Three Poems The Poetry Of Seamus Heaney example essay topic

Heaney's poetry is vividly imaginative, whilst being firmly rooted in reality Explore this comment on Heaney's poetry, referring to at least three poems The poetry of Seamus Heaney is described as imaginative and honest whilst enabling him to share his views on the political and social situation in Ireland at that time. Through the use of metaphors and strong imagery aided by his choice of form and structure Heaney is able to appeal to a wide range of people. The use of etymology, the study of words, furthers this. The poems in the collection 'Death of a Naturalist' are all nostalgic regarding Heaney's upbringing and his family situation. Heaney uses the poetry in this section to voice his feelings of insecurity after the birth of his first child. Within this section in 'Blackberry Picking' Heaney uses the childhood tradition of picking blackberries to express his adult view on how naively hopeful he was as a child.

The poem is used as a metaphor to explain that even as an adult that a recurring delusion, where there is a perpetual consciousness that life, love and youth do not 'keep' but the temptation for another try is always succumbed to. Heaney's use of metaphors in order to relate a current feeling through a childhood incident gives evidence of not only his feelings but also is able to be related to by many who feel they are unable to express their views in similar situations. Heaney is able to appeal to these readers, through showing his feelings of worthlessness and dejection after the birth of a child, through the use of poetry. Heaney's poetry is described as being 'rooted in reality' because he is able to express his truthful emotions 'I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not' despite the social constraints of having to feel ecstatic after the birth of a child. Heaney's success in showing his emotions is as a result of the strong imaginative imagery 'our palms sticky as Bluebeard's'. This use of strong imagery shows Heaney's desire to create a perfect portrait of the image within his mind.

Heaney uses lavish description in order to create the 'lust for picking'. By juxtaposing this with his negative view 'lovely capfuls smelt of rot' he heightens the impact of his condescending adult perspective of how things never live up to our expectations. The poem 'Requiem for the Croppies' describes rebel farmers in 1798 striving to save their land in a vicious battle with English armies. Heaney uses the poem to give voice to those to whom history has denied.

The use of a possessive pronoun 'we's hows the reader which side they are encouraged to identify with, reinforced by the lack of rhyme scheme to show their deficiency of army knowledge. The poem is inventive in portraying a scene often forgotten 'we moved quick and sudden in our own country'. It also shows Heaney's imagination in recreating a full picture of a scene based before his time in situations Heaney has never experienced. Heaney is able to show the reality of death in 'they buried us without shroud or coffin' whilst praising their spirit in dying for those in Ireland in reference to 'Requiem' in the title.

In each of Heaney's poems is an underlying implication of Heaney's political views. In 'Requiem for the Croppies' Heaney refers to the 'barley grew up out of the grave' and in doing so reflects on how little the Irish in Ulster appreciate the martyrs who died for the cause. In the poems throughout 'Wintering Out' Heaney embellishes this, particularly in 'Gifts of Rain'. At first read the poem regards a simple river akin to the poem 'Broagh'. However, in the line 'I cock my ear / at an absence' Heaney refers to those who have died and have worked to uniting Ireland without violence.

He asks for help to go back in time to hear advice from those who have made a difference in uniting Ireland 'Soft voices of the dead are whispering by the shore'. The use of the central imagery throughout the poem of water reflects the nature of being purged, to come out clean with a fresh beginning. Heaney's ability to be 'firmly rooted in reality' is most clearly shown in each poem through his ability to connect everyday landscapes such as the 'River Moyola' to the political situation in Ireland. In the poems featured in 'Wintering Out' Heaney uses several examples of a tradition known in Irish poetry as dinnshenchas.

Through this Heaney explores the linguistic elements and lore of a place name. In the poem 'Anahorish', Heaney explores the place name of where he went to school as a child. Heaney's analysis of the name's phonetics, 'soft gradient / of consonant, vowel meadow' leads him to imagine the landscape to which the name was attached. He believes the rise and fall of the word over the consonants reflects the gradient of the land, rising and falling. This is further embellished upon throughout the poem 'Gifts of Rain.

Heaney analyses the phonetic sounds of the name of the local river 'Moyola', 'the tawny guttural water, spells itself: Moyola'. The name reflects the undulating notion of the water's movements. Heaney shows through his use of etymology his imagination in reflecting sounds with place names and imagining the histories that add to this. In connecting this with the political situation of Ireland, Heaney shows how by taking an elaborate concept behind a place name one can resolutely connect this to our lives today.

Evidence for Heaney's ability to connect a place name and the political situation in Ireland is most identifiably showing 'Broagh'. Heaney connects both the linguistic etymology and the political views within the poem to give an underlying message only accessible by the Irish. In taking a simple concept such as a river the poem is taken at face value to be regarding a 'riverbank'. Heaney uses the word 'Broagh' and compares this to the landscape of a riverbank. However, the poem title 'Broagh' meaning riverbank is unable to be voiced by the English as is pronounced 'bruach' in Irish, 'ended almost suddenly / like the last gh the strangers found difficult to manage'.

In using words of an Irish only dialect such as 'rigs' and 'docken', Heaney isolates the English reader to unite Ireland through linguistics, "Broagh is a sound native to Ireland, common to unionist and Nationalist but unavailable to the English" (Heaney). In the question, Heaney's poetry is referred to as 'vividly imaginative, whilst being firmly rooted in reality', a sentence of which is essential in understanding Heaney's poetry. Throughout each collection Heaney takes a central idea of 'childhood' or 'place names' and connects these through his own emotions to his strong feelings on the disastrous political situation in Ireland, 'I am afraid'. However, The strong emotions Heaney feels connected through a central face value theme is most strongly shown through Heaney's evocative imagery, metaphors and structure. Heaney's poetry endeavours to be 'vivid' through using strong personal messages that relate to the reader but succeeds most readily by combining this with the subtlety of using a common theme..