SeamusHeaney

HELENVENDLER

DEDICATION

For

BettinaHennessyPineault GeorgeHennessyJoePineault DorothyHoganHennessy

Theyweremyclosecompanionsmanyayear,Aportionofmymindandlife,as’twere.

W.B.YEATS

CONTENTS

CoverTitlePageDedicationIntroduction

1Anonymities:DeathofaNaturalist,DoorintotheDark,WinteringOut2Archaeologies:North3Anthropologies:FieldWork4AlteritiesandAlterEgos:FromDeathofaNaturalisttoStationIsland5Allegories:TheHawLantern6Airiness:SeeingThings7AnAfterwards:TheSpiritLevel

BibliographyIndexAcknowledgementsAbouttheAuthorNotesPraiseOtherWorksModernMastersChronologyAbbreviationsCopyrightAboutthePublisher

INTRODUCTION

‘Realityisnotsimplythere,itmustbesoughtforandwon.’

PAULCELAN,inanswertoaquestionnairefromtheLibrairieFlinker

In the following pages, I trace SeamusHeaney’s development as a poet from1966 to1996. Itwas in1995 thatHeaney (whowasborn in1939 inNorthernIreland)wasawarded theNobelPrize for thisbodyofwork,composedduringwhathecalled,inhisNobelLecture,‘aquartercenturyoflifewasteandspiritwaste’(CP,24).HeaneywasreferringtodailylifeinNorthernIreland,disturbedby internal strife since the late1960s.TheCatholiccivil rightsmarchesof thesixties (protesting discrimination in jobs and housing, and gerrymandering ofpolitical districts), followed by police repression, led to disturbances that theUlstergovernmentattemptedtoquellin1971bytheinternmentwithouttrialofthousands of citizens; in 1972 the (British) army killing of fourteen unarmedCatholicmarcherson‘BloodySunday’provokeddirectruleofNorthernIrelandfromWestminster.TerroristactionsonthepartofboththeProvisionalIRAandtheUlsterparamilitariesescalated,and–thoughmotionstowardsacessationofviolence have been put forward since 1994, a permanent ceasefire is not yetsecurely in place. These conditions forced Heaney (who had been raised aCatholic)intobecomingapoetofpublicaswellasprivatelife.Heaney’s poetry has reached a large public in Ireland and abroad, and that

public extends to all classes. It is a poetry in which readers can recognizeprofoundfamilyaffections,eloquentlandscapes,andvigoroussocialconcern.Ittells an expressive autobiographical story reaching from boyhood toHeaney’spresentageof sixty, a storywhich includesachildhoodathomewithparents,relatives,siblings;anadolescencewithschoolfellowsandfriends;anadulthoodwith a marriage and children; a displacement from Northern Ireland to theRepublic; travels; sorrows and deaths. As each decade of poetry unfolds, itilluminatesandcorrectsthepreviousones.Withinitsautobiographicalcircuit,itis also an oeuvre of strong social engagement, looking steadily and withstunningpoeticforceatwhatitmeanstobeacontemporarycitizenofNorthernIreland – at the intolerable stresses put on the population by conflict, fear,betrayals,murders.Heaney hasmade one imaginative cast after another in an

attempttorepresentthealmostunrepresentablecollectivesufferingoftheNorth,yet he has tried, equally consistently, to bring intellectual reflection to theemotionalattitudesthattoooftenyieldthebinaryposition-takingofpropaganda.ThesewouldseemtobetheachievementsofHeaney’spoetry;andmostofhis

