How is Seamus Heaney's Irish Rural Heritage Reflected In his Poetry.

How is Seamus Heaney's Irish Rural Heritage Reflected In his Poetry.

Seamus Heaney was born and grew up in the Irish countryside on his

fathers' farm. His father was still using the traditional farming

methods, which had been handed down for generations, even though

technology had developed greatly in the early twentieth century.

Heaney learns a lot from his father about farming and how generations

of his family have done it. Heaney takes a great interest in it and he

admires his father's skill in working the horses. These memories give

Heaney a great deal to write about. The poems that I am going to study

are 'Digging', 'Follower', 'At a Potato Digging' and 'Death of a

Naturalist'. Heaney's memories and thoughts from childhood are

conveyed in these poems.

Heaney uses his childhood memories to form the basis of the poems that

I am studying. He also refers to the men before him and how they have

all dug. In 'Digging' we see how Heaney is using poetic digging to dig

through the past, and his memories of seeing his father out of the

window, digging.

"My father, digging. I look down."

Here we see how as Heaney is sitting down to write by his window he is

reminded of how he would look out the window and see his father

digging the potatoes which had to be collected by the children. He

describes the children collecting the potatoes.

"Loving their cool hardness in our hands."

Heaney is remembering the feeling of the potatoes from when he picked

them up for his father. By using the image of digging he can explain

how, by looking through his past, he is able to unearth his roots and

to discover who he really is. Heaney uses words which reproduce the

sounds. This is because he is reliving memories.

"...

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...ng on his rural

background and how he was brought up in the Irish countryside and on a

farm. 'Digging' and 'Follower' do show how his background was rural

but they are not using that as there main focus point. 'Death of a

Naturalist' is about the end of his love for nature and the end of him

being a naturalist. Heaney uses lots of nature-related words such as:

"Flax-dam."

"Sods."

The use of these words show how he was brought up in a rural

background. This poem is written in quiet a childish way. We can tell

this from the language he uses, as the words are descriptive but

childish.

"Bubbles gargled delicately."

The word gargled is a childish word but it is very effective in this

poem and really makes the reader hear the sound and see the bubbles

'gargling'. The language in lines 16-19 represent the childish way the

teacher spoke to the class.