word “heaving” highlights the physical strength required in such work. Heaney also emphasizes the kinesthetic imagery of “nicking and slicing” through the use of internal rhymes in these two words. This line “nicking and
slicing neatly” implies that the work that the grandfather does, requires a high degree of precision and skill, and the acknowledgement of this fact also shows how Heaney admires his grandfather’s skill at his work. The stanza also echoes the images of elevation and depression seen in the earlier stanzas in the line “straightened up” which moves on to “then fell to right away”. This not only allows readers to envision the repetitive up and down motion of digging, but it also more firmly links the grandfather to the father as well, which emphasizes to readers the significance of such agricultural work in Ireland’s history, heritage which expresses itself in the similar choices of vocation of these two generations in the family. The line “going down and down” hence also doubly refers to the physical act of digging that involves going deeper into the earth and also the idea that Heaney is currently digging deeper and deeper into his cultural and familial history, evident in how his thoughts have drifted from his present day to his father to even further into his past, to his grandfather. This stanza ends with the singular word “Digging”. By turning the word into a sentence by itself, it shows a shift in attitude on Heaney’s part towards the activity, seeing as how he had previously avoided placing such emphasis on the name of the activity. He places a larger emphasis on the word so as to show how he now begins to understand the significance of the seemingly simple act of “digging”. “The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge Through living roots awaken in my head. But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.” In this stanza, we once again see a change in Heaney’s attitude towards the agricultural digging when he thinks specifically of the act itself instead of in relation to his father and grandfather. The first line starts off with a very vivid image of “The cold smell of potato mould”. The use of both the olfactory imagery in the “smell”, and tactile imagery in the word “cold”, engages both bodily senses, and forces readers to note intensity of the idea of decay and decomposition of the potato mould. In addition, the onomatopoeic words “squelch” and “slap” adds auditory imagery to Heaney’s description and highlights the disgust that Heaney feels towards the the “soggy peat”. The use of plosives in “curt cuts” to describe the edge of the spade, also show… The third line uses the present tense “awaken”, thus showing that Heaney has returned his thoughts to the present. The “living roots” he mentions can refer to the roots that are dug up, but they also symbolize how watching his father dig and thinking of his father and grandfather digging, have awakened thoughts of his metaphorical roots, his heritage, origin, and traditions. However, the last line is particularly significant because even though Heaney has expressed his admiration for his father and grandfather’s works, even admitting that “living roots [have awakened] in [his] head”, he still feels a sense of disconnect from the work as shown in the first stanza, and finds that he had “no spade to follow men like them”. The use of the word “them” further separates Heaney from the other men in his family, and reemphasizes the difference between Heaney and others in his family. “Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests. I’ll dig with it” The final stanza very closely mirrors the couplet which begins the poem, although this stanza is a tercet. This is especially significant because of the significance of the final line. The mirroring of the first two lines, once again highlights to readers that in spite of his admiration for the agricultural work, his calling still lies with writing. However the absence of the line “snug as a gun” shows that in a way, Heaney no longer views writing as giving himself a power greater than that of his father and grandfather and it also allows the poem to end on a positive note instead of the ominous tone that the metaphor of the gun had added to the first stanza. The last line of the stanza and the poem, “I’ll dig with it” shows that Heaney has changed his mindset regarding digging. The definite modal of “I’ll”, also show his determination to abide by his intentions to honor his heritage and the cultural significance of digging in his life, by using his pen as his metaphorical spade to continue “digging” into his past with it.
Conclusion To conclude, I have shown how Heaney has employed various literary techniques, especially the use of imagery to convey his All in all, I feel that Digging is a particularly important poem in Heaney’s repertoire of works as it shows how Heaney was able to make the decision to abandon a part of his past in order to embark on his journey of becoming a writer. It also explains why in Heaney’s works, Heaney places such a large degree of importance of trying to capture his past experiences and further convey to readers the importance of remembering their heritage and history.
Death of a Naturalist Introduction Context: The titular poem of Heaney’s first collection Death of a Naturalist embodies the ideas of growing up and a loss of innocence that the entire collection is concerned with as well, and similarly to other poems such as Mid-Term Break and Blackberry Picking, the poem draws on a specific memory in Heaney’s childhood. Seamus Heaney had himself grown up on a rural farmland in Ireland and had the freedom to roam the countryside and explore nature around him. However, he eventually moved away from his home and this distanced him from his rural background, this is thus paralleled in how the child speaker’s perception of nature in the poem changes over time. Subject Matter: The poet uses the changes in the speaker’s attitude towards the natural world in order to convey the concerns of growing up and the loss of innocence. The poem has a fairly simple structure. The poem is set out in two sections of blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter lines). The poem is similar to “Blackberry Picking” in its subject and structure – here, too, Heaney explains a change in his attitude to the natural world, in a poem that falls into two parts – before and after. But here, the experience is almost like a nightmare, as Heaney witnesses a plague of frogs akin to something from the Old Testament. Overview: This discussion will take on a linear approach so as to trace the metaphorical “death” and disillusionment of the naturalist in the poem, while focusing mainly on the ideas of: The young Heaney as a naturalist and avid observer of nature The intensity of this traumatic experience which has resulted in a loss of experience of Heaney’s part Heaney’s disillusionment towards nature which comes with Heaney’s realization that everything in life is not all that it seems to be
Title The naturalist of the title is a child. He is a naturalist in the sense that he lives in close relationship with nature. Heaney identifies with the child speaker as he himself had uninhibited freedom as a child to roam the countryside, dwelling on the delights of nature. However, like his child speaker, a chilling life experience changes him – similar to the death of his brother that he recounts in “Mid-Term Break”. At first glance, the title suggests a literal death, and this misleading quality of the title brings to mind the titles of Heaney’s other poems, which achieve a similar effect, such as The Early Purges. Instead, the poem focuses on the metaphorical death of a naturalist as can be seen in the loss of the interests that define the speaker as a naturalist. The title also has the added effect of allowing readers to predict the change in tone and the ending of the poem, and allows to the poem to begin on an ominous note. The poem’s title is also amusingly ironic – as by a naturalist, we would normally mean someone with expert scientific knowledge of living things and ecology. The young Seamus Heaney was certainly beginning to know nature from direct observation – but this incident cut short the possible scientific career before it had even started.
