Analysis of Poems by Seamus Heaney
Analysis of Poems by Seamus Heaney
Blackberry – Picking is a poem by Seamus Heaney, dedicated to Philip Hobsbaum. The poem is a description of Heaney’s childhood down memory lane. It describes his favorite activity of blackberry – picking in August, during harvest time. This, he liked to do along with his friend. The blackberry picking highlights the importance of struggle in everybody’s lives. The very beautiful berries are not left to rejoice in their beauty. They are soon converted into stinking wine, which represents the different facets of life, thus submerging the beauty of the blackberry. Heaney tries to portray how we struggle to change certain things in life, but are unable to do so.
Heaney uses Blackberry Picking to express life’s true colors. The activity of blackberry picking is compared to childhood when life’s simple pleasures are experienced. But these experiences do not stay the same as childhood changes to adulthood. The transition taking place is unchangeable. Earlier in childhood, life is sweet like the flesh of the blackberry. The poet uses metaphors in several places in the poem. The sweetness of the berry is compared to sweet childhood. ‘Summer’s blood’ is used to describe the hard work that a man puts in his life. Hoarding of fresh berries in cans and tins is compared to humans who try to hoard wealth in life. The thorny pricks and sticky palms are life’s struggles in various forms. Rich imagery is used in the poem which gives us vivid pictures of beautiful childhood using blackberries. The harsh phase of life is felt by the image of the stinking, fermented berries. The tone of the poem is happy at the beginning, but sad as it reaches its end. The poet tries to lay stress on sweet childhood, which transcends into adulthood, filled with troubles, struggles and misery and our incapability to change its course.
Bogland
In Bogland, the poet Seamus Heaney throws light on the struggle of the rural Irish people and how the bog housed and witnessed changes in the Irish community. Heaney dedicates this poem to the famous Irish writer T.P. Flanagan, whose works are based on Ireland and the struggle of the Irish people to get over their past. Bogland is one of the several kinds of ‘bog’ poems which speak about the huge cloud surrounding Ireland. This cloud consists of both the good and bad events that occurred in Ireland. Ireland is a country rich with tradition and heritage. The Irish people’ like Heaney himself, are proud till today of their rich culture and varied heritage. However Ireland has seen a lot of turmoil in the past. This can be seen in Bogland, in which the bog is spoken of a place which houses Irish history.
The poet elucidates that the bog is like a deep secret. As we go down deep into the bog, the different layers of the bog reveal different stages of progress of the Irish community. The comparison of the bottom-less bog to a never-ending unraveling of Irish history is a metaphor used successfully to highlight the mysteries of Irish that is less known. The bottomless wet center is metaphorically used to describe an unraveled Irish history. The tone of the poem is both happy and sad. The great Irish elk is symbolic of Irish heritage and its happy past. ‘They’ll never dig coal here’ – implies that it is impossible to undo the Irish past and its becoming. The ‘Cyclops’s eye; is used to describe the endless bog which evil qualities and treasures hidden it. The grief of the Irish people can be felt greatly by the wonderful words used by Heaney. The reader is greatly compelled to find out about the history of Ireland.
The Tollund Man
The Tollund Man by Seamus Heaney is another work on Irish people and their disturbed past. The poem speaks of the poet’s view that Ireland had had a very violent past in which several people were brutally massacred constantly. The Tollund Man was an ancient finding discovered in Denmark who was buried in the bog. He was symbolic of Irish people who were buried in the bog. The poet wishes through the poem that he would visit a place called Aarhus where the Tollund man once lived. According to the poet, the Tollund Man was a sacrifice to the goddess for the people of Ireland. He believed that the earth demanded a sacrifice so that the people of Ireland may live.
The poem is a visual treat to the reader. Its gives us a vivid picture of the Tollund Man and breathes life into him using excellent imagery in the poem. The description of the Tollund Man makes the reader imagine what he would have been like when he would have been alive. The poet also feels that the place in which he lives is no less than the time in which the Tollund Man lived. This was an unhappy thought. The poem is also rich in metaphorical comparisons. The comparison of the Tollund Man to a sacrifice and the earth being compared to a goddess, add to the visual appeal of the poem. The poem has a tone of sadness to it. It recalls the painful days of the bog in which laborers were buried in coal fields. The finding of the Tollund Man was one such example. The Tollund Man was found after several years and yet looked very fresh. His features could be easily sensed by the viewer.
‘The poem ends with an ironical note that the poet would be experiencing the same kind of sadness in the place in which he lived as the people in the bog would have experienced. This feeling was indeed very saddening to him. He could see several people being killed around him just like the people in the bog. But he could do nothing about it.
References
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