Poetry as a Weapon

Common Themes in Seamus Heaney uses a strange metaphor to begin his first collection of
Heaney Poems poems, the idea of poetry as a weapon. In the poem Digging he uses
the simile of a gun:
Seamus Heaney is considered one of the greatest poets Between my finger and my thumb
of the 20th and 21st centuries. He hails from Ireland and The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.
lived throughout many of the hard times Ireland has Heaney makes a difficult choice, choosing poetry instead of
faced, and is still facing today. Because of this his work farming, and in the process, besides alienating himself from his family,
deals with the issues of the Irish people and the search somewhere he alienates himself from his inspiration. Perhaps in
for freedom and equality within their own country. In the recognition of this paradox he opens his first collection with an image
early seventeenth century Britian invaded Ireland and that transforms the writer’s tool of communication into something
occupied it. The British are masters at colonizing peoples, used only when communication breaks down—a weapon.
but they were in for a ride with the perseverance of the This note, so different from the rest of the collection,
Irish people. From that point on the people of Ireland immediately introduces a note of alienation into the poems. He puts
became divided. Most wanted the British gone, but others his ‘weapon’ to a number of uses: laying the ghosts of his past,
didn’t want to fight it. This is where the IRA comes in and recording the ‘death’ of the ‘naturalist’ in him, and even breaking out
when Ireland split up into two parts. One part is the free an impossible situation, a desperate measure. He is creating space for
himself, space to view things objectively, as a poet to be able to put
Irish republic, the other is still controlled by the British to
things in perspective. Ironically he uses the one technique which he
this day. All of these things combined lead to the diverse
himself abhors in his later poems-violence. Though at the moment he
themes throughout Heaney’s poems.
isn’t concerned with events around him, later he becomes a
Nature spokesman against those very events and against violence.
One of the most common themes I encountered while Heaney as an Irish Poet
reading Heaney’s poems was that of nature. It wasn’t Some critics have placed Heaney in a difficult, no-win situation.
surprising that nature would be all throughout his poems He has been accused of being too involved in the events in Ulster, and
because Ireland is such a beautiful place, but the depth of taken to task for remaining aloof from it. However, some of his most
description was phenomenal. convincing elegies reminisce about friends and family he has lost to
From the very first poem of the selection Digging the the “troubles”. Casualty, a poem about a Catholic friend killed by the
reader is introduced to Heaney’s rural upbringing on a Provisional IRA for defying a curfew, gives us another look at the tribal
farm. The images of flowerbeds, his grandfather cutting warfare in Northern Ireland. His questioning of his friend’s
turf, and the smell of potato mold set a realistic scene of responsibility for his own death makes us realise the muddling of right
farm life. All of these sorts of images are used in his and wrong that grips Northern Ireland today. And yet, what is of
poems and to me it gives them a relatable feel. Because supreme importance is not placing blame, but recognising what
he uses all this imagery that is realistic in nature and not remains for those who live, burdened with memories and sadness.
trying to sugar coat anything, it allows the reader to Heaney’s work is filled with images of death and dying, but it is
understand the reality of the world they are reading about. also rooted firmly in this world. His tender elegies serve many
I also felt that it gave a nice image to the life of the purposes: they mourn great losses, celebrate those who have gone
before us, and recall the solace that remains to us, their memories.
indigenous Irish population.
It is easy to get the impression that Heaney is a provincial poet,
History
concerned only with the happenings of his island and his memory.
Heaney seemed to be fascinated with specific points in
That however, is misleading. He is not solely occupied by his
the historical landscape of Ireland. The Tollund Man is birthplace. Song illustrates his exploration of the poetic process. This
essentially a poem that Heaney wrote after seeing short lyric attends to his imagination. His descriptive powers are
photographs of ‘bog people’. These bog people were similar to the great romantic poets, and his attention to detail and the
pulled out from the bogs in the Irish farm lands and world around him projects this poem into a league of its own.
usually found to be in some sort of ritualistic way (this fits Language and Diction
in later with the theme of violence). Anyway he goes on to In ‘Death of a Naturalist’ Heaney conveys his love for his
explore the historical background that these bog people homeland through his unique use of language. Aside from being self-
might have had within many other poems he goes on to conscious about using farming vocabulary, he proudly displays his
write. Another part of history is talked about knowledge—”headrig”, “townland”, or “whisky muddler”.
in Punishment. This poem is essentially about the He uses strong, decisive language, never hesitating or rambling.
bombings that were happening in Ireland in the mid 70s His words take on the character of the setting, helping the reader
due to the IRA and British fighting. By making these familiarise himself with the surroundings, as the poet weaves the
concrete references to historical moments and artifacts atmosphere.
Heaney pulls the reader into a realistic and believable The first collection of verse gives an impression of the poet
world. discovering a new world—a world of sights and sounds that can be
Violence captured through the clever use of his pen. He uses devices like
alliteration, assonation and onomatopoeia, recapturing the noises and
As before mentioned Heaney was fascinated by these
silences of his home.
‘bog people’ that were found. When these specimens
The range of sounds he is able to create is remarkable. “The
were extracted form the bog by archaeologists many of
spade sinks into gravely ground”—the “clean rasping” noise the spade
them were found with there throats slit and in ritual makes is evoked by the alliteration of the “s” and “g”. The open vowel
clothing. This is thought to maybe have been some sort of sounds mirror the depth of the ground, while the “i” and “k” of the
fertility ritual for crops and such. There is also violence in “sink” contrasts with the sound of the spade biting into the earth.
his poems referencing the bombings in the Irish pubs. In Heaney always searches for the precise combination of sounds
the end of Punishment the man being talked about is said that will capture the scene described by him. In Blackberry-Picking he
to have been blown up by the bombs. As with the other describes the “big dark blobs burned”, the sounds just like that of the
themes violence is used to relate people to a situation, or berries dropping into the collecting can. InChurning Day, the light
shock them. interplay of the alliterative letters recreates beautifully the action of
Nature, violence, and history seem to be common themes butter-making—”the pat and slap of small spades on wet lumps”.
throughout all types of literature but I think this is for good Poet as Observer
reason. With these themes people can easily connect to a As an observer, Heaney keeps a sense of distance from his
work and analyze it for personal or educational meaning. family, assuming a stance of remoteness and tight control in his
poems. In family poems like Follower, Digging and Mid-Term
Break, the carefully formal quatrains and triplets, and the measured unfolding in the area. This could perhaps be attributed to a certain
line-lengths echo the coldness of the son’s account of his father’s sense of embarrassment he felt, whilst writing for and circulating in
ebbing strength, or the way in which the boy records his brother’s sophisticated London literary circles; he feared being associated with
funeral. In these and other family poems, the poet is always a passive the ‘ludicrously anachronistic’ happenings in Ireland.
observer, sitting while his father digs, staring at his brother’s coffin, This changed by 1972, where after seeing student politics
“embarrassed” as his community closes ranks in grief. The nearest his in Berkeley, he returned to Belfast. He finally moved to
actions ever get to participating in the scene is to offer his grandfather the Irish Republic, a weary war-refugee, disillusioned and revulsed
some milk, or shake hands with the men who have come to pay their with the political scene. The change had less to do with the evident
respects to the family. disparity between campaigning in Berkeley and the real events
He also takes the role of observer literally in these poems, inBelfast, and more to do with his own sense of confusion, and a
describing only what he sees in terse, emotionless sentences. The divided sense of loyalty.
mask only cracks to reveal his sense of embarrassment, otherwise he He felt indebted to England, whose teachers taught him, whose
maintains a passive veneer. literature he taught, whose publishers printed his poems. England’s
Heaney’s poems have a very visual effect; he lets the words poets had encouraged him, given him the impetus to write. He
speak for him, conjuring up a series of images, like a motion picture. couldn’t forget that.