Main Analysis “All year the flax-dam festered in the heart Of the townland; green and heavy handed Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods. Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun” The poem begins with Heaney describing the physical landscape of Ireland. In the first ten lines of the poem, Heaney uses vivid imagery to describe this setting. The phrase “the flax-dam festered” combines the use of assonance and alliteration to open the poem with an atmosphere of decay. The preceding phrase “All year” also gives the impression of a pervasive nature of this atmosphere, hence intensifying this ominous mood in the poem. In the following line, the visual image of the “green and heavy handed flax”, serves as a reminder of the rural landscape, and the continued use of alliteration emphasizes Heaney’s description of the rotting flax. The color green also serves an additional purpose of connoting the idea of sickness, thus allowing it to contribute to the ominous atmosphere of disease and decay that has been provided by the disease imagery of “festered” and “rotted”. The fourth line implies that the decay has been caused by the overwhelming heat of “the punishing sun”. The description of a “punishing” sun introduces the idea of nature as an oppressive, harmful entity, and illustrates the discomfort that the speaker has with nature. “Daily” also serves the same purpose of the phrase “All year” as it reinforces this overarching mood of decay. In essence these first four lines allow for the reader to anticipate the speaker’s later disillusionment with nature, as in line with the third main point of my commentary. The detailed use of imagery in these lines also drives across the first main point of my commentary, that shows how Heaney was very interested in nature and his surroundings. “Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell. There were dragon-flies, spotted butterflies, But best of all was the warm thick slobber Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water
In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring” In the next six lines of the poem, we see a sudden shift as the speaker expresses a tone of wonderment towards nature, and Heaney is hence able to draw our attention to the beauty in the natural landscape. The image of the “Bubbles [that] gargled delicately”, provides a gentler image of nature that starkly contrasts to the rotting flax seen before. The delicate nature of the bubbles is further emphasized in the use of plosives in “Bubbles” and “bluebottles” which mirror the sound of popping bubbles. In his descriptions of the various creatures in nature such as the dragonflies and the butterflies, Heaney begins to convey the beauty he saw in nature. We also see the positive attitude that Heaney originally had to nature when he uses the phrase “best of all” to describe the frogspawn. However, when he goes on to describe the frogspawn in greater detail, he describes it as a “warm thick slobber”, and goes on to compare it to “clotted water”. This provides readers with an almost grotesque image of the frogspawn, but yet the speaker’s continued fascination with it, shows not only that the descriptions are from the perspective of a young boy, but also that as a young boy, Heaney had truly been a naturalist who appreciated all facets of nature, as in line with the first main point of my commentary. “In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied Specks to range on window-sills at home, On shelves at school, and wait and watch until The fattening dots burst into nimbleSwimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how” In the following lines, Heaney moves readers away from general descriptions of nature to specific memories of his childhood, and it is in these lines that Heaney finally introduces himself as the speaker of the poem, as can be see in the use of the pronoun “I”. This hence highlights the autobiographical nature of the poem. In these lines, we see the very methodological, scientific manner in which Heaney treated nature before which emphasizes my first point about how Heaney had seen himself as a naturalist in his younger years. We see in these lines how he collected the frogspawn, shelved them and then waited to observe how they would eventually become tadpoles. This illustrates Heaney’s fascination with nature as a child, and the perspective of the child, and the child’s innocence is emphasized in the use of alliteration in “jampotsfuls of jellied”, “wait and watch” and the assonance in “nimble” and “swimming,”, as these audio devices add an almost playful mood to this portion of the first stanza. In these six lines, the use of enjambment between each line also displays the enthusiasm and the excitement Heaney expressed towards being able to observe nature in progress. “Swimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how The daddy frog was called a bullfrog And how he croaked and how the mammy frog Laid hundreds of little eggs and this was Frogspawn. You could tell the weather by frogs too” Moving on, Heaney introduces Miss Walls who readers can assume was his teacher. The casual way in which Heaney introduces her with no explanation whatsoever, allows Heaney to create an intimate atmosphere that allows Heaney to establish a form of familiarity with the reader that also enables readers to appreciate that Heaney is using the poem to share very personal memories of his youth. In these next five lines of the stanza, Heaney continues to remind readers of the use of the child’s perspective, and through this he reemphasizes the first main point of my commentary of the young Heaney as a naturalist. The speaker is extremely child-like and innocent in his use of simple diction, reminiscent of the thinking of a young child, such as “daddy frog” and “mammy frog”, and his connection of four separate clauses all with the word “and”. The repetitive use of “and” shows readers how enthusiastic the young speaker is at learning these different facts regarding frogs, and the childish way in which he gloats about his scientific knowledge, as can be see in how he says “You could tell”, In line 19, we also see how Heaney uses enjambment between lines 18 and 19 in order to reemphasize that the speaker’s fascination is specifically on “Frogspawn”, as this fact will be of significance in the second stanza of the poem. “Frogspawn. You could tell the weather by frogs too For they were yellow in the sun and brown In rain.” The stanza ends with the same vividness that has been present in the rest of the stanza, as Heaney employs the use of visual imagery with the color “yellow” and “brown”. However, the stanza ends with the short line “In rain”, this results in an ominous tone that have been similarly felt in the first four lines of the poem. The fact that Heaney isolates these two words from the other lines of the stanza which are significantly longer than this final line, make the line even more dramatically impactful which hence prepares readers for the end of this period of innocence which will eventually lead to the disillusionment seen in the next stanza.
