Seamus Heaney

"When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanse."

Poetry has a role in society, not only to serve as part of the aesthetics or of the arts. It also gives us a view of what the society is in the context of when it was written and what the author is trying to express through words. The words as a tool in poetry may seem ordinary when used in ordinary circumstance. Yet, these words can hold more emotion and thought, however brief it was presented.

From a Christian perspective, one can already see no ethics or morality in the poem. Genesis 2:15, states “The Lord took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” If we, as humans place third in the Great Chain of beings, and are called to care for the earth, then we should pursue this vision. On the Contrary, in The Great Chain of Being: The

knew that if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it." He knew that

Seamus Heaney once said: “The fact of the matter is that the most unexpected and miraculous thing in my life was the arrival in it of poetry itself - as a vocation and an elevation almost.” Heaney is known and praised for his works and love of poetry, which was shaped by his family and experiences. Heaney’s poems reveal his close relationship with nature, but they’re also unique in the sense that he manages to convey a universal message while focusing on an individual idea. Shaped by his quaint life on his childhood farm, family, famous poets, education, and the numerous teaching jobs he had over the years, Seamus Heaney used this influence to create poetry that balances a sense of natural speech with his commitment to what he described as

Poetry is a type of literature that express deep battles that gravitate readers to know more about why the author feels a certain way. Overcoming battles is a success story to all authors because they are the ones who feel the hurt

Ultimately this is a surprisingly simple poem with a relatively deep underlying message. This format syncs up beautifully with the poems messages of a lamb's innocence and therefore a child’s innocence. The style is also accentuated with the simple verbiage, the use of repetition, and the device of a child narrator. The larger theme comes into play-still dealing with religion-when the poem is aligned with its counterpart The Tyger, to question God’s intentions behind him creating all of humanity including what is holy and virtuous, and what is vile and

The role of women in Christianity is directly related to the lack of rights and equality women have faced and continue to face in society today. Patriarchy and androcentric ideas about God featured in scripture are the foundation of female oppression- despite the several similarities between God and women. The oversight of women’s resemblance to God is responsible for the oppression of women in Christianity. Throughout scripture, there is maternal imagery of God in relationship to their love for children, compassion, and ability to provide for others; thus, proving the significance of women in the church.

In his 2006 collection, ‘District and Circle’, Seamus Heaney responds to the ever-changing and developing world around him. To do so he often relies upon the exploration of the past, memory, and personal identity through the use of language. In the second poem of ‘District and Circle’, ‘A Shiver’, Seamus Heaney is dependent upon these concepts to construct a thematically rich poem.

This essay examines the effects that poetry has on society, both socially and politically. Poetry has been around for centuries, and it is a common misconception that it serves no purpose. One critic in particular, W.H Auden claimed, “poetry makes nothing happen”. However poetry awakens the reader’s eyes and gives an insight to the society in which we live in today, and which has been before us. As evident in Ezra Pound’s work, as he explored the use of imagism to critique modernism and twentieth century, forcing the readers to think more about society as a whole. The purpose of this essay is to show that poetry does make something happen and can have instrumental effects on society, whether it is a poet critiquing society, or simply providing another interpretation. Poetry is a code than needs to be cracked, it is a riddle that makes the reader bring out their true creativity, which is why I disagree with W.H Auden in saying, “poetry makes nothing happen.”

Over the years, the poets and poetry had been treated fallaciously. Many objections and questions have been raised against poets and poetry. Some were in defence of poetry while the others were against it. Numerous critics have gone to the extent of calling it “a foolish form of escapism” and “a pack of lies.” Many of such objections were as old as Plato who expelled the poets from his ideal republic. He condemned poetry in these

As he enters he is confronted by “old men standing up”, a jarring sight. Their act of respect is indicative of a new perception of the persona, as though his experience has transformed him somehow. However the young persona is still struggling to comprehend the events unfolding as his confusion is misattributed to stoicism. Seamus Heaney plays with these conflicting ideas of an observer’s perception and self-perception, representing the inner conflict the persona faces on taking up responsibility. In both poems children assume responsibility, a mantle of adulthood but there are implications of the things they lose - innocence and

poems literary history before directing this analysis to the most exceptional part of this satiric poem.

In late 20th century Ireland there was a thirty-year conflict known as “The Troubles” that came about due to the systematic discrimination against Catholics. During this violent period, a new poet named Seamus Heaney addressed this strife in his poetry. Heaney was born on April 13, 1939, in Castledawson, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland where he lived in his family farmhouse as a Catholic in a vastly Protestant part of the country (Pool). He discovered the works of Ted Hughes, Patrick Kavanagh, and Robert Frost while studying English at Queen’s University and was inspired to write works of his own. According to Poetry Foundation in 1995, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past." Through his use of imagery and regionalism in the poems “Digging” and “The Singer’s House,” Heaney creates nostalgic poems that detail his heritage as an Irish American making his voice significant because it illustrates candid and accurate aspects of identity and life in Ireland. It is because of this that many people around the world still read and appreciate his work.

Instead it was written to be a quaternion about the four stages of life that humans experience, that is to say childhood, youth, middle age, and old age. During the childhood portion of the quaternion, the newborn babe describes himself as being stained from birth “with Adam’s sinful fact” (Bradstreet 2.59). This exemplifies the Puritan belief that all humans are corrupted by original sin, i.e. Adam’s sinful fact. The baby goes on to discuss that he began to sin as soon as he was able to act and that his sins brought “sorrow, sickness, death, and woe” (2.68) upon him. Though the baby was stained by original sin, he was still able to enjoy the fact that he was not affected by greed, envy, or arrogance because he was still a naïve child that was ignorant of such matters (2.27-2.40). Another exhibition of the practicing of Puritan beliefs in the poem is when the baby describes his mother as wasting away as he thrived (2.10), possibly because she was devoting all of her time to caring for him rather than looking after herself. The mother showed her devotion to her family by ensuring that her baby was healthy and successful even if it meant that she would suffer for it. The mother made sure that her baby would grow up, even if he had to do it without