The silence in the above poems enhances the scene-like effect. There On the other hand, these same people had conquered his
are very few words spoken, the remainder of the poem is given over homeland, and culturally destroyed the native Catholic people’s sense
to description-reinforcing the idea of a mute witness. of place, of belonging. His birthright of the Gaelic poetic tradition was
Emotion in his Poems denied to him. As an English speaker, and a writer of English, he felt a
One tends to expect certain things from a poet as a matter of sense of betrayal, even defeat, in speaking the enemy language.
course, and topping this list is emotion. The traditional image of a A moral dilemma also plagued him. On the one hand he
poet is a soppy person whose cup runneth over with a whole range of couldn’t help sympathising with the school of thought that wanted to
emotions. Heaney however, is a different breed of poet, whose range destroy the Protestant supremacy. He felt that a sense of loyalty, of
of emotions on paper, though extensive enough, doesn’t seem to patriotism, in siding with them. On the other hand, being a poet, a
include love, that staple of the metaphoric poet. man of letters and an educationist, he could not advocate violence, he
In all of Heaney’s poems about family he remains aloof, couldn’t condone the lack of humanity and reason. This dilemma tore
disconnected, as if he is an outsider. Not once do emotions such as him apart, along with the guilt that his fellow Catholics were suffering,
love, friendship, comradery appear in his poems. Even and he wasn’t, simply due to an accident of circumstance.
in Casualty, where he mourns the loss of a friend to the ‘troubles’, he A further point of contention he felt was the general
talks of the friend in casual tones, discussing fishing, poetry, etc. expectation that he should become “Poet of the Troubles”. As a poet
Even in works where Heaney portrays aspects of a married life, who firmly believed that the act of writing is a “kind of somnambulist
love, lust, happiness do not make an appearance. Instead he fills his encounter”, who waited for inspiration to strike, much like
poems with symbols of conflict, suffering, ritualised actions. The Hughes’ Thought-Fox, he couldn’t foresee himself picking up his pen
poem Wedding Day is a series of surreal, nightmarish images and and dashing off political pieces as the situation around him changed.
frightened, internalised questions which culminate in confused flight. He did write about his feelings or his experiences of the troubles,
He portrays the act of reconciliation in Summer Home, not as a probably with more feeling than a mere political poet may have, but
tender, intimate moment but as a formal ceremony. he carried with him a guilt for not taking up the mantle of a
Possibly the only love that can be detected in his writings is that campaigner through his work.
for his land, his home, his country. The joy he depicts in himself as a Bogland as a Poetic Metaphor
child in his poems, the joy of nature and its habitat, is unparalleled, Ever since he played as a child in a moss-hole, Heaney realised
and no emotion between humans come close. He writes about his that the bog represented for him a repository of memories of his
motherland with passion, deeply aware of the acute suffering of his childhood. He also recognised the bog as being literally a storage
people. Even here however, he hesitates to allow his feelings to come place, which held objects preserved for decades beneath it.
through. The words on the paper record happenings, raise questions He realised that the history of his country lay beneath the
in the mind of the reader, but not once does it clearly show the mind boglands, as he writes in Feeling into Words:
and heart of Heaney. I began to get an idea of bog as the memory of the landscape,
Attention to Detail or as a landscape that remembered everything that happened in and
“Death of a Naturalist” is a detailed, rich portrait of Heaney’s to it. In fact, if you go round the National Museum in Dublin, you will
childhood world, Mossbawn. The poems are filled with colours, realize that a great proportion of the most cherished material heritage
smells, tastes and experiences. He describes everything, even the of Ireland was “found in a bog”.
frogspawn, vividly, with a child’s wide-eyed wonder, natural charm, The poem which contains all these ideas Bogland is placed last
and even sometimes fear. in the volume “Door into the Dark”, but it acts as a key to the whole
His attention to detail is remarkable, minutely observing the collection, describing Heaney’s voyage of discovery.
people and their places of work, that he describes richly. He includes He wrote several bog poems—Punishment, Tollund Man,
even seemingly insignificant details—the way the milk is “corked Bogland. In Tollund Man Heaney was attempting to find his own
sloppily with paper” or tea is served in “bright canfuls”—and these solution to the problems in Ulster, in later poems he became more
serve to bring the moment alive. pessimistic, and just presented his poems, in a way simply giving
Like a photographer who zooms in and identifies the object, ‘birth’ to them. He uses the images of birth frequently in these
often looking at the same object from different angles, Heaney zeroes poems—the Grauballe Man emerges “bruised like a forceps baby”,
in on his target, examining it from all possible angles, recording vivid the Bog Queen rises out of the dark when her “slimy birthcord / of
details that transform his words into photographs. His keen eye seeks bog” is cut. These creatures are almost like spirits, coming to Heaney’s
out the signs of expertise—his father’s “coarse boot nestled on the call for an answer in the time of violence.
lug” of the spade, his grandfather “nicking and slicing neatly” at the Just as Heaney believed that Ireland’s history lay beneath the
turf. Like a film-maker he covers the scene before and after the event, bog, he also began to use the bog to project her future. The eerie,
leaving the reader with a fuller, more complete picture. We read almost nightmarish images described in his poems portend the
about how the blackberries rot later, or how the farmhouse “would nightmare descending on the people. The bog people have now
stink long after churning day”. The words leap up put of the page and become symbols of the violence in Ulster.
form a picture, and we transform from readers to audiences under The poet seems to be mesmerised by these bog creatures, so
Heaney’s expert guide. much so that he feels unable to shape these poems to any positive
A Sense of Divided Loyalty outcome. He is instead only the holder of the pen, whilst someone or
Till 1969, Heaney was writing of farm life, and issues that something else is writing for him. He uses a reverential tone with the
intrigued him, and occasionally he contributed articles bog people, “I almost love you”, and in a morbidly fascinated way
in London magazines on the situation in Ulster. His writing in the latter obsessively records every physical detail.
was on objective, if somewhat bemused, account of the events
 Interestingly, the more Heaney attempts to escape from his progressives. They believe that man must find out the faults,
own feelings of guilt and divided loyalty, the more they force him to committed by men, responsible for his miseries, and that he
contemplate and examine his feelings about the Ulster situation. must try to remove these faults as far as he can.
Almost like unwanted memories, they recur over and over. The result They want to root out the problems disturbing the natural
is a deepening of the negative impulses haunting the poems. Heaney phenomenon of life. O’Neill finds that Puritanism causes a
writes brutally honest descriptions of his feelings about the situation, misapplication of the religious beliefs, which have made life
difficult to live. Man must try to fight them, rather than cry over
having finally resolved it. The Catholic in him surges up, and almost
them and feel consolation in crying. To cry over the miseries of
rejoices in the atrocities committed against the Protestants. In the
life is not redress or consolation. It is false consolation, which is
final lines of Punishment, he is chillingly honest, admitting that he destructive. There must be a constructive approach to life. This
would do nothing, watching as the “artful voyeur”, while the Catholics is what the progressives do. They expose the foibles, mistakes,
take their “tribal” revenge. follies and faults of men so that these can be removed. The
reason for this is that they want to make progress and they want
to make life progressive and prosperous as well. They cannot be
silent in the face of the miseries and cruelties created by the

Heaney as a Non- wrong people of the society, as the conservatives do. The protest
should be positive, like the one made by the protagonists of
Arthur Miller.

Political Poet So the concept the bog-poems, The

Man and Wedding Day give is that Heaney by nature is
a pure poet but he has feelings and sympathies for the Irish
Tollund

Heaney is a non-political poet. He, like Keats, is a pure

poet who believes in art for the sake of art, poetry for the sake of people who are being killed ruthlessly. So, Heaney accepts both
poetry. He is committed to poetry. No doubt Heaney’s poems, the realities, i.e., one must be committed to art, but he must also
like The Tollund Man, Wedding Day and A Constable Calls,are think for life, because one cannot remain indifferent when
political poems but Heaney claims that there is no politics in atrocities and sufferings are going up all the time. He must write
them. Heaney believes that poetry and politics are two different of the cruelties of the state which is a political matter. But
subjects and they should remain separate. Heaney has done it in a detached manner. The impact of politics
Heaney belongs to Ireland and Ireland has been suffering on the psyche of the common man is the subject of his poems.
from the worst effects of politics. He has a deep attachment to The poet has tried to project the mental state of the Irish people
his country. He cannot bear the violence and cruelty from which who live in a perpetual state of fear and terror. The Blacks of
his people have been suffering for centuries. He, actually, wants South Africa also used to live under this state of terror and they
to share their hopes, worries and frustrations. Heaney cannot were questioned when they sometimes occupied a room, seat or
ignore the grim realities of life. This has created a sense of guilt place, reserved for the Whites.
and an oppressive fear in Heaney and it is very much visible in So it is correct that Heaney writes about politics yet there
his poetry. is no politics in his poetry. He has made politics a subject for
In The Tollund Man, Wedding Day, A Constable Calls, poetry in an emphatic way. Heaney is just giving the poetry of
The Toome Road, Personal Helicon and Casting and these traumatic experiences. He, in fact, wants to redress the
Gathering, we find Heaney both as a poet and as a citizen people through his art without becoming a heckler. He finds a
of Ireland, who has great compassion for the Irish people. In middle way between the two extremes, between the idealist and
these poems, which are known as bog-poems, he discusses the the escapist. He uses the myth for bringing politics into poetry.
questions—whether one should be committed to poetry or to Heaney’s approach is the approach of compromise. Heaney’s
life? Is life more important or art? Is life more important or compromise is to find some aesthetic approach to politics, in the
poetry? In these poems he seems to know his role in this human aesthetics of politics, not in the violence of politics.