“Then one hot day when fields were rank With cowdung in the grass the angry frogs Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges To a coarse croaking that I had not heard Before. The air was thick with a bass chorus.” The second stanza is much shorter than the first and takes on an extremely different tone in comparison. The shift in tone is signaled by the use of “Then” in the first line. This transition term also signifies that the loss of innocence is not gradual like the one described in The Early Purges. The indication that it is a “hot day”, also reminds readers of Heaney’s previous description of the fourth line of the poem in which Heaney describes the heat of what he calls the “punishing sun”. This further indicates that the speaker’s impressions of nature may turn increasingly negative to resemble those shown in the first four lines of the poem. There is a change in tone when the speaker describes the frogs as “angry” and invasive. This directly contradicts the first stanza in which he admired and enjoyed watching the frogs. This difference between the two stanzas illustrates my third main point regarding Heaney’s disillusionment towards nature. By personifying the frogs as “[invading]” the field, Heaney also parallels another childhood experience of his whereby he had watched the American soldiers practicing their maneuvers in the local fields in preparation for an invasion. The alliteration in “coarse croaking” is guttural and mimics the sounds of the frogs. This contributes to the overall aggressive tone of the stanza that conveys the growing fear and hence disillusionment that Heaney is feeling towards this aspect of nature that he had so enjoyed before. In line 26, Heaney adds to this uncomfortable atmosphere by writing that “The air was thick”, as though the sounds of the “bass chorus” utterly filled the entire place until it was almost unbearable for a young child. “Right down the dam gross-bellied frogs were cocked on sods; their loose necks pulsed like sails. Some hopped: The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some sat Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting I sickened, turned and ran. The great slime kings Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.” No longer do the frogs evoke the same sense of wonderment and fascination that had been present in the child in stanza one, thus effectively highlighting that Heaney has become disillusion by nature as in line with the third main point of my commentary. Instead of seeing the frogs as “nimble-swimming tadpoles”, he now views them with disgust and revulsion, describing them as “gross-bellied frogs” with “loose necks [that] pulsed like sails”. In line 28, Heaney also specifically states that the frogs were “on sods” so as to more efficiently link this stanza with the setting that had been described in the first stanza of the flax that have been “weighed down by huge sods”. This allows readers to recall the feelings of disgust for nature that had been present in the first few lines of the poem. In line 29, Heaney goes on to describe the sounds made by the frogs as “obscene threats”, this hence continues to show my second main point about how disillusioned the young boy has become toward the creatures he had loved before. This also continues the aggressive tone of the stanza and prepares readers for the heavy use of threatening war imagery to come in the next few lines. There is a continuation of the war-like connotations of the words “invaded” in line 24, when the frogs appear to be declaring Heaney as an enemy and are poised to attack with their “mud grenades”. The emphasis on “cocked on sods” created through the use of assonance also brings to mind the image of a trigger of a gun being cocked. This use of war imagery creates a sense of dissonance as the descriptions are coming from a child who had expressed such innocence in the stanza before. Hence, this highlights the second point of my commentary by showing how this traumatizing incident has resulted in a loss of innocence in the child. The speaker is so frightened by the frogs that he “turns and runs”. A menacing, evil image is also conjured in the description of the frogs as “the great slime kings”. This resonates with a sense of revulsion and it also shows how powerless the young child feels in comparison to the frogs. Heaney intensifies the speaker’s fear by ending the poem with the nightmarish image of the spawns “clutching him”, as though this traumatizing incident will forever hold a grip on him. This reinforces my second point as it shows the great impact that this experience has had on Heaney.
Conclusion In conclusion, the poem recreates and examines the moment of the child’s confrontation with the fact that life may not necessarily be what it seems. Although my commentary has established the young Heaney as an avid naturalist in his youth, I have also shown how this one event has changed his perception of the world, thus leading to his disillusionment with nature and eventual loss of innocence. Personally I feel that in this poem we also see how Heaney views this transition and loss of innocence as an almost traumatic, painful event.
Mid-Term Break Introduction Context: The poem Mid-Term Break is a poem from Heaney’s first collection, Death of a Naturalist. Similarly to other poems of the collection, this poem is highly autobiographical and draws from Heaney’s own childhood memories. Heaney’s brother, Christopher had died in an accident at the age of 4, while Heaney was away at school, and the aftermath of this traumatic event is captured in this poem. Subject Matter: The title “Mid-Term Break” is a misleading one. Whatever the reader’s expectation from a literal interpretation of the title, these expectations will be subverted through the reading of the poem. The poem is not about a reprise of a break in the middle of a school term but about a break from staying at the Boarding School for the speaker who has to return home to attend to his younger brother’s funeral. Death is seen through the eyes of the older brother through the 1st person narrative voice. This misleading of the readers is a commonality between many of Heaney’s poems, such as Black-berry Picking which provides a much more innocent impression of the poem that is eventually subverted in the progression of the poem. Outline: This discussion will take on a linear approach so as to trace the chronology of the event, and follow the older brother as he returns home from boarding school to attend the funeral. In this commentary I will mainly be discussing the significance of the title and structure of the poem the reactions of the people around him the child’s perspective in conveying the tragedy of the young boy’s death. Through this, the discussion will substantiate the idea that Heaney hopes to convey, that death is painful but unavoidable and life needs to go on.
Structure The poem is written in an almost iambic pentameter rhythm. This coupled with the structure of the tercets, with the exception of the final line, provides a stately and measured pace, giving the poem an elegiac quality that is fitting for the subject matter of the poem. The structure of a tercet also gives a narrative quality of the poem. Within each stanza we also see how Heaney uses assonance, such as in “close” and “home”, which adds to this measured quality of the poem. In the poem, Heaney expresses the trauma of death through visual details and controlled emotions with a strong focus on the reactions of people around him instead of an expression of the self. Perhaps this is to achieve the effect of allowing readers to understand that the young Heaney had felt numbness towards his brother’s death due to the gravity of the situation.
Main Analysis “I sat all morning in the college sick bay Counting bells knelling classes to a close. At two o’clock, our neighbors drove me home.” At the beginning of the poem, Heaney situates the speaker in a “college sick bay”. By doing so, he subtly introduces this idea of death in the poem, and starts the poem off on an ominous note, especially because the idea of a fun, happy mid-term break that had been implied in the title is subverted within the first line. Though it is not known to readers yet, the second line actually shows the speaker’s attempts at distracting himself from the thoughts of his brother’s death by “counting bells knelling”. Ironically, the knelling bells bring to mind the idea of funeral bells, hence instead of “distracting” himself and readers from the death of his brother, Heaney actually continues to ominously foreshadow the death that is to come, thus adding to the gloomy mood of the poem. The specific reference to time, “At two o’clock” , is extremely indicative of the sense of anxiety and fear felt by the child. The significance of this event to Heaney is also evident in the fact that he remembers such precise, minute details pertaining to this event in his life. The fact that it is the speaker’s neighbors who arrive to bring the speaker home instead of his parents, also add to the sense of anxiety that has been created so far. By stating that it is “our neighbours” who drove “me” home, it also shows how isolated and distanced the young Heaney felt, in the midst of this situation. “In the porch I met my father crying — He had always taken funerals in his stride — And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.” In the second stanza, readers are introduced to the situation that had been foreshadowed in the first stanza and that has given the speaker this “mid-term break”, by the explicit indication that he is at a “funeral”. There is a shift in setting from stanza one to stanza two as seen in the prepositional locative phrase “in the porch”. However, despite the change in setting, there is still a sustained personal grief, which is effectively highlighted through the personal pronouns “I” and “My father”.
