Analyzing Seamus Heaney's Poem 'Hailstones'

Rapper Kanye West once stated “My greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live.” Though West’s quote possesses an air of arrogant egocentrism, it still establishes a sort of inherent, human, craving for being able to recognize and truly view oneself in relation to the world. However, this longing is ultimately futile, as the laws of nature prevent West from fulfilling his self-gratifying dream. In the poem “Hailstones” by Seamus Heaney, the speaker maintains a longing for this same sense of familiarity, regardless of what consequences it may bring, even though this craving is nothing in comparison to the powerful, physicality of the hailstones.
In order to establish the speaker’s initial inability to truly

understand his surroundings in the first part of the poem, Heaney employs quick and intense diction as well as cold, sobering imagery. The speaker begins saying that his “cheek was hit and hit” by “sudden hailstones.” The beating repetition of “hit” and “hit,” which in conjunction with the close and human “cheek,” emphasizes how drastically the hailstones are affecting the narrator, as they seem to continuously harm something that is directly related to him. The “sudden” nature of the hailstones reveals that the speaker was sort of unaware of this happening, and is unprepared to deal with what they might bring. However, this scene quickly transitions into a sort of absence, as the hailstones “[clear] again.” A sort of contradiction arises here, as the speaker’s earlier surprise conflicts with “again,” implying a sort of familiarity that he has with them. This contradiction establishes his lack of understanding in regards to himself and his surroundings, as he is unable to place anything within a normal temporal context. However, he then claims that “something whipped and knowledgeable... had withdrawn.” The ambiguity of “something” contrasted with “whipped” establishes this brutal familiarity, while “knowledgeable” gives this ambiguity a sense of importance, creating a sort of sudden rhetorical shift in the narrator’s process of thought, from one of annoyance with the physical world to one of introspection and sort of longing. Because of this, the speaker makes a “small hard ball... of burning water,” in order to attempt to make sense of his sudden insight. The ball, a compacted and small amalgamation of the hailstones that had hit him, the subsidence of which triggered his thinking, is “small” and “hard,” very physical, tactile adjectives that imply the inability of man to form concepts that transcend the material world. The speaker’s lack of feeling in regard to the “burning” of the water implies how he is used to this normally searing pain, creates a sense of surrealism, in that the narrator, although he is affected by the hailstones, he tries to transcend his human world. However, this is soon contradicted by the “melt of the real thing... smarting into its absence.” The painful diction of “smarting” implies that the narrator is still bound by the cold of the ball he has made, failing in his attempt to understand and transcend his humanity, instead staying bound by the natural hailstones.
The second part of the poem transitions to the speaker’s childhood, using both oppressive and youthful diction and sharp imagery and sound to convey his desire to comprehend his existence, grasping for anything that represents a sort of concrete, familiar concept to him.

By calling the hailstones “brats of showers,” he emphasizes his disgust with them, how his current self sort of condescending looks down on them, even though they paradoxically created his current questioning. The sharp “a” in “brats,” sort of pierces into the narrator, re-establishing his volatile reaction to the hailstones. By saying they “refused permission,” the speaker feels oppressed by them, feeling as if they stop him from realizing himself, as he is sort of bound by them. The “rattling of the classroom window... like a ruler across the knuckles,” is a reference to the sort of pain and oppressive perspective the narrator had of school. However, this negative feeling is offset by its inherent nature as being “perfect first,” implying that he accepts this pain as it yields a sort of greater reward for him; he is willing to accept consequence for greater realization, very similar to how the pain of the hailstones has led him to his new line of thought in attempting to transcend natural law. However, because he is human, this perfection becomes “dirty slush,” as the realizations he attempts to make are quashed by his inability to accept the dominating power of nature over him, the “slush” a forlorn

incarnation of the hailstones themselves. He craves familiarity, even though it may be dull and painful, as evidenced through his rough preference for “the unstingable hands of Eddie Diamond foraging in the nettles” and the “sting of hailstones,” as opposed to the foreign, practical “orient wheat.” The succinctly sharp “i” in “sting” adds a sense of punctuality to the narrator’s talking, emphasizing his childhood wishes to quickly understand and grasp this pain and transform into reason. By finishing this part of the poem with “foraging in the nettles,” the narrator establishes that in his childhood, he was ultimately unable to finally grasp this meaning, instead left to endlessly search among the pain-inducing nettles.
The third part of the poem once again is a rhetorical shift in the narrator’s thought, as he becomes finally opened up to the overarching power of nature in relation to humanity.

He feels all these physical marks on him from the hailstones, “nipple and hive, bite-lumps, small acorns,” but they become “almost pleasurable,” indicating that rather than endure this pain in order to solely find a sort of meaning, he happily accepts this pain as it is a natural form of recognition, in that he can feel its physical touch against his skin. Saying that they are “intimated and disallowed,” two seemingly contradicting ideas, he establishes that he allows himself to truly feel the touch of the hailstones, but does not allow them to occupy his entire being, using them as a way to feel human, to feel the human concept of pain, something that he had been unable to feel in the first part. Suddenly then, he jumps temporal boundaries once again, now referring to “when the shower ended... and everything said wait.” His ability to go into the future and making a coherent reflection on the past reveals that he has grown wiser in a sense, foreshadowing his development in self. The italicized “wait” puts everything to a sort of stop, as he becomes able to begin to piece together his existence in this moment. His apostrophe of “you had the truest foretaste of your aftermath,” emphasizes how he has developed a sort of omnipotence. There is no need for someone the “you” needs to go to, what matters

is the “truest foretaste of your aftermath,” a concept that praises the genuine nature of consequence, in that it becomes sort of natural for everyone, that it is subject to nature itself. The “light” which “opened in silence,” a representation of the sun, reflects the narrator’s own self dawning, as he eventually comes to understand his role in the world without truly doing anything, simply just developing along with the course of the poem. By making the sun simply just “light,” the speaker begins to take things at their most simple and true, not reverting to human constructs like the term “sun” itself. The “car,” a man-made creation has its “wipers going still” and has “laid perfect tracks in the slush.” By mentioning the “wipers,” the speaker creates a sense of continuity to the human world; its simple, back and forth motion is reflective of its place within the universe, as it goes at its own pace. Going off of this, the “perfect tracks in the slush,” are representative of humanity’s almost pre-determined, set course in nature, the “slush,” revealing the ultimate acceptance of nature as a sort of foundation for human thinking. The car may be on top of its slush, but its actions are caused and are imprinted onto its surroundings. In making it end like this, Heaney contends that humanity will always be subject to the laws of nature, that human thinking is nothing more a grasp to familiarize oneself with nature.