Heaney’s Myth
tragedy. As a poet, he feels himself guilty because a number of
people, including his own relatives are dying and he is doing
poetry. It seems difficult for Heaney to remain detached with
this dilemma. This was the complexity and conflict in the mind
of Heaney. He finds it very hard to reconcile the two
contradictory approaches.
Making
He goes to another approach which is the approach of
compromise. His compromise is to find some aesthetic approach Myth means a story that is, although not true but believed
to politics. He believes in the aesthetics of politics, not in the
as a true story. Heaney belongs to Ireland and Ireland has been
violence of politics. He wants to rise above party-politics.
Heaney wants to do. The poet must feel for all humanity. suffering from the worst effects of politics. People
He resolves this problem by creating a myth. The myth is that in Ireland have been a minority under the British control.
strife and violence are the pattern of life. They are inevitable. No
They have been living under perpetual fear. Heaney believes that
body can stop them, but through the message of love and peace,
there is no connection between a poet and the circumstances
the poet can provide some consolation, some redress. It means
around a poet as he elaborates it in the poem ‘Personal Helicon’.
that the poet is only a mourner.
So Heaney wants to remain unconcerned with the social and
There had been two distinct attitudes towards the miseries
political disorder or his society but what makes him pragmatic,
of life in the time of Heaney. One group believed that misery is
is his deep attachment to his country. In this way he cannot
an essential part of life, and that miserieswere man’s destiny.
remain unconcerned with political, social and cultural disorder
This is a pessimistic approach and the conservatives believe in
in his county. Thus it was necessary for him to find a middle way
this concept. The conservatives believe that man is helpless
and that middle way he finds by creating a myth. The myth is
before the odd circumstances he faces. It is a negative approach.
that strife and violence are a pattern of life. They are inevitable.
The other group says that miseries are not his destiny, and that
No body can stop them, but through the message of love arid
man has the power to overcome his difficulties. These are,
peace, the poet can provide some consolation, some redress. It
actually, progressive or socialist people, who have confidence in
means that the poet is only mourner. The progressives demand
themselves. Heaney was caught in the mire of the ideological
to fight against the causes of miseries that lie in politics. Heaney
war. sees violence and misery in the archetypal pattern of humanity.
Similarly in modern literature, we find two distinct
He teaches people to accept miseries as their destiny. Heaney, in
approaches in relation to poetry. Some people, like conservative this way, prefers stoicism to activism. This is a pessimistic and
writers, think that it is not the job of poets and poetry to
an escapist approach of Heaney and he promotes this approach
interfere in politics. They believe that poetry has nothing to do in his poetry by creating a myth.
with the realities and complexities of life. The poet can just
preach love, sympathy and humanity. But there are other people,
who believe in the power of man. They are much more
concerned with life. O’Neill, Hemingway, G.B. Shaw, Lorca and Heaney’s poems clearly show how Heaney reconciles
Arthur Miller fall in this category. It is a group of what we call between poetry and politics with the help of creating a myth. The
poem The Tollund Man is the best example of Heaney’s myth The Toome Road has also an echo of the suppressed minds
making in his poetry. He takes the title of his poem from Glob’s of the people ofIreland but the poet, as usually, doesn’t discuss it
book ‘The Bog Men’ which was about the archaeological as an attempt to instigate or rouse the people to protest against
excavations inJutland, a marshy land in Denmark. The it. He discusses the poem in his personal unique style. He talks
researchers found a large number of dead bodies in Jutland. about the threat of state terrorism. The poem shows a sense of
These dead bodies were called bog men. They belonged to the state of war. The army has occupied the country and the citizens
Iron Age or perhaps the Stone Age. The researchers concluded are living in a state of scariness and fear. Human freedom has
and Glob agrees that those dead bodies were of the people who been blocked and the individual feels oppressed. As Heaney
were sacrificed in some sacred ritual. One head, which was says:
found separated from the body, had been kept in a museum, How long were they approaching down my roads
calledAarhus. And the sacrificed man was given the name As if they owned them?
of Tollund Man.
In the poem ‘Casting and Gathering’ Heaney views the
It was thought that the Tollund man was sacrificed to the conflict in the society in the context of process of cultivation.
goddess of land, so that her fertility may insure the fertility of the Heaney is among those people who do not support the
land in the next winter. This is a version of the myth of Adonis, participation of poets in revolutionary activities. He wants the
relating to Classical mythology. Adonis was the god of fertility poet only to console the people through the message of universal
and he was supposed to die in autumn and again come to life in love. That is what he says also in his essay The Redress of
the spring every year. Poetry.
Heaney sees this sacrifice in the archetypal pattern which He discusses ‘the subject in a detached manner without
he applies to Ireland. He thinks that the same myth is working tempting the people to fight against their miseries. The reason
in Ireland also. The people of Ireland are sacrificing their lives for this is that he does not want poetry to become propaganda.
for their motherland. Heaney starts the poem, The Tollund
Heaney, in fact, wants to redress the people through his art
Man, with the idea of going to Aarhus, a museum, in order to see
without becoming a heckler. He finds a middle way between the
the atrocities and cruelties committed at that place. In the
two extremes, between the idealist and the escapist. He uses the
Tollund Man, he sees the fate of his fellow countrymen worst hit
myth for bringing politics into poetry. The myth is that strife and
by the Irish war.
violence are a pattern of life; they are inevitable, no body can
Heaney further says that the people, who were sacrificed stop them. So he seeks a compromise and finds it in the making
for the mother goddess, were well fed before they were of myth. No doubt, he can not keep himself detained from the
sacrificed. And now after a long time the seeds of that crop seem political, cultural and social disorder around him. And at the
to ripen in the stomach of the Tollund Man. As Heaney says in same time he does not want to protest against them in his
the poem: poetry. So he finds a middle way between these two extremes by
His last gruel of winter seeds making a myth in his poetry.
Caked in his stomach
Heaney has also described the physical condition of the Seamus Heaney –
man. His whole body was naked, except for a cap, a noose and
the girdle. Perhaps it was the requirement of the ritual. The
corpse that was planted in Julland has now sprouted in Ireland.
Poet of Silence, Poet
He inter-links the tragedy of Tollund man with the tragedy of the
people of Irelandespecially the working class of Ireland. As
of Talk
Heaney says
Seamus Heaney and Howard Moss can stand, almost
Naked except for allegorically, for two kinds of poet. One starts from silence, the
The cap, noose and girdle other from talk. Heaney’s slow, weighted monosyllables are
Thus by making the myth of the Tollund man, Heaney dredged up from darkness; Moss’s lines, in their lucidity, give us
makes way for bringing miseries of his people, caused by foreign conversation as it would be in Utopia, all light and feeling.
invasion, into poetry. He does not protest against these miseries Heaney’s best poems go back to riddles, charms and ritual;
nor does he want to be a heckler by making his poetry Moss’s to song, letters, social interchange. Heaney, all blind
propaganda. He uses the myth, as other modern poets do, so sense, feels the heft and shape of things; Moss clarifies emotions
that he cannot be branded as communist or escapist. The myth is into interpretation. Both poets have, of course, the defects of
only a device for the modern intellectuals to discuss the matters their virtues: Heaney is least interesting when most explicit,
of real life, as we observe in Mourning Becomes Electra, where Moss most predictable when he moralizes his apercus.
