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

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

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