In this stanza, we are also shown the reactions of two men, Heaney’s father, and Big Jim Evans, as in line with the second point of my commentary, so that we are able to understand the sadness and devastation that this death has caused. The use of dashes within this stanza also add a sense of incompleteness in each line, hence readers are forced to read on and appreciate how each additional line adds a greater meaning to the events that are occurring. The first interaction that the speaker has upon arriving home is with his father. He notes that his father is “crying”. Already, this shocks readers to a certain extent, at seeing this man crying. The significance of this is intensified when the dash in sentence from the first line of this stanza to the second, explains that his father had “always taken funerals in his stride”. The emphasis on this fact is created by the definite “always”, which highlights the extreme grief that is being felt by the father in this poem that causes him to react in a way that is anomalous from how he would normally react. The last line of this stanza introduces “Big Jim Evans”, with little fanfare. The name “Big Jim Evans”, connotes a sense of strength and power, hence to have him admit that the death “was a hard blow”, effectively reflects how shockingly tragic the death had been that even full grown men would feel such extreme pain. The phrase “hard blow” serves as a double entendre also as it could refer to both the emotional impact of the death and also the impact of the car that had caused the death of Heaney’s brother. “The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram When I came in, and I was embarrassed By old men standing up to shake my hand And tell me they were ‘sorry for my trouble’. Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest, Away at school, as my mother held my hand In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs. At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.” From the third stanza to the fifth stanza, Heaney uses enjambment between each stanza to connect the stanzas with long sentences so as to highlight how overwhelmed, and uneasy the speaker feels due to the reactions of everyone around him. The third stanza starts with the image of a baby and presents us with the contrast of the baby’s innocent joy at seeing his older brother with the grief that everyone else feels. The use of the connector “and” to connect the three different actions of the baby, emphasize how the baby “cooed”, “laughed” and “rocked the pram”, despite the gloomy atmosphere. The bouncy, emphatic rhythm that is created in this line is also in direct contrast with the measured pace of the poem so far. This highlights the baby’s innocent oblivion to the tragic circumstances. Next, Heaney goes on to describe the reactions of those on the other end of the age spectrum. He describes the “old men standing up to shake” his hands, which adds to the unusualness of the situation for the young speaker as these much older men are offering their condolences to the boy in such a mature manner. The fact that young Heaney is “embarrassed” further adds to the awkwardness of the situation which is also economically conveyed through the use of their use of euphemistic language such as in referring to his younger brother’s death as his “trouble”. The use of sibilance in line 11 also captures the hushed, muted atmosphere typical of a funeral in the house. Heaney goes on to concentrate upon his mother’s reaction to her son’s death. She says nothing but hold his hand as she “coughed out angry tearless sighs”. This implies that she has cried so much that she has no more tears to shed. The use of enjambment between line 12 and line 13, emphasizes the phrase “In hers”, especially since it opens the fifth stanza. This shows how much comfort his mother takes in his presence. The next line begins with another precise time reference, which helps us to anticipate the significance of what happens at this time, specifically the arrival of the body. By referring to the body as a “corpse”, this conveys a distancing of the poet from the body, showing his inability to comprehend and fully take in the death, while also emphasizing the finality of death for the dead body is seen as simply a “corpse”, implying that it is seen as almost entirely separate from the brother. “Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him For the first time in six weeks. Paler now Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple, He lay in the four foot box as in his cot. No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.” The sixth stanza of the poem focuses on the event that has cause this “mid-term break” by recounting the speaker’s experience of seeing his brother’s body. In the first line, Heaney simply refers to the room that holds his brother’s body as “the room”, the use of
the article “the”, helps show the significance of this room, though it also shows how the speaker is unable to fully digest the reality of the situation by his avoidance of referring to the room by what it actually is. The significant abrupt change of referential identity from corpse to the use of pronouns such as “him”, “his” and “he” helps to create a more personal mood in this part of the poem, and it also reminds readers that the departed is the speaker’s brother whom he did love, despite the sense of distance and disconnect that had been created in the previous stanzas. Heaney creates a calm, almost peaceful atmosphere in this stanza through the images of “snowdrops and candles” that “soothed the bedside” and are items that could symbolize life and hope. However, there is no doubt that this is indeed a funeral as these items are all ritualistically funeral. The ability of these items to represent both life and death also illustrates the fine line between the two which mirrors how easily Heaney’s brother had his life taken from him. The reminder that Heaney and his brother had been separated prior to his death, makes this scene in the poem even more poignant as it evokes sympathy from the readers by showing them that now, the two are forced to continue this separation. When the speaker describes the body as “Paler now”, we once again see how the speaker avoids explicitly mentioning the death which could emphasize the child’s perspective as his youth prevents him from being able to fully perceive the death like an adult. Heaney likens the injury sustained by his brother to a “poppy”. This draws attention to the apparently insignificant injury that had such a devastating effect, as well as the fragility of life with which the poppy is traditionally associated. The descriptions become almost unbearably powerful when Heaney compares his brother lying in the coffin to him lying “in his cot”. This achieves two effects, firstly it reminds the readers of how his brother was still practically a baby that had required a cot, and hence emphasizing the unnatural interruption of the boy’s young life, and secondly, the comparison to a cot and the further indication that the body had “no gaudy scars”, seems to imply that the boy could very easily be asleep, but this heightens the sadness of the poem, as readers are firmly aware that this is an illusion and the boy shall never awake again. “A four foot box, a foot for every year.” The final line of the poem is isolated from the rest of the poem and this one line stanza hence adds particular emphasis to the meaning of the line. Heaney returns us to the image of the coffin, the “four foot box”, thus ending the poem with the finality of death still permeating the atmosphere. The matter-of-fact statement of “a four foot box, a foot for every year”, which is made even more biting by the use of fricatives, strengthens the depressing mood of the poem as it emphasizes the brevity of the boy’s life that had resulted in his death at the tender age of four.
Conclusion The great restraint seen in Heaney in this poem, creates a sense of poignancy and arouses a great sense of sympathy in readers for the poet’s situation. Heaney also uses the structure, title, descriptions of the reactions of other in order to convey the tragic nature of Christopher’s death so are to show Heaney’s indignation that such a young child should have gone through the trauma of death so early in life.