O’ Neill has used the two complexes: Electra complex and Heaney, to my mind the best poet now writing in Ireland,
Oedipus complex. seems the only one of his generation not in some way inhibited
Wedding Day is also an example of the myth making by the shadow of Yeats. Though he shares Yeats’s love of the
technique of Heaney. It is a much more political poem, but in a archaic, with its combination of the civilized and the stark, he
disguised way because of the application of myth in the poem. unearths his archaism not in Celtic legends but in the bodies of
The title of the poem is symbolic, meaning the day of sacrifice, long-dead Vikings, buried and preserved in Irish and
the day of death. Heaney concludes that every day is a wedding Scandinavian bogs.
day in Ireland.
 For Heaney, things in their “opaque repose” can be wounds,” and the tattoo parlor by the docks a modern version of
searched out only by divination, in a “somnambulist process of the Spenserian masque of Cupid:
search and surrender” (as Heaney described it in a lecture to the Think of these: rinses, makeup, ampules,
Royal Society of Literature two years ago). When the diviner has A dressing room blooded by Band-Aids of healing,
found out, as by instinct, a hoard in the nether darkness, he must Eye-pencilled alphabets, ink blots of jungle,
then gather words with “a binding secret” between them to lift A gypsy tearoom run by a surgeon,
the treasure into view. The serpentine line of Norse art “like an A beaded curtain, a paintbox, a sudden
eel swallowed / in a basket of eels” becomes for Heaney a Movement of pain, the animal willfully
metaphor for his own intertwining of national and personal Formed at the end of a point, a child’s stencil . . .
truth. All night the dye-needle branding its stories
The autobiographical poems closing Heaney’s new Into the flesh to be told there forever.
collection make explicit his meditation on the troubles of Ulster, When Moss is most absolute, he comes very near the
where he was born, but seem, paradoxically, less deep in their simplicity of song. Intellectuality is still present, in the form of
reflections than the poems where meaning resists intellectual wit, but language empties itself of intellectual reference and of
reduction. History in these poems is as absorptive, mysterious, ambiguous or equivocal diction. The course of love, that first
and dark as the many-layered bog. love which yields “the clearest of all sleeps, then nothing clear,”
The seedtime of the soul and the dissolution of the flesh melt is traced in Moss’s best lyric quatrain in this volume:
equally into history, exhumed only temporarily in Heaney’s Starting out as love, it climbed the stairs,
penetrating vision, where gravity and preservation unite. And then came down as something else again;
Howard Moss’s ironic and fluent narratives keep up the I did not recognize its killing features
memorably polished standard of earlier poems like “Menage a Until I saw they were my very own.
Trois.” Here is the opening of “Shorelines,” a poem about “the Both of these volumes by accomplished poets at once put
dreariness of things gone wrong for good”: language in relief and, in another sense, make it disappear
Someday I’ll wake before our eyes as we are given the illusion of a voice in the air
and hardly think of you; penetrating, without any medium at all, into our consciousness
You’ll be some abstract deity, and feelings. Such voices heard make our own voices less
a myth — anonymous, and compose that floor that Heaney speaks of into
Say Daphne, if you knew her which the rest of us, unheard, are destined to dissolve.
as a tree.
Don’t think I won’t be grateful.
I will be.
Poetry is as much
This mixture of tartness and pain animates the poem
which opens the volume and sets the tone for the whole: it is
relevant as ever even
called “Chekhov,” and remarks that under all the Babel of talk,
there exists one silent hell — “to lose the very ground you stand
in this highly
on.” This abyss underlies even the most Arcadian of Moss’s
landscapes, but his genius lies in finding ways to describe it
industrialised age of
which are instantly recognizable as our modern ways of masking
pain: “We hardly see each other any more”; “Not that you loved ours. Discuss with
me. Or I loved you”; “It’s fishy here, and an unhappy place/ Or
let’s say we are.” Though Auden is recognizably Moss’s master, reference to Seamus
Moss has none of Auden’s preceptorial instructiveness and none
of Auden’s preoccupation with ideology. For Moss, if affections,
attachments and love go, there is no institution or philosophical
Heaney. (P.U. 2006)
construct to flee to; instead, there is a soulless desiccation: Poetry has always been a powerful medium throughout
Bathed in the acid of truth, human history; even in this industrialised and mechanised age,
poetry does have a function to play because where politics
all things divides, poetry unites. Seamus Heaney in his essay “Redress of
Become possible: Poetry” defines the effectiveness and creative role of poetry in
to be a cold snake society. He disagrees with the idea of PLATO in ‘The Republic’
who regards poets as an idle creature Heaney defends poetry by
At an interview explaining its functions in society. He also points of that the true
to live on scraps of soap art of poetry is above all prejudices ad worldly considerations.
To keep oneself warm, He says that art should not lose its effectiveness by representing
Culture and Politics.
to resemble a cat
Seamus Heaney sustains very clear notions about art in
Constantly stalking the general and poetry in particular. Coming from Irish background,
Shadow of nothing he closely observed the relationship between art and
politics. The first problem he faced due to the influence of
In the most remarkable poem in this collection, “Tattoo,” politics was of language. English was regarded as the language of
the indelible branding of the flesh becomes a grotesque allegory the enemy and English literature was unacceptable to Heaney’s
for the soul’s yearning for “the ritual scarring/Of the Cupid of countrymen was, therefore, an unpatriotic act.
Heaney began to feel that Irish patriotism, particularly the
fanatic nationalism was poisonous rather than healthy. It only
served to narrow down the Irish thinking. Irish language and was petrified at the sight of the holster- which holds guns. If the
tradition were a work of national identity but on the other hand constable had a holster then he had a gun and Heaney was worried
were chains binding free thinking. The study of English the policeman would turn violent if he didn't get what he wanted. We
literature, Heaney thought, exposed him to thought outside the also know how scared Heaney is, which is perceptible from the great
Irish culture and enlarged his mind. Heaney’s poetry, therefore, detail he talks about the gun. Despite the event happening several
looks within but also beyond the Irish. years ago Heaney was still able to describe the policeman's items such
Stevens and many others believe that poetry is not meant
as the gun and his bike very vividly. He has never been able to evade
just for aesthetic satisfaction. Their view was that poetry cannot
the fear of the event, similarly to Heaney's other poems including:
and should not be divorced from politics. Poetry must speak for
those who have been suppressed; Who cannot speak for 'Digging'; 'The Early Purges' and 'Blackberry picking'.
themselves. Poetry is the voice of redress Stevens disagrees with The third key theme identified is childhood memories.
those who only emphasise the aesthetic and artistic value of In the poem above and in 'Follower' and 'Mid-term Break' they all
poetry. According to this point, of view poetry creates a world of share the theme of childhood memories. These childhood memories
art as opposed to the world of reality. Heaney does not feel have shaped who Heaney is today. We can tell his poem has been
happy with this role of poetry. Poetry shall do more than just written from his childhood by the fact the policeman was never
reflect. described, yet all of his accessories were. It displays Heaney couldn't
Heaney evaluates the dangers of the influence of politics remember much about the policeman because he was too petrified to
on poetry. He says that Politics damages the faculty of look, if he was scared of the policeman's bike, then how scared would
rationality, therefore, the poets cannot serve society with utility he be looking at the policeman himself? "He stood up, shifted the
of poetry. He says poets should not narrow down their scope baton case" suggests immediately has a sense of fear and adumbrates
by limiting poetry to certain dimensions of time and space. It
the policeman turning violent because he had a baton. This was the
should be free from any restriction. Some demand that poets
way Heaney's Catholic family and community influenced how he saw
should write against the common trend to shock the minds of
people. They should write revolutionary poetry. But the impact Protestants such as the policeman.
of poetry is not practical; it is psychological. Poetry does not Would the constable count as a theme?
forces man to go and fight. But the poetry shows that what is This situation can be studied at from different perspectives. On one
wrong and what is right. It is the most important function of side, the policeman cannot be considered a theme as he is a character
poetry to create psychological effect rather than lead to violent within the poem and therefore isn't representative of something else.
