A Matter of Life and Death... and Other Themes
A Critical Edition of poetry by Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney, world renowned Irish poet and Nobel Prize laureate, has written hundreds of poems. Although he has written so many poems, they all tend to revolve around several common themes. Memories of childhood and death are two such themes, which show’s Heaney’s focus on the beginning and end of life. Heaney grew up in Northern Ireland on a farm during a somewhat tumultuous time period, so he also writes a lot about farming, nature, family, war, religion, and his homeland, Ireland. Because these themes are so prevalent, we thought that it would be important to include poems in our critical edition that are the some of the best representatives of Heaney’s main focus points. Not only do many of his poems center around these topics, a lot of them even contain aspects of more than one of these themes which reiterates the themes’ importance. It was hard to pick such a small number as ten poems to represent the wonderful and large number of poems by Heaney, but we hope that the ones we’ve included that illustrate these various themes will give our audience a greater understanding of Seamus Heaney as a poet and his role in British Literature.
Seeing as Heaney grew up on a small farm in County Derry in Northern Ireland, it is not overly surprising that this part of his life is visible in his poetry. “Digging,” the first poem in Heaney’s first collection of poetry and in our critical edition as well, reflects on his childhood memories of potato farming and growing up in rural Northern Ireland. We thought it would be important to include this poem because it highlights so many of the themes of his poetry. As his first poem in his first collection, this poem has a big job: it announces who Seamus Heaney is as a poet. This is not to say that Heaney and his poetry never changed; they certainly did. But “Digging” sets the stage for the rest of his work as a poet and gives a good idea of what Heaney will focus on and considers important.
Poems about the beginning and end of life are very common throughout Heaney’s collections of poetry. Reflections on and memories of childhood and death recur in his poems. In “Digging,” as mentioned above, Heaney recalls memories as a child of his father digging for potatoes and his grandfather cutting turf. “A Constable Calls” centers around Heaney’s memory as a child of the constable coming to visit his father to record information about his farm and the feelings that this visit instilled in him. In “Mid-Term Break,” Heaney draws upon the memories of the death and funeral of his four-year-old brother. “The Tollund Man” discusses a dead man that was found in the Irish bogs, so well preserved that it seemed he had just died recently. Both of these poems speak of literal deaths. However, Heaney also discusses the topic of figurative death in “Death of a Naturalist.” This poem, which also includes memories of childhood, speaks of a small child who is fascinated by frogs and nature, but then sees a disturbing side of nature, resulting in the death of his innocence and joy. By addressing both the beginning and end of life in his poems, it is evident that both childhood memories and death are important to Heaney.
The importance of Heaney’s family is also seen in his poetry. This theme is especially apparent in “The Harvest Bow,” “Digging,” and "Mossbawn 1. Sunlight." “The Harvest Bow” reflects on remembrances of Heaney’s father, which also incorporates memories of childhood. Heaney remembers his father’s creativity and the times that they spent together when Heaney was a child. This poem focuses on the father-son relationship and the joys found in that relationship. Similarly, “Digging” also focuses on the relationship between family members, namely the grandfather, father, and son. This poem tells of Heaney’s childhood memories of his family and what impact they had on him. Heaney clearly draws inspiration from these two men in his life and it is clear that he has a great deal of respect for them. Also, "Mossbawn 1. Sunlight" reflects on his childhood and on the memories he has of his aunt. These poems were included to display the weight that Heaney placed on family and familial relationships. Family is obviously a significant part of Heaney’s life and poetry.
Since Heaney’s family lived on a farm and he grew up surrounded by nature, that is a prevalent theme in the works of Seamus Heaney. His background of growing up on a farm is most apparent in “Digging” and “The Harvest Bow.” Some of the bog poems have important thoughts about nature, such as “Bogland.” Heaney examines the relationship between nature and time throughout by setting up the poem itself as a layered bog. The notion is that the bog is bottomless, just like time as compared to nature. The main poem, however, that was chosen to represent the theme of nature in this particular topic was “Death of a Naturalist” because it is about Heaney’s personal experiences with nature as a child. In the poem, he collects the frogspawn and watches as the eggs hatch and turn into tadpoles. On the other hand, when he goes back to get more, he is afraid because he believes that the frogs there are angry with him and are ready to defend their offspring. The poem explains how nature isn’t always the beautiful, harmless thing that most people tend to think it is. In this case, Heaney learns as a young boy that everything in nature will defend itself: it is all about the survival of the fittest. By drawing upon pastoral images, Heaney indicates how important his roots are.