readers, if asked, would cite the autobiographical and the political as aspectsdrawing themtohispoems.But these thematicelementsdonotby themselvesmakeformemorablepoetry,andthepowerfulsymbolsHeaneyhasfoundforhispoetryareresponsibleformuchofitseffect.Hiscommentatorsfindthemselvestalking not merely of but within those powerful symbols – the exhumed bogbodiesinNorth,theLoughDergpilgrimsinStationIsland,thepoliticalparablesof frontiers and islands in The Haw Lantern. Heaney has made out of hissymbolsashorthandforhisera.Yetevenadequately-imaginedsymbolsdonotsuffice for memorable work: poetry needs words and syntax as strikinglyexpressiveasitsthemesanditssymbols,anditalsorequiresinternalstructuresthat‘actout’theemotionstheyexisttoconvey.Heaney’slanguageisunusuallyrich in simplicity as well as in ornateness, each where it suits; his syntax issinuousandexpressive,whether it is sternly terseor restlesslymobile;andhishighly-developedsenseofinternalstructuregiveshispoemsasatisfyingmusical‘rightness’astheyunfold.Eachofhisvolumesambitiouslysetsitselfadifferenttaskfromitspredecessors;eachtakesupanewformofwriting;andjustwhenonethinksoneknowsallofHeaney’spossibilitiesofstyle,heunfurlsanewone.His readers, evenwhen they do not notice technique in any explicit way, arebeingpersuadedintothepoembywords,bysyntax,bystructures,aswellasbythemesandsymbols.‘FeelingintoWords’,thetitleofanearlyessaybyHeaney,canbetakenasthemottoforallhisworkMyownacquaintancewithHeaney’sworkbeganin1975.Iwaslecturingat

theYeatsSchoolinSligointhesummerofthatyear,andattheschool’sannualpoetry reading a young man in his thirties named Seamus Heaney, whollyunknown tome, stood at the lectern and read some of themost extraordinarypoemsIhadeverheard.Iapproachedhimafterwards,andaskedwhetherthesepoemsweretoappearsooninabookasIwantedtowriteaboutthem.Heaneyrepliedthatinfacthehadgalleyswithhim,andlentthemtome.TheywerethegalleysofNorth,whichIthoughtthen–andstillthinknow–oneofthecrucialpoetic interventions of the twentieth century, ranking with Prufrock andHarmoniumandNorthofBostoninitskeyroleinthehistoryofmodernpoetry.IreviewedNorthfortheNewYorkTimesBookReviewafewmonthslater,and

have been writing about Heaney ever since. My startled and wholehearted

response on first encounteringHeaney’swritingwas by nomeans unique: hispoetryhasnowbeentranslatedandappreciatedallovertheworld,andtheNobelisonlyoneofseveralforeignprizes(inadditiontomanyfromEnglish-speakingcountries)awardedtohiswork.Thepurposeofthisbookistoexplain,asmuchtomyselfastoothers,thepowerofhisextraordinarypoetry.Itderives–asallpoetry does – from the inspiration of predecessors, and themost important ofthese for Heaney have been (in the English/Irish/American tradition) theBeowulf-poet, the anonymous author of theMiddle Irish poemBuile Suibhne,WilliamWordsworth,JohnKeats,GerardManleyHopkins,W.B.Yeats,JamesJoyce,RobertFrost,PatrickKavanaghandTedHughes.Amongclassicalpoets,one should mention Aeschylus and Virgil; among foreign poets, Dante, OsipMandelstam and Zbigniew Herbert. Heaney has written about many of theseauthors in his essays on poetry; and scholars have begun to trace specificinstancesof intertextualconnectionsinHeaney’spoetry.Icannot–forreasonsof space – treat influence here, but Heaney is among the most learned ofcontemporary poets, and has brought together influences not often foundconjoinedincreatinghisownunmistakablestyle.Norcan Idescribe,here, thegenerationalcontext inwhichHeaneyappears,

though I can at least list a portion of it, giving the more celebrated names.HeaneywasprecededbyJohnHewitt,JohnMontagueandThomasKinsella,andfellowedbySeamusDeane,MichaelLongley andDerekMahon.Hehasbeenfollowedby(amongothers)TomPaulin,PaulMuldoon,MedbhMcGuckianandCiaran Carson. Each of these poets – some Protestant, some Catholic, someNorthern,someSouthern–hasbroughtadistinctivevoicetothesecondhalfofthetwentiethcenturyinIreland;eachhasalsobeenpartofanewwaveofIrishwriting of linguistic variety and imaginative depth. Literary historians havealready begun to chart this period, and literary critics to dispute positionsconcerning it. Heaney’s influence on his successors has been almost asintimidating as Yeats’s influence on those coming after him; but successfulflankingmotionshavebeeninventedinPaulin’sgrittinessofsurface,Muldoon’senigmatic comedy,McGuckian’s stream-of-consciousness imagery, andCiaranCarson’slongurbanline.Theauthoroflyric–asmyepigraphfromPaulCelanimplies–isobligedto

searchout,foranygivensituation,asymbolicplaneonwhichtorepresentbothreality, as he perceives it to be, and his responses to it.Historically, from theGreekAnthologytoPalgrave’sGoldenTreasury, lyrichasbeenseentooccupyitself chiefly with the private life. But Heaney (likeMilton,Wordsworth and