practically. If poetry becomes practical, according to Heaney, it However on the other hand, he could, this is because a theme is a
will not remain poetry, it will become propaganda. topic or subject of talk. The policeman is most definitely a key talking
Heaney explains that in time of practical tensions and point when trying to decode the meaning of Heaney's poem. He could
national disaster, there was common trend of generalising and also perhaps be considered a theme is the sense that he is not
simplifying the situation in black and white. The real point is mentioned within the poem; Heaney only talks about all of the objects
that a political situation is never too simple as to be labelled into that belongs to the policeman. In this sense these objects are
opposite elements. Politics divides men, poetry promotes the representative of the constable and the law in Ireland.
love of men. Poetry shows that all men are human beings and
I think that whether or not you would describe the police officer as a
they deserve sympathy. But politics tell us that some deserve our
wrath. If poetry becomes politics then it will not remain poetry, theme is entirely down to what you believe it is or not. There are
it will divide humanity into friends and foes. many different reasons to suggest that actually the policeman isn't
Heaney neither rejects the influence of politics an poetry even a policeman but rather just another one of Heaney's fears he
fully, nor accepts it totally. He seeks the ideal midway where portrays through the policeman. In doing this we get an indication of
poetry serves its role of entertainment and providing needed what this fear is if it is a metaphorical policeman - unsound and
ideas for the betterment of humanity. To Heaney, poet is a daunting.
universal figure. He is a member of a community but he is also a
citizen of the world- a representative of humanity without
regarding religious, sexual, regional and social differences. He
considers poet an observer not a participant in political
movement and an observer must not take sides.
Political and industrial influences have always been in the
history of world; only 20thc is a little more prominent in this
case; but the we have seen that even the present age does
accommodates poetry because poetry is human and where there
are humans (however industrialised, politicised and
mechanised), there is poetry.

How does grief affect those family members and friends close to us? In Mid-
Term Break Seamus Heaney takes the reader right into the bosom of the
5454 family and provides first hand observations of people present at home,
following the death of his young brother.

Central themes identified in the poem Interestingly, we don't know if this is a brother or not. It is a male but the
Uncertainty is a theme that we see throughout this poem. We can speaker informs us only of the 'corpse' which is delivered by ambulance.
recognise that almost all of the poem has a sense of ambiguity, this is
as Heaney can never be sure of what his emotions or his surroundings From the start, there is a suggestion that something isn't quite right. The
speaker has to sit in a sick bay with little to do but listen to the ominous sound
are. A quote which suggests uncertainty in the poem is when Heaney of bells - foretelling of doom? The word knelling implies that the occasion is
says "his cap was upside down." This is because it illustrates a sense of solemn.
turbulence running throughout Heaney's mind and advocates that he
cannot make sense of his surroundings. Upside down literally This is a little bit morbid, a touch ironic, because the title tells of a break, a
holiday away from responsibility and formality. When we are told the
describes the positioning of the policeman's cap, however neighbours, and not family, are the ones taking him home the intrigue
metaphorically this may imply Heaney too is upside-down and can't deepens.
seem to foreshadow what is to come. Perhaps this is because the
Atmosphere and tension are building by the second stanza as we learn of the
policeman was dangerous, or even because Heaney's view of
father, the patriarch, being reduced to tears, and a family friend, Big Jim
Protestants had been tainted by his parent as he grew up to see Evans, affirming the difficulty of the occasion. Tough men are showing
Protestants as rancorous. emotion which is something the speaker isn't used to.

Heaney softens the mood slightly by introducing us to a baby in the third

Perhaps the most central idea apparent in the poem is fear. stanza but this is countered when old men offer their hands to shake. Again,
Constantly throughout the poem Heaney is fearful of the policeman. you can picture the speaker, the eldest son, trying to take it all in as 'sorry for
This fear was brought about by the accessories of the policeman. For your trouble' repeatedly hits home.
example the quote "staring at the polished holster" signifies Heaney
The eldest son is going through a rite of passage, in a sense this profoundly As he entered the house, he was “embarrassed by old men who
sad death in the family is forcing him to grow up and he's finding it
understandably hard.
stood up to shake” his hand. This could be a representation of him
suddenly assuming the responsibility of a mature adult. There were
many other strangers who became the spectator of the funeral, and
More Analysis Stanzas 5 - 7 therefore the “Whispers informed strangers that (the poet) was the
It's the mother who takes on some of the grief in the form of anger as the
eldest, away at school”. This also emphasized the difference between
speaker holds her hand in a room of strangers and prepares himself for the being a spectator, and the actual family members of the victim.
arrival of the body 'stanched and bandaged. Compare the role of father with The emotional blow caused his mother to “cough out angry tearless
mother in this respect, at opposite ends of the grieving spectrum. sighs”. This could mean that the mother had cried too much until she
Heaneys use of "corpse" is clinical and a little cold, suggesting that the
had no tears left, and also could mean that she blamed herself for not
speaker is too upset to mention the child's name. The next day however he being able to protect her child enough. Here, there is a contrast
feels compelled to go upstairs to have one last personal meeting. between the conventional reaction of the father and mother. The
mother is angry and sad, while the father is tearful.
Snowdrops are the first flowers to show in winter, bursting through the cold
earth, sparked by the increasing light. They are a symbol of hope - even in the The narration is direct and simple, and this gives an innocent,
depths of darkness life prevails. Candles are associated with prayer. The use childlike view of the situation. There is a lot of visual images in the
of the word soothed reflects the healing qualities of the peaceful room where poem, such as “snowdrops and candles soothed the bedside”. These
the body lies.
serve to soften the harsh image and make it more peaceful. “Wearing
There is the dead child "wearing" a bruise, which implies it's not a part of him, a poppy bruise” and “no gaudy scars”, the poet’s descriptions of his
a temporary thing. Poppies are linked to peace and also are a source for brother, also show the light injuries he saw, aiding to give a quiet,
opiates which ease pain. Because the car hit the boy directly on the head peaceful atmosphere to the paragraph.
there are no unsightly scars; the boy reminds the speaker of when he was a
baby in his cot.
In losing his four year old brother, Heaney discovered the brutal
reality of the world. It was a time of transition from adolescence to
The last line is full of pathos, the four-foot box measuring out the life of the adulthood for him. The emotions of the poet are understated,
victim in years. Note the full rhyming couplet which seals up the poem, therefore it gives a clear picture of the situation that day. It also
reminding us of how easy it is to die, from a single blow of a car bumper, but
how challenging becomes the grieving process that must inevitably follow.
reveals that the poet really misses his brother—he remembers every
event of that day.
The last line was left isolated. “A four foot box, a foot for every
year”. This gives a sense of the finality of death, and shows the
tragedy experienced by the entire family.
“Mid Term Break” gives a very vivid and blunt view of life, and how it
Analyze the poem “ Mid Term Break” emphasizing how the poet has
can all come to an abrupt end anytime. The descriptions and the
described death and grief in the poem.
underlying meanings all make the reader feel the desolation and
“Mid term break” was written by Seamus Heaney, an Irish poet who
dismal settings of the entire scene. The saddest part is that it was
lived together with nine siblings. Many of his works are about
based on a real life event. This poem indeed does show Seamus
everyday life, a testimony to his profound observations of even the
Heaney’s skill at observation and ability to express and manipulate
smallest things. This poem, “Mid term break”, was a reflection of his
reader’s feelings.
brother, Christopher’s death.
