Seamus Heaney Essay

The Burial at Thebes, by Seamus Heaney, depicts a Greek play entitled, Antigone. Within the play we find our protagonist, Antigone, and our antagonist, King Creon. In the commencement of the play we are told from Antigone’s sister Ismene their brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, have perished from battle, one a hero, another a traitor. Since Polyneices went against Thebes he was not given a burial, so Antigone swept sand over his body. A guard catches her in the act and immediately sends her to

The injustice of death is a theme often explored in the world of poetry; conveyed in a variety of contexts but nevertheless sharing the same theme. Death is universally acknowledged for being a sensitive subject, thus poets writing about death are able to cope with the inevitability and injustice of death through their writing. ‘Mid Term Break’, ‘Futility’, and ‘Tichborne’s elegy’ associates with the injustice of death from signifying the brevity of life itself whilst arguing the inevitable paradox

hardly a shame to be showered with such gifts / in front of the hall-troops.” However, even before the first feast after the monster’s death, drinking is negatively written about when Unferth taunts Beowulf at the first feast. Beowulf translator, Seamus Heaney, translates line 530 of the epic as Beowulf saying to Unferth: “Well, Unferth, you have had your say about Breca and me, but it was mostly drink that was talking.” It seems that references to being “drunk” have stronger negative connotations than

Comparing different Religions in Beowulf and The 13th Warrior Religions play various different roles throughout literature, the most common one I think of is Christianity. We will discuss what the role of Religion is in Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney and the role in the movie The 13th Warrior. Christianity, Islam, and Anglo-Saxon Paganism are the various Religions’ that are expressed in both the literature and the movie. Since both works are similar, but written in a different point of view

People throughout the world practice a variety of religions. Some religions are more popular than others such as Buddhism versus Jainism. Religions tend to spread within a society and then die back down. However, there are still people amongst us who believe or may even still practice archaic religions. Some religions date back to 700 A.D such as Christianity and paganism. Over the course of hundreds of years both religions have evolved. Throughout different works of literature, people are able to

Death and loss are tragic, but both inevitable. Both Seamus Heaney in his poem "Mid-Term Break" and W.H. Auden in his poem "Funeral Blues" explore the theme of death and how they dealt with the grief after losing someone they love, but both delved into it in different ways. They talk about the anger, shock and the feeling of emptiness after losing someone. In the poem "mid-term break" the poet captures the atmosphere in a funeral in a subtle, sensitive and observatory manner. The title is misleading

The poem Beowulf metaphorically warns of human corruption and cautions society to uphold morals and resist sinful desires with the embodiment of these misdeeds as monsters, and contrasts an illustration of virtue and desirable social behavior in the image of the mighty thane Beowulf. Throughout the poem, the poet depicts three grotesque monsters to insinuate the battle of mankind’s inner demons. These monsters in Beowulf contradict respectable social behavior, and represent the Anglo-Saxon society’s

Mihaela Majetić Professor Borislav Berić LIT 301 27 October 2014 Thrice heroic deed of a hero indeed Almost every society has at some point in its history praised someone as a hero, sometimes rightfully and sometimes not. Being a hero is not only about being strong and courageous, but it is also about having other innate qualities that differ heroes from ordinary human beings. In Old English Beowulf hero is Beowulf himself, the main character with large number of these traits demonstrated and proven

the main characters of their self-titled books, are two very different, yet very similar characters. Beowulf, whose real author is unknown, is said to be one of the oldest pieces of English literature ever and is translated from Old English by Seamus Heaney, tells the tale of a valiant member of the Geat people who travels across the sea to help the Danes and King Hrothgar battle Grendel, a vicious monstrosity who is ravaging the local area. Grendel is written by John Gardner and tells the same tale

and order in the land of king Creon.” (Antigone 7) Everyone in Thebes especially women are intimidated by Creon because of his hubris making him the tragic hero of antigone, The Burial at Thebes: A version of Sophocles’ Antigone translated by Seamus Heaney. After two brother from opposing sides battle and die, Creon becomes king of Thebes ruling that only Eteocles gets a proper burial and Polyneices the “treacherous” one is denied any burial at all. Antigone defines his order believing it is her