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Seamus Heaney and Simon Armitage. Seamus Heaney. 1939 - Present Heaney was born in Northern Ireland. Farm. Heaney grew up on a farm and so many of his poems are about nature. The Death of a Naturalist. (1966). The Death of a Naturalist.
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Seamus Heaney • 1939 - Present • Heaney was born in Northern Ireland.
Farm • Heaney grew up on a farm and so many of his poems are about nature.
The Death of a Naturalist (1966)
The Death of a Naturalist • The Death of a Naturalist is a collection of Heaney’s poems published in 1966. • Heaney’s poems are very personal.
Family • The first two poems are about family. • Digging is a very famous Heaney poem about family tradition. • It also explains his feelings about being a writer.
First 3 Stanzas • The first part of the poem is set in the present day. • Heaney sits with his pen in his hand watching his father in the garden digging. • He starts to think back to “twenty years away” (twenty years before).
Digging Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; as snug as a gun. Under my window a clean rasping sound When the spade sinks into gravelly ground: My father, digging. I look down Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds Bends low, comes up twenty years away Stooping in rhythm through potato drills Where he was digging.
Remembering • He begins by remembering his father digging potatoes on the farm. • He is obviously proud of his father’s skill and strength.
Stanza Four: The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft Against the inside knee was levered firmly. He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep To scatter new potatoes that we picked Loving their cool hardness in our hands.
More Remembering • He then thinks about how his grandfather also used to dig the earth at “Toner’s Bog.”
By God, the old man could handle a spade, Just like his old man. My grandfather could cut more turf in a day Than any other man on Toner's bog. Once I carried him milk in a bottle Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up To drink it, then fell to right away Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods Over his shoulder, digging down and down For the good turf. Digging.
Back to the present • Heaney then starts to think about himself in relation to his ancestors. • He has vivid memories of them working on the farm, but he is not a farmer…
The cold smell of potato mold, the squelch and slap Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge Through living roots awaken in my head. But I've no spade to follow men like them.
Digging • Though Heaney is not a farmer and does not dig the ground, • He is able to find a continuity between his work and theirs….
Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests. I'll dig with it.
“I’ll dig with it” THINK ABOUT: • How is Heaney going to “dig” with his pen? • What does he mean by this?
Mid-Term Break • Mid-Term Break is another poem about Heaney’s family. • But this is about a very sad event in Heaney’s childhood.
Mid-Term Break • Mid-Term Break is a poem about the death of Heaney’s little brother Christopher. • Heaney was 14 when his brother was hit by a car.
Stanza One • The first stanza sees the young Heaney sitting in the sick bay at school. • He is away at a boarding school, so he has not been home for several weeks.
I sat all morning in the college sick bay Counting bells knelling classes to a close. At ten o'clock our neighbours drove me home.
“Knelling” • Knelling describes the sound of a bell, but it is usually used in connection with a funeral.
Stanzas 2-5 • The next 4 stanzas describe the funeral. • His father and mother are filled with sadness and anger and Heaney describes their different reactions. • The baby is too young to understand what has happened.
In the porch I met my father crying - He had always taken funerals in his stride - And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow. The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram When I came in, and I was embarrassed By old men standing up to shake my hand.
A (very) young adult • At the funeral friends of the family treat him like a man, though he feels like a boy. • The shake his hand and offer condolences.
And tell me they were 'sorry for my trouble' Whispers informed strangers that I was the eldest, Away at school, as my mother held my hand In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs. At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.
“stanched” • “Stanch” means the same as “staunch:” stop the flow of blood. • At this point we still do not know who has died.
The last two stanzas • The final stanzas tell of Heaney going to look at his brother’s body the following morning. • The final stanza has an extra line and the final two lines form the only rhyme in the poem.
Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops And candles soothed the bedside I saw him For the first time in six weeks. Paler now, Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple. He lay in a four foot box, as in his cot. No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear. A four foot box, a foot for every year.
Final Line THINK ABOUT: • Why does Heaney add this extra line to the last stanza? • What effect does in have on the end of the poem?
Limbo • The third Seamus Heaney poem is less personal, but it is also about the death of a child. • It is a poem about Catholicism in Ireland.
Limbo • Catholics believe that “limbo” is neither heaven or hell. • It is the place where some souls wait for Judgment day.
Un-baptised Babies • Some Catholics believe that a baby that dies before it has been baptised will go to Limbo instead of Heaven.
Limbo • Limbo is now a word that describes uncertain waiting. • It describes a feeling of being trapped.
Ireland • Ireland is a very Catholic country. • This poem gives Heaney’s opinion on the damaging effects of Catholic doctrine.
Limbo • Limbo is a poem about the body of a newborn baby having been caught in a fishing net.
Limbo Fishermen at Ballyshannon Netted an infant last night Along with the salmon. An illegitimate spawning,
Illegitimate • The baby is described as an “illegitimate spawning” because the baby was born to an unmarried woman. • It is this woman who drowned her baby.
A small one thrown back To the waters. But I'm sure As she stood in the shallows Ducking him tenderly
Till the frozen knobs of her wrists Were dead as the gravel, He was a minnow with hooks Tearing her open.
“A small one thrown back” • Small fish are thrown back into the water when they are caught. • Heaney is comparing the baby to a fish in order to show how brutal this act is.
Minnow with hooks • A minnow is a tiny fish. • Obviously fish are caught with sharp hooks.
Fishing • The references to fishing are related to Jesus in the last two stanzas. • Jesus was called “fisher of men” and many of his disciples were fishermen.
Remember… • There is a story in Brideshead Revisited about how we are all caught on an invisible thread. • And God can reel us in with a twitch of his hand.
She waded in under The sign of the cross. He was hauled in with the fish. Now limbo will be
A cold glitter of souls Through some far briny zone. Even Christ's palms, unhealed, Smart and cannot fish there.