Although it is entitled “Mid Term Break”, the poem is far from
cheerful. The ideas of death, trauma, grief and despair are explored
here. The tone of the poem is somber and solemn. The narrator may
Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney: A
seem a little detached as well. He does not show any outward sign short commentary
that he is grieving too much over the death of his brother, but traces
The poem ‘Mid-Term Break’, by Seamus Heaney deals with a death of a young child,
of his sadness could be seen in the times when he recalls memories of possibly that of Heaney’s younger brother. In contrast to what the reader might associate
his brother, “the baby cooed and rocked the pram” and “lay in the from the title and with a break from school, holidays being a time of fun and frolic for
four foot box as in his cot”. children as they are away from the rigors of academia. However for the poet this particular
holiday could not have been more different. Through the use of vivid imagery, effective
Heaney delivered the poem shrouded in mystery. His introduction in choice of words that convey the somber mood and tone of the situation the poet finds himself
the first stanza does not give the audience a clue about what would in, the poet creates a heart-wrenching, yet compelling and engaging poem. The poem
consists of 22 lines divided into eight stanzas, since the poem does not follow any particular
happen next. It had a relaxed, happy tone, and gives us the impression
poetic form or rhyme scheme, it can be concluded that it is free verse.
that he had all the time in the world to spare. This was shown by the The first stanza, though it does not directly imply what exactly the poem deals with, begins
act of “Counting bells knelling classes to a close”, making the first with a certain solemnness, as the poet describes, himself sitting by the college sick bay
waiting for the classes to end. This, it can be considered almost forebodes the situation the
stanza seem to last a long time. poet it to be faced with on his return to home, that of death. Yet despite this sense of
These words supports the previous line, “waited all morning”. Also, foreboding, it seems the poet is still unaware of what awaits him at home, there is a sense of
the allusion to “classes” and “college sick bay” suggests that the childish boredom the reader detects that conforms this viewpoint. The second stanza, rather
abruptly introduces the fact that there has been a death, as the poet describes his father crying
narrator was still slightly naïve and youthful at the time. When the on the porch, surprisingly, enough as the poet states his father always took funerals in his
“neighbors drove” him home, the sense of mystery begins to build up. stride. Furthermore the fact that this particular funeral compelled his father to tears, suggests
the death of a close family member.
Upon arriving at his home, he “met his father crying”. Here, the
ideas of grief, trauma and the resulting disorientation are explored. A
The third stanza describes a kind of ‘childish’ inability to act appropriately in such situations.
father represents a strong pillar within the family, but here, the poet The baby laughs and coos in the pram conveying a sense of childish ignorance, it lack of the
showed how much the shock of the death of a close family member understanding or worry about the troubles around it. While the poet feels embarrassed as the
adults convey their condolences to him, showing his inability to completely comprehend the
could cause even the strongest pillar to collapse. situation. There is a sense of quiet throughout as conveyed by the words, ‘whispers’ and
His father had “always taken funerals in his stride”, and could show ‘tearless sighs’, as if the somberness and grief of the situation has stripped all those present
that deaths were quite common, however, they had never expected it as of their ability of speech. The reader however is still unaware who in fact has died even
with the arrival of the corpse in the fifth stanza. The proceeding scene seems rather
to hit so close to them. The mention of a “hard blow” had both a emotionless and clinical, as the poet, on seeing the corpse does not experience an outflow of
physical and emotional meaning in the text. It could refer to the emotions, or at least no visible emotion, unlike his mother’s “angry tearless sighs”. The
poet’s seemingly direct and impassive description of the corpse “stanched and bandaged by
physical impact of the accident on the poet’s brother, and it may also nurses”, further asserts his lack of comprehension, inability to react to such situation as a
refer to the immense emotional trauma experienced by the family child, the situation seems somewhat ‘matter of fact’ quite contrary to what the reader might
members. expect.
Heany had also referred to his brother as a “baby”, and in line 18, it
The tone changes, however, in the sixth stanza as Heaney goes up alone to see his brother’s
was the “first time in six weeks” he was seeing him. This suggests that body the following morning. He describes the presence of snowdrops and candles as
the poet had only a fleeting memory of his brother, and most of his soothing the bedside; the color white conveys a sense of purity, as would be appropriate in
memories were concerned with him when he was a baby, “cooing and retrospect, with the age of the dead individual. The poet uses enjambment to link this stanza
with the seventh, mentioning that his individual now looked paler than the last time he had
rocking the pram”. To me, I find that this part is the most tear jerking seen him six weeks previously. He uses the metaphor ‘Wearing a poppy bruise on his left
part of all, as it describes the poet having a distanced relationship temple’, poppies being the colour of blood as well as a symbol of the dead. Interestingly the
poet uses the word “box” rather than coffin, suggests his lack of understanding, on the other
with his brother that he would now never be able to repair. hand this description, could convey that given the age of his brother he is reminded, as he
looks upon the corpse of the way he saw him in his cot. The final line of the seventh stanza
tells us that the little boy had no ‘gaudy scars’ as the car knocked him to one side rather than narrator talks about "Big" Jim
running over him.
Evans makes it appear as if he
The poem ends with a single line in contrast to the previous stanzas. ‘A four foot box, a foot
for every year’ asserts the age of the dead boy, ‘driving home’ the tender age at which the
thinks he is either really
boy met his end. Interestingly the fact that the final stanza is merely nine words long could
also convey the boy’s age. The shortness of the stanza could in fact also convey the deep
fat, or really thin because
sense of grief and shock the poet feels due to the death of his brother. The closing lines
compels the reader, like the poet’s mother to feel a sense of anger, due the boy’s death. No
sometimes in nicknames irony
individual should have to die to so young, so tragically, and no parent should have to bury
their child.
is used. The word "funerals"
develops an idea hinted in
This poem is about a boy, that stanza one, sick bay, because
tells his experience when he sick bay gives an idea of
as picked up from school something going wrong, and
because of the death of his funerals, a death.In this
baby brother. This poem is stanza, the narrator is rather
possibly an autobiographical emotionless as well. In the
poem, as it is written in the first line of stanza three,
persona "I". It has seven the mood changes completely.
stanzas each of which has It has a much jollier feeling,
three lines, and the last line because the baby hasn't
of the poem is apart from the realised yet all that is
others. It has no rhyming happening around it because of
scheme. his innocence. Heaney manages
When reading the first stanza to make this contrast, by,
rather than a monotonous
of this poem, it gives a sad
feeling, because of it being description, pacing it up,
giving it a rhythm making it
emotionless; it is slow and
monotonous. By giving many have shorter, stronger sounds
references of time, it seems managed by the "ed" in the
past tense. In the next lines,
as if the boy is waiting for
something eagerly, and because the narrator is "embarrassed
by old men standing up to
he is "counting bells" he
seems to be bored, and is shake [his] hand" probably
because he doesn't know what
trying to distract himself. In
this stanza, there is an to do, or how to act.
impression that something bad In this stanza, the boy seems
has happened, because he is not to be preoccupied by the
sitting "in the college sick death; he seems to be much
bay", and his "neighbours more worried about what others
drove [him] home". There is an think of him. In the fourth
uncomfortable mood, and stanza, the narrator quotes
At the second stanza, the exactly what the old men are
saying, because he probably
sadness and tension builds up,
because his "father [is] doesn't think they really mean
crying" and this make us feel what they are saying. This
rather uncomfortable, because makes us feel that the
it makes us think that narrator has despise over
them, like in the next line
somebody he really cares about
has died, as men tend not to when he says "strangers",
because he probably feels that
be so sensitive and because
"he had always taken funerals shouldn't be there if they
aren't close to the family.
in his stride". The way the
When they offer their These two words contrast,
condolences, the old men use a because nurses makes you think
euphemism because it would be about illness and death, and
too harsh. snowdrops, being white, and as
they flourish, make you think
The word death is usually very of a new beginning. There is a
strong, and in this situation, contrast between life and
it will really be offensive. death. When the boy "[sees]
In the next stanza, the him for the first time in
narrator is describing all weeks, paler now", he starts
that is happening, still to have feelings; he seems to
without much emotions and be quite sad, and by using the
describing everything in word "him" it seems as if he
clinical words. Like in the doesn't want to talk about it
rest of the poem, he seems to and is disturbed. The last
be more worried by what is stanza is the one with the
happening, rather than crying most powerful effect. In the
himself; and this is first line, poppy bruise gives
disturbing for the reader. In a connotation that the wound
the first line, the narrator's is very large, and red, by the
mother "[coughs] out angry blood. It makes the reader
tearless sighs" and this makes feel sad, because of how young
the reader think that she is the boy as.