The Tollund Man Introduction Context: The Tollund man was a victim featured in P.V. Glob’s book “The Bog People”, written about Pagan ritual murders hundreds of years ago in Northern Europe. The Tollund man was sacrificed to Nerthus, the goddess of sea and land, in the hope of securing a good crop from the land. In other words, the Tollund man was a martyr-like figure. This poem is known as one of Heaney’s Bog Poems, with others such as Punishment and Bogland, as Heaney found a great fascination in the idea of the bogs being able to preserve history and culture. Subject Matter: In the poem, Heaney uses the analogy of the Tollund man in order to subtly convey his political views regarding the conflict in Ireland that had been occurring at the time, mainly the communal violence in Ulster. Heaney draws a parallel between the Danish ritual and sacrificial murders of centuries ago with religious and political murders of the Irish conflict. Some critics have also ponted out that The Tollund Man does not make an active political statement despite its political undertones, but it makes a greater effort to generate historical awareness. Overview: This discussion will take on a linear approach which focuses on: Heaney’s fascination and reverence for the Tollund Man as a martyr How Heaney uses the Tollund Man to reflect the political atrocities occurring distancing
Structure Part I: Speaker meditates on the ancient ritual sacrifice of the Tollund Man Part II: Speaker draws a parallel between the ancient ritual sacrifice and modern killing in Ireland Part III: Speaker conflates Jutland and Ireland as one entity
Main Analysis “Some day I will go to Aarhus To see his peat-brown head The mild pods of his eye-lids His pointed skin crap” In the first section of the poem, we see Heaney’s fascination and reverence for the Tollund as a martyr, through Heaney’s detailed use of imagery to describe the body and the sacrificial ritual of the man, and the use of religious diction to convey Heaney’s reverence and admiration for the martyr. Heaney describes the man with fanatical obsession, down to every detail, almost as though he were a scientific subject being examined. By doing so, he allows for readers to better appreciate the Tollund man and the sacrifice he underwent and hence by drawing parallels between the Tollund man and the victims of the modern killings in Ireland, the political message of the poem is more intensely conveyed. The first line of the poem, introduces the intensity of Heaney’s regard for the Tollund man. The use of the future tense in “I will go to Aarhus”, results in a sense of control, determination and excitement towards the quest he desires to undertake to see the Tollund man. The intensity of the desire allows for this promise to resemble a vow of sorts, thus enabling this quest to resemble a religious pilgrimage, hence highlighting the reverence Heaney has for the Tollund man. Furthermore, the reference to “Aarhus” even though Heaney is perfectly aware that that is not where the body is situated, shows how Heaney had desired for his quest to resemble a pilgrimage as he purposefully used this term to add a mythical ring to the quest. Heaney then proceeds to describe the iconic head and facial features of the body. Heaney uses color imagery in “peat-brown head”, and even goes on to describe the “pointed skin cap” that the body wears. The description of his eyelids as being “mild pods”, conjures the image of seeds, showing the good preservation of the body, seemingly almost alive, like plant seeds. The use of enjambment between each of these lines in the first stanza also allow for readers to focus on each individual physical feature of the head which intensifies the image of the Tollund man for the reader. “In the flat country near by Where they dug him out, His last gruel of winter seeds Caked in his stomach,” In the next stanza, there is a switch from the familiar features of the Tollund man to the place he was found, “In the flat country nearby”. There is now a new detachment in the tone, becoming more impersonal and matter-of-factly, which is caused by Heaney’s avoidance of including his personal voice in this stanza. In this stanza, there is also the absence of the longing that had been seen in the first stanza, as can be seen in the very direct phrase “they dug him out”, in reference to the extraction of the body. The lack of emotional attachment in this stanza could be Heaney’s attempt to remove himself from the poem and shift the focus entirely onto the Tollund man. The use of guttural sounds in “gruel” and plosives in “caked” creates a sense of dissonance and a morbid tone which gives rise to feelings of unease in this stanza that prepares readers for the descriptions of his ritualistic death in the stanzas to come.
“Naked except for The cap, noose and girdle, I will stand a long time. Bridegroom to the goddess,” In the beginning of the third stanza, the word “naked” echoes the word “caked” in the stanza before, and hence continues the morbid tone that has been established so far. This is further emphasized by the next line, which forces readers to focus on the individual items of “The cap, noose and girdle”. The “noose” especially, now refers directly to the method at which the Tollund man died. Following this line, Heaney states, “I will stand a long time” which echoes the vow that he made in the first stanza, “I will go to Aarhus”. Not only is the structure of the line the same, but it continues the use of future tense. This once again conveys the admiration for the corpse he views as a pagan martyr. He says this as he meditates on the pragmatic purpose of his death in the ancient ritual, in the line “Bridegroom to the goddess”, in which it was believed that a new bridegroom to the goddess was required every winter in order to ensure the fertility of the land. “She tightened her torc on him And opened her fen, Those dark juices working Him to a saint’s kept body,” The next stanza is a grotesque, violent, sensual and sexual description of his death as the Tollund man is sacrificed to the goddess. “Opened her fen”, “Dark juices” and “Tightened her torc” signify an almost ritualistic sexual union between the Tollund man and Nerthus, the goddess. Parallel phrase structure in “tightened her torc” and “opened her fen” is used to also highlight the sensual and sexual nature of the pagan sacrifice ritual. “Trove of the turfcutters’ Honeycombed workings. Now his strained face Reposes at Aarhus.” There is an abrupt shift from the Tollund man as a sacrificial offering to a treasure find of the turf cutter, as can be seen in the reference to the body as now a “trove” and “honeycomb” which all imply a level of value to be found in the body. The weakness in the perfectly non-decomposed body of the Tollund man is revealed in the “strained face” of the body. This image also allows readers to sympathize more greatly with the suffering the Tollund man had to go through for the sake of his people. Sibilance is also present in the words “strained” and “reposes”. This creates a serene atmosphere, and the choice of the word “reposes” also contributes to elevating the religious status of the Tollund man. “I could risk blasphemy, Consecrate the cauldron bog Our holy ground and pray Him to make germinate The scattered, ambushed Flesh of labourers, Stockinged corpses Laid out in the farmyards, Tell-tale skin and teeth Flecking the sleepers Of four young brothers, trailed For miles along the lines.” In the second section of the poem, Heaney draws parallels between the ancient rituals to the modern killings in Ireland. The opening of the second section, “I could risk blasphemy”, demonstrates the man’s power over Heaney, sending him almost into a trance with religious fervor. This line shows how Heaney is willing to challenge his Catholic religion, and engage in “blasphemy”, in order to elevate the pagan sacrifice. Heaney continues the use of religious diction in this stanza, for example, the words “consecrate”, “holy ground” and “pray”, to show both his reverence for the Tollund man and to also request the Tollund man to invoke its power to germinate, give life and resurrect the four Catholics who were murdered by the protestant militants, who were horribly mutilated as they were dragged along a railway line. The contemporary killings are described vividly, in great detail, as the bodies are described as being “scattererd” with the “Flesh of labourers” being “laid out in the farmyards”. The vividness of the situations arouses a sense of pathos and horror.