Yeats)couldnotescapethepoliticalconvulsionsofhisplaceandtime,andhislyricssoontookoncolourfromthecenturies-olddifficultiesoftheNorth–greatandintractableproblemsof longstanding,whichhavebeenvariouslyanalysedas differences of religious affiliation (Catholic versus Protestant), of politicalaffiliation (Nationalist versus Unionist), of class (the deprived versus theeconomicallydominant),ofregion(theagriculturalagainsttheindustrial),andoftribe (CeltsversusAnglo-Saxons).Though in1972Heaneyandhis family leftBelfast(anditsrepeatedriotsandmurders)fortheRepublicofIreland,theNorthhasneverceasedtoshadowhiswork,forallhisdeliberate(andoftenbrilliantlysuccessful) poems on other subjects. In hiswriting, the public and the privatecompete for space, and the tragic and the quotidian contest each other’sdominance.AsHeaneyput it inhisNobelLecture,hiswriting, likehis life,hasbeen‘a

journeywhereeachpointofarrival…turnedout tobeastepping-stoneratherthan a destination’ (CP, 9). I have treated his individual volumes as stepping-stonesinthenarrativethatfollows,butIhaveincludedonlysomuchofthelifeas is necessary tomy commentary on the poems.1I have not treatedHeaney’svivid, metaphorical and intelligent prose – Preoccupations (1980), TheGovernmentoftheTongue(1988),ThePlaceofWriting(1989),TheRedressofPoetry(1995)andtheNobelLectureCreditingPoetry(1996)–becausetodosowouldexceedthelengthallowedforthisvolume;forthesamereasonIhavenotcommented on The Cure at Troy, his translation of Sophocles’ Philoctetes(1991).Nor have I taken issue here with Heaney’s negative critics. The terms of

reproof against Heaney have been almost entirely thematic. Some feministsregretinthepoetryanabsenceofwomenengagedinotherthandomesticroles,and have detected ‘patriarchal’ attitudes in the poet. Some political journalistsdenounceHeaneyfornotmakingmoreoutspokenlypartisanstatementsfor‘hisside’; others argue that thoughhe overtly deplores violence, in fact his poetrycovertly supports Republican attitudes. (I myself regard thematic argumentsabout poetry as beside the point. Lyric poetry neither stands nor falls on itsthemes; itstandsorfallsontheaccuracyof languagewithwhichitreports theauthor’semotionalresponsestothelifearoundhim.)Mostofthelongerbooksmentioned in the appendedBibliography offer a surveyof critical reactions toHeaney’swork,includingnegativeones.Itgoeswithoutsaying,perhaps,thattheresponse to his poetry on the part of general readers and literary critics – inIreland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Europe – has been

overwhelmingly positive. I want here chiefly to show by what imaginative,structuralandstylisticmeansHeaneyraiseshissubjectstoaplanethatcompelssuchworldwideadmiration.Oncethepoethasfoundthesymbolicplaneonwhichtosketchhistopic–as,

say,Keatswasabletocontemplatetherivalrytopoetryofferedbythevisualartsand music by sketching the former through the Grecian urn and the latterthroughthenightingale–hemustfindaway(sincepoetryisatemporalart)toprolong that symbolic plane through time. This need to prolong creates thestructureofthepoem(whichmaybesequential,contrastive,dialogic,climactic,etc.);thistemporalstructureitselfmust,inapoemofthefirstorder,beformallyexpressiveofthesymbolictheme.(Thatis,apoemcontrastingtwostatescouldbewritten in two contrasting stanzas – as is the case in ‘A SlumberDidMySpiritSeal’–or in theoctave-sestetcontrastofasonnet,or inanyotherform,suchasadialogue,thatsupporteditscontrastivetheme.)Beyond the chosen symbolic plane and its prolongation in a formally