really shocked, tearing apart
and about to collapse. It also The baby "lay in his four foot
makes the reader feel shocked box as in his cot" and this
itself. gives an image that the baby
as really small; so small he
In the next stanza, the still used a cot. This gives a
narrator is describing all shocking effect on the reader,
that is happening, still as it makes you realise how
without much emotions and small he is. As the baby as is
describing everything in "knocked clear", this shocks
clinical words. Like in the the reader a lot, because it
rest of the poem, he seems to gives the impression that he
be more worried by what is as hit really hard, fast and
happening, rather than crying violently. The last line of
himself; and this is this stanza is apart from the
disturbing for the reader. In others. This makes it have a
the first line, the narrator's stronger effect on the reader.
mother "[coughs] out angry This line repeats what is said
tearless sighs" and this makes before, because the narrator
the reader think that she is is really shocked, as is the
really shocked, tearing apart reader when reading this,
and about to collapse. It also because you realise how small
makes the reader feel shocked the baby is.
itself. In the sixth stanza,
the words "snowdrops" and By the alliteration of the
"nurses" have a stronger letter "f", and short
effect by being at the end of syllables, it gives a even
the line. stronger effect, as it makes
you feel the anger of the words When you dragged out long roots
narrator. In conclusion, we from the soft mulch a white face hovered
can see that the title of the over the bottom, for example, could be
poem, "Mid-Term Break" doesn't referring to the narrator tracing back the
relate at all with the poem; roots of his family tree to discover his own
because the title makes us
identity. Another line others had echoes,
think of vacations and fun
gave back your own call with a clean new
when it is actually about
death. This is called tragic music in it could mean that Heaney sees
irony. The overall effect this poetry as a way of restating his thoughts
poem had on me, as really and emotions in a more beautiful and
strong. It made me feel sad, musical way. Even the last line of the poem,
disturbed and shocked, but I rhyme to see myself, to set the darkness
despite this I believe it is echoing, could be saying that the author
wonderfully written. uses poetry as a way to discover himself
and to gain insight. The poem could also be
21212
about coming of age and the transition for
childhood into adulthood. In the last few
lines of the poem the author mentions that
The poem Person Helicon by Seamus
exploring wells is beneath all adult dignity
Heaney is a curious and thought-provoking
therefore the poem could be about
work about a childs fascination with wells.
childhood innocence and how the simplicity
On the surface, the poem is very straight
of youth is lost when a person grows up. Or
forward. The narrator is recalling a
the meaning could be just as simple and
childhood spent exploring wells and old
straightforward as meets the eye- a man
pumps however, like most poems; Personal
remembering a favourite childhood pastime
Helicon has a deeper meaning. A lot of the
and reminiscing about the good old days.
depth in this poem can be seen just from
Whatever the meaning Heaney intended for
examining the title. Helicon, a mountain
the audience to take away, the poem
situated in Boeotia, Greece, was celebrated
remains just as mysterious and intriguing. It
in Greek mythology because of the two
forces the audience to think and ask
springs that were located there. The springs
questions and is captivating from start to
were said to be the source of poetic
finish.
inspiration and they were very sacred to the
muses, the gods and goddesses who inspire
literature and art. This suggests that the
poem Personal Helicon is about Heaneys
own inspiration for his writing. The poem
talks about wells and mentions dark drops,
reflections, and echoes which could signify
that Heaney gets the inspiration for his Seamus Heaney’s title choice for his poem “Personal Helicon” is
rooted in ancient Greek mythology. Helicon is the name of a
work from himself. His poems are a mountain in Greece. “In Greek mythology, two springs sacred to the
reflection of himself and, by looking deep Muses were located here: the Aganippe and the
Hippocrene.”(Mount) The muses are goddesses of inspiration and
into his soul just as the narrator of the the source of knowledge. Mt. Helicon is also where the fable of
Narcissus takes place. Where Narcissus falls so in love with himself,
poem looks into wells; he is able to find the and becomes so despondent when he realizes that he cannot have
motivation and vision necessary to create the object of his own desire, he takes his own life at the side of a
spring. Narcissus and the other elements ascribed to Mt. Helicon are
his literary works. This meaning is furthered heavily used in his poem to help the reader grasp the meanings
through several lines in the poem. The behind the quatrains. While reading it is important to remember the
fables of Mt. Helicon, that the springs on the mountain were the the world, to learning about himself. He no longer peers into the
source of inspiration itself. Thus the title of the poem must be darkness or back up into the sky, the world is no longer reflected,
specifically drawing parallels between the mountains springs and his and his time for introspection begins.
sources of inspiration while a child. Unlike the unchanging Roots are frequently a symbol of family and traditions. Here before
mountain, Heaney’s inspiration undergoes a paradigm shift has as he he can look at himself, he must clear them away. His doing so can be
grows older. One of the voices in this poem goes over the considered an act of removing societal customs and traditions. To be
progression of this change, and tells the story about his inspirations. able to see who he is, to let the person underneath come out and
“Personal Helicon” is dedicated to another poet, a contemporary of play, to experiment in being.
Seamus’, Michael Longley from Belfast. It is unclear if Michael is the Described in playful ways, Seamus talks about his self-exploration
inspiration for the creation of this poem, but the two had worked and experimentations in being by describing his activities with even
together for some time during their careers. Before Seamus’ career, more wells. Using echoes he calls into the wells to listening to the
he was given birth to, and grew up on a farm in Northern Ireland. If mutations. This is a direct parallel for his imagination. Playing out
the poem is taken literally, one can assume a good number of “what if” scenarios in his mind to see how the changes play out. At
springs were present around his family’s farm. As such it comes as least until he received a fright.
no surprise that they are a strong reoccurring theme of his When while peering deep into his reflection one day, “a rat slapped
childhood, and poem. across my[his] reflection” and scared him. It distorted his image into
In this poem, he with such elegance explains the world to himself, something disfigured and horrible. As Nietzsche once said “when
and himself to the reader. It is no wonder he is considered one of you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into
the greatest living poets. Likely he was compelled by others as much you.”(Nietzsche, 146) Assuming his gazing into his reflection is him
as himself to revisit his journey of becoming poet. And of course this taking an introspective look at things, then the rat is just a
can only be done through poem. Using wells and springs as a way of convenient device used to explain how he found something inside
personal reflection and understanding of the natural world, Seamus himself that was disturbing. As is often the case, one’s
begins the reader at his childhood. conceptualization of themselves is not what one truly is. When the
Seamus uses simplistic language and grotesque imagery to bring difference is great, or goes against one’s own moral or social values
forth from the reader a sense of childhood. He is filled with curiosity it can be frightening. This time, it seems to have been so freighting
and naivety. In the first line it becomes established that wells are a as to put him off of it altogether.
source fascination for him. Wells conveniently are a symbol of life. No longer does he stare into wells. Seamus looks down upon
Here is found the effective beginning of his, this new passion for exploring the wonders of the world. “pry[ing] into the roots, to
what he lives for. These strange doorways to underground worlds finger slime” is unfitting the man he has become. He considers
held untold mysteries which were irresistible to the young child. As looking into himself directly narcissistic. Having grown into an adult
so were the devices that brought forth the mysteries from the other matters have taken precedence. His childhood activities are
depths of these worlds. The “old pumps with buckets and now “beneath all adult dignity,” and he must find alternatives.
windlasses” divinely attached devices that could cross the veil Summed up in the last, and arguably his best line we find salvation.
between worlds, may as well have been huge light up neon signs. “I rhyme to see myself, to set the darkness echoing.” The echo in the
Sirens who’s beckoning call could not be resisted. It is amazing he darkness much like the echo in the wells, we find the act of poetry
survived childhood. Little Seamus couldn’t help himself though, he has taken the place of gazing into wells. And we find him once again
“loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells being able to live.
of waterweed, fungus and dank moss.”
Not just full of synthesia, this bit is only synthesia. It pulls anyone
who has ever been outside right back there. It invites the reader to
experience the smells not of decay, but of the beginning of life. It
asks the reader to peer into the darkness and the unknown. In this
still primordial setting, the image of a young child staring into the Q: Describe the FORM of the DIGGING and Discuss
darkness comes easily. He stares into the unknown and wonders why you think Heaney uses it?
how it got there, begging the reader to come explore with him.