Heaney’s roots are from Northern Ireland which has been marked by war and religious disputes over the years. These conflicts and references to his home country are very clearly seen in his poetry. “Requiem for the Croppies” is an example of one of his poems that addresses these conflicts. This poem in particular is about the Rebellion of 1798 where thousands of Irish foot soldiers were killed by the English at Vinegar Hill. Also, it was written on the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising, another struggle of the Irish rebels. Religion is not quite as common of a theme in his poetry, but it is still seen in a few of his poems. When Heaney was growing up, there was a great deal of conflict and distrust between Catholics and Protestants. His poem “The Other Side” touches on this conflict. It tells of two neighbors, clearly of opposing religions, who come across each other and do not quite know how to interact with one another. There is obvious tension and suspicion in their relationship. The poem also includes many religious references and allusions, showing that Heaney, having been raised Roman Catholic, knew something about religion. He alludes to Lazarus, Pharaoh, Solomon, and David and Goliath. These poems were included to show Heaney’s focus on speaking to the social issues of the time period. Heaney’s commemoration and references to Irish physical and religious conflicts in his poetry emphasizes that he is very concerned with his heritage and especially Irish conflicts and their effects on the nation, society, and him personally.
This critical edition, geared toward students in British Literature classes, includes a number of features to make it more accessible to them and help them out. One large feature that we have included is detailed context sections for each poem in order to help the students understand what is going on in the poem and what some possibly unfamiliar words or concepts mean. Since the intended audience was a group of students studying the author and his poetry, it was only fitting that a biography of Seamus Heaney be included, as well as a list of his publications, so that the students can learn about his backgrounds, his life in general, and the works he’s published. A few maps of Ireland, of Northern Ireland, and of the world with Ireland highlighted were included to give the audience a visual idea of the country where Heaney grew up. We also included a history of Northern Ireland so the audience can learn more about the history of conflict and division of where Heaney’s from. By including these features, we hope that the audience will be able to learn and understand more about Heaney’s poems and his background.
Seamus Heaney wrote a plethora of poems, all of which display various themes that are all interconnected. The ten poems that we chose for this project are the ones that we deemed to be the best representative of his work. They display a wide range of themes, from memories of childhood to religion to death. Heaney clearly found these topics important enough to write many poems about them. Sometimes, he found them so important and connected that he would include several themes in one poem. Understanding the themes is poetry is an essential part of understanding the poet. The themes give the reader a hint about what the poet values and considers important. By including a multitude of themes in our project, we were able to obtain a broad understanding of the ideas that Heaney found to be significant and worth writing about. This led to a fuller, more complete knowledge of Seamus Heaney and his poetry and we hope that it will do the same for our audience.
Seeing as Heaney grew up on a small farm in County Derry in Northern Ireland, it is not overly surprising that this part of his life is visible in his poetry. “Digging,” the first poem in Heaney’s first collection of poetry and in our critical edition as well, reflects on his childhood memories of potato farming and growing up in rural Northern Ireland. We thought it would be important to include this poem because it highlights so many of the themes of his poetry. As his first poem in his first collection, this poem has a big job: it announces who Seamus Heaney is as a poet. This is not to say that Heaney and his poetry never changed; they certainly did. But “Digging” sets the stage for the rest of his work as a poet and gives a good idea of what Heaney will focus on and considers important.
Poems about the beginning and end of life are very common throughout Heaney’s collections of poetry. Reflections on and memories of childhood and death recur in his poems. In “Digging,” as mentioned above, Heaney recalls memories as a child of his father digging for potatoes and his grandfather cutting turf. “A Constable Calls” centers around Heaney’s memory as a child of the constable coming to visit his father to record information about his farm and the feelings that this visit instilled in him. In “Mid-Term Break,” Heaney draws upon the memories of the death and funeral of his four-year-old brother. “The Tollund Man” discusses a dead man that was found in the Irish bogs, so well preserved that it seemed he had just died recently. Both of these poems speak of literal deaths. However, Heaney also discusses the topic of figurative death in “Death of a Naturalist.” This poem, which also includes memories of childhood, speaks of a small child who is fascinated by frogs and nature, but then sees a disturbing side of nature, resulting in the death of his innocence and joy. By addressing both the beginning and end of life in his poems, it is evident that both childhood memories and death are important to Heaney.