There is also a subconscious contrast between the civilized ritual killing of the Tollund man, who died as a willing sacrifice, in contrast to the cruelty and uncivilized brutal killing of the “four young brothers [who] trailed for miles along the lines”. Furthermore, in the final stanza of the second section, Heaney uses fricatives in “teeth”, “Flecking” and “four” to highlight the brutality of the deaths as well.
Conclusion In conclusion, within these two stanzas, Heaney uses the folk rituals to do two things, firstly by using the comparison of a martyr figure to the four catholic deaths in order to intensify the emotions associated with the atrocities that were done to the Irish people and their struggles for freedom. Secondly, Heaney is also able to undertake a non-didactic means of commenting on political issues. Though in the last section of the poem not shown in this extract, Heaney allows for the poem to take on another level of meaning. In the final stanza, Heaney attempts to conflate his sense of the Glob’s jutland rituals with his own sense of the mythic and modern Irish history. In this way, Heaney convey to the Irish the importance of going back to their roots Throughout the two sections, Heaney also uses
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Blackberry Picking Introduction Context: This poem comes from Heaney’s first autobiographical collection of poems Death of a Naturalist, and is hence similar to other poems found in the collection, such as the titular poem. It conveys themes of disillusionment, an important idea of the collection, and is largely inspired by Heaney’s childhood, in this case, his early agricultural lifestyle, specifically the act of picking berries. Subject Matter: The poem centers around Heaney’s memories of blackberry picking and the poem is divided into two stanzas, the first of which revolves around Heaney describing his enthusiasm and excitement during the blackberry picking season as a child, while the second shows a distinct change in Heaney’s attitude towards the activity as he views the inevitable decay of the berries with revulsion. In this way, the structure of the poem mirrors the 2-stanza structure of Death of a Naturalist, which does focus on a similar theme of disillusionment. Outline: This discussion will take on a linear approach so as to trace the development of Heaney’s narrative perspective of berry picking as a child, while focusing mainly on the ideas of: The use of sensual imagery in describing the berries so as to show the intensity of the memories for Heaney hence better engaging readers in the poem The use of juxtaposition of the first and second stanzas and foreshadowing to convey Heaney’s disillusionment And also Heaney’s description of the Irish agricultural landscape of his childhood so as to convey the use of blackberrypicking as an extended metaphor for the agricultural lifestyle
Title The title Blackberry-Picking holds a similar purpose to the title of Heaney’s other work, Mid-Term Break. The seemingly innocent title misleads readers regarding the intent of the poem as it initially gives the impression of a fun, enjoyable activity. This intensifies the effect of the poem on the readers when this impression is subverted by the end of the poem as the final stanza provides explicit descriptions of the decay that the berries undergo and the disgust that Heaney feels towards it. In some ways, the blackberries mentioned in the title can be viewed as an extended metaphor for Heaney’s feelings towards the agricultural lifestyle: Heaney initially enjoys the rural life as a child, but gradually becomes disillusioned by it.
The Early Purges At a Potato Digging Main Ideas The poem deals with two different potato harvests. One is the harvest from the present day (written in the ‘60s) that goes successfully and delivers a rich crop. The second looks back to the famine of 1845 when the crop failed and many people starved. Whilst the famine is no longer a threat, the ongoing fear for its return remains and this can be seen in the use of religious language throughout the poem. Nature – The poem deals with the natural world and the different aspects of nature that can be see in the reference to the earth as the ‘black mother’ that gives life and also the ‘bitch earth’ that is capable of inflicting great suffering. Suffering – The suffering of the people of Ireland is described in detail in this poem and we understand the extent of the misery that was caused by the famine. The Past – Heaney’s desire to make connections between the past and present is very important to the poem – a link is made between events more than a century apart.
The Wife’s Tale Introduction Context: The poem is taken from Seamus Heaney’s 2nd collection, Door into the Dark. Heaney has explained that this poem was written as he had wanted to capture the image of a woman bringing tea to a harvest field. Similarly, to Heaney’s other poems, such as Blackberry Picking and Digging, Ireland’s agricultural landscape features heavily in the poem. Subject Matter: This poem is about an agricultural scene where we see a wife approaching a field to set up a picnic for her husband. The harvesting machine and communal labor of men take the center stage in this poem, and brings to mind ideas from Heaney’s Digging which speaks of the agricultural vocations of the Irish. At the end of the poem, the wife leaves the scene alone suggesting a habitual action that she, as a good wife, had done for years. Outline: This commentary will taken on a linear approach so as to examine how Heaney presents this scene of a wife approaching her husband and the other workers in the field. This commentary will examine the effective use of title, juxtaposition of narrative voices and imagery to bring out the relationship between the woman and the men in the poem, while paying close attention to how Heaney shows: The role women have taken in Irish culture The power of men in society as emphasized by their close association with the natural landscape The differences between the man and the wife
Title The title indicates to readers that the poem is narrated from the perspective of the wife. Images and circumstances are very much seen through her eyes. She acts as a filter and this perspective shapes readers’ thoughts. The specification that this is the “Wife’s” tale, also starts the poem off with the idea that there is a clear distinction between husband and wife. The use of the definite article, “The”, implies that this recount is specific. “Tale” also suggests a story that reminds us that this is from purely the perspective of the woman which men may not agree with.