What are the origins of this life here in the well? How can the sky,
something so big, get a bit of itself trapped in the well? And what
The form of the poem is free verse poem and it’s written in first
person narrative, with eights stanzas containing two couplets. The
other wonders lay hidden in the darkness? Let us turn the
free structure of the poem give Heaney more room to express his
windlasses, and pull up the bucket. The empirical evidence brought
thought freely about digging his profession, his family, his roots,
forth will illuminate us all, but answers will only be had after
even his country. There is not actual and regular rhyme and rhythm.
repeated results.
But there are some eye rhyme and alliteration in the poem. The eye
Seamus brings us to another well, and another stage of his life. Here
rhymes are “pen & gun”, “buried & bright”, “cold & mould” , “curt &
he is older and wiser. Danger is starting to become apparent to him.
cuts” and so on. The using of eye rhymes makes the poem look
In this well he brings us to, he explicitly notes that there is “a rotted
beautiful, neat and comfortable. Moreover, the alliterations are
board top.” The thirst for knowledge appears slated now. Here
“buried & bright”, “squelch & slap” and “curt & cut” and so on. Both
novelty and entertainment is the main draw. Not much to do on a
eye rhyme and alliteration are good for reading and memory. And
farm, he spends time savoring
alliteration also creates beautiful rhyme, reading like music.
“the rich crash when a bucket
Especially, the using of “pen & gun” suggests a simile: the pen is
Plummeted down at the end of a rope.”
might be a gun; the pen might have the power to protect, save or
The well here is “so deep you saw no reflection in it.” Probably
develop something. Secondly, the “buried & bright” makes the
because it is full of allegories, and not water. The well is deep, but
description of the father’s hardworking in the field vivid and visual.
like all things it may be a symbol for, be it life, inspiration, or
Therefore, we can know Heaney’s respect for his hardworking
knowledge, there is an end. There is a bottom to everything, and
father. Thirdly, the “cold & mould” and “squelch & slap” also have
Seamus is starting to get near to the end. However there is still
important effect on the emotion expressing: because all of the four
darkness, and in the darkness there are yet things for him to learn.
words are negative, they may provoke our mind. It means those
And from the description of the bucket, the hard sounds, the violent
situations awaken Heaney’s memory at this time.
action, these things will be learned the hard way.
Finally, there is a repetition in the poem, the first stanza and the last
Onto another well, and another stage of life. Heaney’s third quatrain
stanza. The memory begins with the first “Between my finger and
brings us to “a shallow one under a dry stone.” This well, though
my thumb” and ends with the similar one. It suggests that there are
drying up is still teaming with life. If the depth of the well is taken
an extended metaphor of digging and roots. It’s a clue in the poem
his level ignorance about the world around him, then at this point
as well.
there is not much left. He describes himself as dragging “out long
roots from the soft mulch,” where he discovers “a white face
Q. Discuss the poet’s use of the following: SIMILE,
hovered over the bottom.” This transitions him from learning about
ALLITERATION, REPETITION?
Simile is that the pen is a spade or a gun and writing is
digging. From “The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.” and “The squat
pen rests. I’ll dig with it”, we can get the simile. The pen is a gun
suggests that he may want to protect and develop his new life as a
writer. From the poem, we know that the career of farmer may be a
family tradition, but Heanay breaks it and chooses to be a writer. So,
he needs a gun to protect his profession. The pen is a spade suggests Heaney describes the production of farm-made butter witnessed as
that Heaney realizes that his writing with the pen is comparable to a youngster. The poem reveals close observations of the technical
that of his forefathers with a spade. He also realizes that he can stages that accompany a ‘magical’ transformation. The process is
continue his own new career with the land he is proud of through his akin to alchemy: the family produces gold from base metal, butter
writing. from milk! They are magicians.
The alliterations are “buried & bright”, “squelch & slap” and “curt & The rising cream of the milk gradually formed a thick crust with the
cut” and so on. The using of alliterations makes the poem looks texture and colour of building materials coarse-grained as limestone
beautiful, neat and comfortable. They are good for reading and rough-cast. The milk-containers are four crocks … large pottery
memory. And alliteration also creates beautiful rhyme and makes it bombs, an analogy that forecasts the explosive transformation that
read like music. The “buried & bright” makes the description of the will ultimately take place, echoed, perhaps, in the later reference to
father’s hardworking in the field vivid and visual. So, we can know the suffocating sulphur mine.
Heaney’s respect for his hardworking father. Thirdly, the “cold & On its journey to the butter-churn the milk underwent a radical
mould” and “squelch & slap” also have important effect on the change, from its creation inside the cow’s hot brewery of gland, cud
emotion expressing: because all of the four words are negative, they and udder to fermentation in cool porous earthenware
may provoke our mind. It means those situations awaken Heaney’s In the Heaney kitchen cleanliness was paramount with a wooden
memory at that time. hooped churn to be purified: first abrasively sterilized, scoured By
There is a repetition in the poem, the first stanza and the last stanza. plumping kettles (the water piping-hot) then with sounds of more
The memory begins with the first “Between my finger and my delicate human touch: busy scrubber echoing daintily.
thumb” and ends with the similar one. It emphasizes that there are An intense, manual process is launched: the contents of crocks
an extended metaphor of digging and roots. It’s a clue in the poem poured out like innards (spilled their heavy lip/ of cream, their white
as well. insides) into the churn; the plunger resembling a great whisky-
muddler (a kind of cocktail mixer in the drinks’ trade) and
fashioned/ in deal wood was plunged in and the churn sealed.
Q: The poem uses an extended METAPHOR. Identify it Cleanliness is replaced by the need for intense energy and stamina;
and discuss how it allows the poet to DEVELOP his THEMES. the thudding reverberations echoed in onomatopoeic rhythms that
Identify at least 2 themes.? slugged and thumped for hours. Muscles, skin and clothes were all
affected: ached … blistered … spattered.
It’s apparent that there are an extended metaphor of digging and Gradually the milk began to thicken, turned flabby. Then, hours
roots from the “The squat pen rests. I’ll dig with it”. It’s the clue and later, the first veins of butter began to form (gold flecks began to
the key point of the poem. Firstly, we can identify the theme that dance) triggering the preparation of what would be required for the
Heaney thinks his writing with the pen is comparable to that of his finished product: sterilized birchwood bowl/ and little corrugated
forefathers with a spade. He respects his forefathers, for which we butter-spades.
can get the evidences like the lines “loving their cool hardness in our Redoubled efforts pay dividends as suddenly/ a yellow curd was
hand”, “My grand cut more turf in a day than any other man on weighting the churned up white, its properties and promise
Toner’s bog”, but he chooses a new field with his good skill and altogether different: heavy and rich, coagulated sunlight. Skimming
“digging” the land through his writing. That’s digging his family, extracts the bounty: butter fished, dripping like gold nuggets panned
especial the family tradition. Further, because his forefathers work from a river and heaped up like gilded gold
hard in digging, for which we can get the evidences like “Corked Heaney remembers equally the aftermath: the pungent odours
sloppily with paper. He straightened up to drink it, then fell to right impacting on the senses (the house would stink…/acrid as a sulphur-
away”, he gives an indication that he will follow his forefathers to mine); the equipment set aside (ranged) for next time; the butter
work hard to creates more good works. What’s more, from the lines neatly stored in soft printed slabs
“Under my window” and “My father, digging. I look down” at the The pace has slowed: fulfilled people move around with gravid ease,
second stanza, I guess that there may be a value distance between their minds still reflecting every facet of recent activity ( our brains
turned crystals) … of newly cleansed equipment, of sounds (the plash
Heaney and his forefathers. On the one hand, because he accepts
more education and work in writing, he “look down” his forefather’s and gurgle) and smell of sour-breathed milk … of the final slab-
farm. On the other hand, he breaks the career chain in his family shaping stage in the process emanating from the scullery: the pat and
slap of small spades on wet lumps.
tradition, so he isn’t accepted and supported by his forefathers.
That’s why his pen is a gun to protect something. But at the end of
the poem, according to the line “through living roots awaken in my
head” the gap disappears.
As for the second theme, he may dig the history of the country,
because of the mention of turf. Now Ireland is only one of the
countries left in Europe that still has turf bogs. For Heaney, he may
want to “digging” the historical past to give the meaning to the
present. As a writer, he wants to show he can transfer memories in
the paper and give the old thoughts the power to transcend time.