The importance of Heaney’s family is also seen in his poetry. This theme is especially apparent in “The Harvest Bow,” “Digging,” and "Mossbawn 1. Sunlight." “The Harvest Bow” reflects on remembrances of Heaney’s father, which also incorporates memories of childhood. Heaney remembers his father’s creativity and the times that they spent together when Heaney was a child. This poem focuses on the father-son relationship and the joys found in that relationship. Similarly, “Digging” also focuses on the relationship between family members, namely the grandfather, father, and son. This poem tells of Heaney’s childhood memories of his family and what impact they had on him. Heaney clearly draws inspiration from these two men in his life and it is clear that he has a great deal of respect for them. Also, "Mossbawn 1. Sunlight" reflects on his childhood and on the memories he has of his aunt. These poems were included to display the weight that Heaney placed on family and familial relationships. Family is obviously a significant part of Heaney’s life and poetry.
Since Heaney’s family lived on a farm and he grew up surrounded by nature, that is a prevalent theme in the works of Seamus Heaney. His background of growing up on a farm is most apparent in “Digging” and “The Harvest Bow.” Some of the bog poems have important thoughts about nature, such as “Bogland.” Heaney examines the relationship between nature and time throughout by setting up the poem itself as a layered bog. The notion is that the bog is bottomless, just like time as compared to nature. The main poem, however, that was chosen to represent the theme of nature in this particular topic was “Death of a Naturalist” because it is about Heaney’s personal experiences with nature as a child. In the poem, he collects the frogspawn and watches as the eggs hatch and turn into tadpoles. On the other hand, when he goes back to get more, he is afraid because he believes that the frogs there are angry with him and are ready to defend their offspring. The poem explains how nature isn’t always the beautiful, harmless thing that most people tend to think it is. In this case, Heaney learns as a young boy that everything in nature will defend itself: it is all about the survival of the fittest. By drawing upon pastoral images, Heaney indicates how important his roots are.
Heaney’s roots are from Northern Ireland which has been marked by war and religious disputes over the years. These conflicts and references to his home country are very clearly seen in his poetry. “Requiem for the Croppies” is an example of one of his poems that addresses these conflicts. This poem in particular is about the Rebellion of 1798 where thousands of Irish foot soldiers were killed by the English at Vinegar Hill. Also, it was written on the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising, another struggle of the Irish rebels. Religion is not quite as common of a theme in his poetry, but it is still seen in a few of his poems. When Heaney was growing up, there was a great deal of conflict and distrust between Catholics and Protestants. His poem “The Other Side” touches on this conflict. It tells of two neighbors, clearly of opposing religions, who come across each other and do not quite know how to interact with one another. There is obvious tension and suspicion in their relationship. The poem also includes many religious references and allusions, showing that Heaney, having been raised Roman Catholic, knew something about religion. He alludes to Lazarus, Pharaoh, Solomon, and David and Goliath. These poems were included to show Heaney’s focus on speaking to the social issues of the time period. Heaney’s commemoration and references to Irish physical and religious conflicts in his poetry emphasizes that he is very concerned with his heritage and especially Irish conflicts and their effects on the nation, society, and him personally.
This critical edition, geared toward students in British Literature classes, includes a number of features to make it more accessible to them and help them out. One large feature that we have included is detailed context sections for each poem in order to help the students understand what is going on in the poem and what some possibly unfamiliar words or concepts mean. Since the intended audience was a group of students studying the author and his poetry, it was only fitting that a biography of Seamus Heaney be included, as well as a list of his publications, so that the students can learn about his backgrounds, his life in general, and the works he’s published. A few maps of Ireland, of Northern Ireland, and of the world with Ireland highlighted were included to give the audience a visual idea of the country where Heaney grew up. We also included a history of Northern Ireland so the audience can learn more about the history of conflict and division of where Heaney’s from. By including these features, we hope that the audience will be able to learn and understand more about Heaney’s poems and his background.
Seamus Heaney wrote a plethora of poems, all of which display various themes that are all interconnected. The ten poems that we chose for this project are the ones that we deemed to be the best representative of his work. They display a wide range of themes, from memories of childhood to religion to death. Heaney clearly found these topics important enough to write many poems about them. Sometimes, he found them so important and connected that he would include several themes in one poem. Understanding the themes is poetry is an essential part of understanding the poet. The themes give the reader a hint about what the poet values and considers important. By including a multitude of themes in our project, we were able to obtain a broad understanding of the ideas that Heaney found to be significant and worth writing about. This led to a fuller, more complete knowledge of Seamus Heaney and his poetry and we hope that it will do the same for our audience.