Main Analysis “When I had spread it all on linen cloth Under the hedge, I called them over. The hum and gulp of the thresher ran down And the bug belt slewed to a standstill, straw Hanging undelivered in the jaws. There was such quiet that I hear their boots Crunching the stubble twenty yards away.” The first line of the poem introduces the first person persona of the wife. This suggests a personal recount of the wife as she approaches the field where her husband worked. The continuous use of this perspective also allows us to identify with her emotions unconsciously. This opening of the poem also shows her setting up the picnic in “spread it all on linen cloth” which sets the stage for the woman to be seen in her domestic role of caring for her husband and his needs in this poem, as in line with the first main point of my commentary. In the second line, she “called” the men over. This suggests a form of authority that she has over the men in this area of feeding them and it also shows how comfortable she is in this role in which she has full control over. This sense of control, however, is quickly undercut by the aural imagery of the machine shutting down in the poem. The fact that Heaney chooses to describe the machines instead of the men in reaction to the wife who had “called them over”, allows readers to associate the men with the power of the machine, which emphasizes the second point of my commentary. The power of the machines is shown is Heaney’s personification of the thresher. This can be seen in Heaney’s use of onomatopoeic terms such as “hum” and “gulp” to describe the machine’s sounds when shutting down and his later reference to the “jaws” of the machine. The use of enjambment between the fourth and fifth lines, forces readers to focus on the image of the remaining harvest in the “jaws”. This allows for the machine to appear both animalistic and violent, thus highlighting the power of the machine and subsequently the men. Furthermore, in line 4, the repeated use of plosives and sibilance in “big belt slewed to a standstill, straw”, provide a realistic and onomatopoeic representation of the machine coming to a halt. The harsh sounds also allow for the violence and power of the machines to be shown as well. In the fifth line, the wife describes the “quiet” which seems almost ominous in nature due to the sharp contrast between this and the lines preceding which had described the noise in such great detail, that the sudden halt in noise seems unnatural. This somber mood is heightened in the final line of the stanza which describes the sound of the men approaching as a “crunching”. This seems to mirror the image of the “jaws” earlier that provides a sense of menace to the end of the stanza while also highlighting the men’s likeness to the machines in terms of their power as in line with my second main point.
We are also given an impression of the woman’s anticipation for the arrival of the men with the spatial description of “twenty yards away”. This shows my first main point of the woman’s role, by conveying how the woman’s duty is to her husband. “He lay down and said, ‘Give these fellows theirs, I’m in no hurry,’ plucking grass in handfuls And tossing it in the air. ‘That looks well.’ (He nodded at my white cloth on the grass.) ‘I declare a woman could lay out a field Though boys like us have little call for cloths.’ He winked, then watched me as I poured a cup” In the second stanza, we see a shift in focus which had been anticipated in the first stanza with the descriptions of the approaching men. This can be seen in how the very first word of the stanza “He”, focuses the stanza on the husband in this poem. We are also given the sense that the woman has retreated into passive silence as the men approach as shown in how her husband’s direct speech makes up majority of the stanza. The use of gerunds in this stanza, such as in “plucking” and “tossing”, also gives a sense of immediacy to the stanza, as though the action is occurring right before our eyes. The men’s carefree abandonment to nature, seen in how her husband “lay down” and playfully “plucking grass in handfuls and tossing it in the air”, shows the level of comfort they have in their agricultural setting, which in a way shows their power over the wife in this surroundings as she seems to be less comfortable than them. The power of men in nature is also shown in the line “Though boys like us have little call for cloths” which has the double meaning of implying the virility of the men in their nakedness in nature. The carefree, playful mood of the man can also be seen in the man’s expression of his admiration to his wife, in “winked”, “nodded” and “watched me”. These expressions of admiration also reinforce my first point of a woman’s role in society by showing how the wife needs the approval of her husband in what she does. The second point of my commentary, the power of the man over the woman can also be seen in the commanding voice of the husband which is heard through his use of imperative verbs such as “give”, “declare” and “over there”, which all suggest a form of dominance and authority he has over his wife. Heaney also shows this sort of power divide between the men and the wife by collectively referring to the men in the clause “boys like us”. This gives rise to a sense of brotherhood among the men that differentiate them from the wife, thus showing the third point of my commentary. “He winked, then watched me as I poured a cup And buttered the thick slices that he likes. ‘It’s threshing better than I thought, and mind It’s good clean seed. Away over there and look.’ Always this inspection has to be made Even when I don’t know what to look for.” This stanza also establishes the first main point of my commentary, the woman’s role in society. The second half of the stanza from line 14 to line 19 reduces the role of the woman to that of a domesticated wife who is subservient and passive, waiting upon her husband as seen in “I poured a cup and buttered the thick slices that he likes”. She presents the typical woman image in a patriarchal society. Also, when the husband commands her “away over there and looks”, she obeys without any resistance even though she is completely clueless to the objective. This is captured in the last two lines of the stanza, and the indication that “Always this inspection has to be made”, thus suggesting a habitual action which reinforces the obedience of the woman to the man. “But I ran my hands in the half-filled bags Hooked to the slots. It was hard as shot, Innumerable and cool. The bags gaped Where the chutes ran back to the stilled drum And forks were stuck at angles in the ground As javelins might mark lost battlefields. I moved between them back across the stubble.” In the third stanza, the oppositional conjunction “but” shifts the focus to the interior landscape and thoughts of the wife. The wife is now described as walking through the fields that the men had just vacated. The items left in the field are personified once again as in the first stanza, such as how the bags “gaped”. But instead of the continual motion and sound that had been suggested in the first stanza, there seems to be a calmer tone in this stanza which perhaps show the constraints and hesitation in the wife’s movements as she walks amongst the inanimate machine parts. This tentativeness can also be seen in how she “moved between them” as though she is carefully trying to avoid harm from these stationary objects. As she “ran her hand in the half-filled bags”, tactile imagery is used to describe the seeds as “hard as shot/innumerable and cool”. These liken the seeds to bullets and the war imagery is continued in the comparison of the fields to “battle fields”. The use of war imagery to describe the image of the fields in the aftermath following the work of the men, once again shows the second point of my commentary, the power the men have in their work and over the land.
“They lay in the ring of their own crusts and dregs Smoking and saying nothing. ‘There’s good yield, Isn’t there?’ – as proud as if he were the land itself – ‘Enough for crushing and sowing both.’ And that was it. I’d come and he had shown me So I belonged no further to the work. I gathered cups and folded up the cloth And went. But they still kept their ease Spread out, unbuttoned, grateful, under the trees.” In the last stanza, readers return their focus to the men as the first image introduced is that of the men “in the ring of their own”. This continues the idea introduced in stanza two of how the men are separate from the wife, as she is excluded from the “ring” they have formed. The men are shown in a continuation of their relaxed states in the second stanza, and the deliberate choices of “dregs” and “crusts” suggests the remains from a feast that imply that the men have eaten their fill during their meal. The husband’s voice come across as proud of his work in the rhetorical question “’There’s a good yield, isn’t there?’”, which functions more as a declarative statement. This declarative statement also shows how to the husband, his wife’s input does not entirely matter for he does not expect a response in the negative. The next phrase he utters, “’enough for crushing and sowing both’”, also contains an authoritative tone in the word “enough” which underscores a finality in the matter. This dominance and authority is perceived by the wife as arrogance as in line 29, the use of dashes help to frame the phrase “as proud as if he were the land itself”, so as to allow readers to focus on how his wife views this as pride. Line 29 also reiterates the close relationship between nature and the men that had been implied in the first two stanzas. The direct speech of the husband is also met with the silent and monosyllabic thoughts of the wife, “and that was it”, as if her wifely roles end there as she has fulfilled her purpose of providing the men with food. This idea of the dutiful nature of the wife is further emphasized by how she states very firmly that she’d “come and he had shown” her, and hence it was now time for her to leave. We once again see the divide between the men and woman, the third main point of my commentary, when she says that she “belonged no further”, thus showing her exclusion from the men there. The repeated mention of the “cloth” here, which had been previously seen in the first stanza, “linen cloth” and the second stanza “white cloth”, allows the cloth to function as a motif which represents how different the wife is from the men as the cloth seems almost out of place amongst the men in the fields who has even commented before that the has “little call for cloths”. The monosyllabic phrase “and went” also emphasizes the wife’s resignation to her role as there is no sense of agitation or self-pity regarding these roles that she has to abide by. As she leaves, the men “still kept their ease spread out, unbuttoned, grateful, under the trees.” The parting image shows the men in their abandonment being one with nature. As the wife does note that they are “grateful”, it seems to imply once against her contentment in her womanly roles as provider for these men who seem to appreciate and admire how she fulfills them as well. The calm atmosphere that the poem ends with also seems to reinforce this idea of acceptance and harmony in each gender’s respective roles.
Conclusion In conclusion, I have shown how Heaney has used the vivid imagery and perspectives to show the roles of the women in society, the power of the men in their agricultural roles, and how this results in a stark division between the men and the woman found in the poem. Personally, I find this poem very interesting as it differs greatly from Heaney’s other works. In this poem, we see very little evidence of Heaney’s own personal voice, which is unlike his other poems that delve into issues such as his childhood, political opinions, and personal views regarding the importance of heritage for the Irish.
Punishment Introduction Context: This poem is from Heaney’s collection “North” which focuses entirely on discussing the time in Ireland’s history known as The Troubles. Having spent a portion of his life in Derry, Heaney was deeply affected by the violence occurring, especially since Derry was the location of the majority of the conflict during that revolutionary struggle. Similarly to The Tollund Man, Heaney had also written this poem in response to the discovery of several bog bodies. This along with poems such as The Tollund Man and Bogland are known as Heaney’s bog poems which draw inspiration from the bogs. Subject Matter: In Punishment, Heaney first writes of Windeby I, the fourteen-year old girl who had been killed for adultery and whose body had been exhumed from a bog in Germany, 1951. Towards the end of the poem, Heaney draws parallels between the Windeby girl who had been punished for adultery and the Catholic girls who had been punished by IRA soldiers during the Troubles for consorting with British soldiers. This poem is similar to Heaney’s other poems, such as At a Potato Digging, where Heaney draws connections between events of the past and events of the present to intensify the meaning of his poem. Overview: This discussion will take on a linear approach to first examine Heaney’s descriptions of the Windeby girl followed by his description of the Catholic girls, while focusing on how Heaney uses these two separate events to examine the nature of the human being, and to answer the question of whether we still remain as tribally and barbarically motivated as we once were.
Conclusion Title ”It’s a poem about standing by as the IRA tar and feather these young women in Ulster. But it’s also about standing by as the British torture people in barracks and interrogation centers in Belfast. It’s about standing between those two forms of affront.” - Heaney
Bogland Introduction Context: Seamus Heaney once described the bog as a “dark casket where we have found many of the clues to our past and to our cultural identity”. As such, in examining this poem, Bogland, it is essential to view the bog as a metaphor for Heaney’s ideas regarding history and cultural identity, specifically, Ireland’s cultural identity. Bogland is the earliest of all of Heaney’s bog poems
Additional Background Information For Blackberry-Picking Seamus Heaney has commented that his parentage contains both the Ireland of the cattle-herding Gaelic past and the Ulster of the Industrial Revolution; he considers this to have been a significant tension in his background. Heaney initially attended Anahorish Primary School, and when he was twelve-years old, he won a scholarship to St. Columb’s College, a Roman Catholic boarding school situated in Derry. When he was about 18, Heaney travelled to Belfast to study English Language and Literature at the Queen’s University of Belfast. During his time in Belfast, he found a copy of Ted Hughes’ Lupercal, which spurred him to write poetry. In 1963 (when he was about 24), Heaney became a lecturer at St. Joseph’s and in the spring of 1963, after contributing various articles to local magazines, he came to the attention of Hobsbaum, then an English lecturer at Queen’s University. Heaney was and is a prolific poet – he wrote and published many poems throughout his youth and in his adulthood. He is very much aware of his Irish background even when he lectured in Berkeley, Harvard, USA and Oxford, England. He received his Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 for what the Nobel committee described as “works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past”. This poem comes from the collection of poems called Death of a Naturalist in 1966 published when he was only 27 years old.
For Mid-Term Break Seamus Heaney was born in 1939 in Ireland. He has taught at Oxford and Harvard, wrote and published many poems. Mid-Term Bream is in his first collection, Death of a Naturalist published in 1966 when he was only 27 years old. Critic John Hunter on Heaney: His writing is descriptive and clear. His world is a warm and optimistic one. His tone is that of traditional sanity and humanity
For The Wife’s Tale The success of his 1st collection, Death of a Naturalist gives him a sense of confidence and adventure in his 2 nd collection. The title, Door into the Dark gives a ring of defiance to it. Darkness echoes throughout the collection – it is a reference to the act of artistic creation. “The Wife’s Tale” reflects this act of artistic creation.