supportivetemporalarchitectonicplanthepoetmustfindtheright‘dictionary’,syntaxandsensoryfocusforhissubject.WillitslexiconbeLatinateorAnglo-Saxonin‘feel’?Willitsgrammarbesimpleandrustic,orlearnedandcomplex?Willitbeavisuallandscape-likepoemoran‘auditory’poemfullofsoundsandcolloquy?(Thesearemerelyinstances:apoemcanbe‘French’or‘Chinese’ infeel, insteadof ‘Latinate’or ‘Anglo-Saxon’; apoemcanmove, asKeats’s ‘ToAutumn’ does, from the visual to the auditory, or vice versa.)And finally thepoet must find his own persona and tonal stance within his material: will heappear as his historical self or as a generalized lyric speaker?Will he speak‘objectively’orfromanidentifiablepoliticalorsocialposition?Eachsuccessfulpoempresentsitselfasauniqueexperimentinlanguage.The

experimentofone canneverbe repeated in another; each, asKeats said in an1818lettertohispublisherJohnTaylor,is‘aregularsteppingoftheImaginationtowardaTruth’.2Keats’suseoftheindefinitearticle–‘aTruth’–indicatestheprovisionalnatureofalllyriccompositions.Eachpoemsays,‘Viewedfromthisangle,atthismoment,inthisyear,withthisfocus,thesubjectappearstomeinthislight,andmyresponsestoitspringfromthissetoffeelings.’Sincenolyriccan be equal to the whole complexity of private and public life at any givenmoment,lyricsarenottobereadaspositionpapers.Rather,theyareascreenonwhichonecanreadthepatternsofthenervesonagivenday(asEliotjustlysaidin‘TheWasteLand’).WhenHeaneyspeaks(inhisessay‘FeelingintoWords’)ofhisfirstattemptsasapoet,hesays,‘Iwasinlovewithwordsthemselves,but

had no sense of a poem as a whole structure and no experience of how thesuccessfulachievementofapoemcouldbeasteppingstoneinyourlife’(P,45).Itwasonlylaterthathelearnedwhatmustbeaddedtotheloveofwordsinordertomakeapoem,aqualityhecalls‘technique’:

Technique, as Iwoulddefine it, involvesnotonlyapoet’swaywithwords, his management of metre, rhythm and verbal texture; itinvolvesalsoadefinitionofhisstancetowardslife.…Itinvolves…adynamic alertness that mediates between the origins of feeling inmemory and experience and the formalploys that express these in aworkofart….Itisthatwholecreativeeffort…tobringthemeaningofexperiencewithinthejurisdictionofform.

[P,47]

The ‘jurisdiction of form’ is different for each poem: ‘You are confirmed’,Heaney adds, ‘by the visitation of the last poem and threatened by theelusivenessofthenextone’(P,54)Allthiswastruebeforetheriotsof1969inDerry(IfollowHeaney’susageof

this name) and Belfast, but the political upheavals of that summer changedHeaney’sfundamentalaimasapoet:‘Fromthatmomenttheproblemsofpoetrymoved frombeing simplyamatterofachieving the satisfactoryverbal icon tobeingasearchforimagesandsymbolsadequatetoourpredicament’(P,56).Theplurals in this statement must be emphasized: the historical predicamentdemands that thepoet ‘search’and‘win’ reality–Celan’swordsquoted inmyepigraph– throughmany images (localmetaphors)andmany symbols (whole-poem symbolic structures), no one ofwhich can possibly have total spatial ortemporal or imaginative adequacy to public and private history. It is for thisreasonthateachpoemcanonlybeoneofmanystepping-stones,andwhyeachcan only point towards – rather than achieve – ‘a’ truth.At the same time, inbeingfaithfultohissubject,hisfeelingsandhissymbolicforms,thepoetcannotforget the rich texture of language proper to lyric, that phonological ‘bindingsecret’, as Heaney has called it (p, 186), which makes the utterance seemsomethingthatcouldnotbesaidinanyothersetofwords.Heaney’sadversarycriticsreadthepoemsasstatementsofapoliticalposition,

withwhichtheyquarrel.Toreadlyricpoemsasiftheywereexpositoryessaysisafundamentalphilosophicalmistake;andpartofthepurposeofthisbookistoread the poems as the provisional symbolic structures that they are.Naturally,

notallofHeaney’ssymbolicforce-fieldscanbeequallywellrealized;everypoetis uneven, and any single volumewill be uneven.None the less, the aestheticand intellectual experiment attempted in each Heaney poem is a serious one.Becauseareflectivepoet,asheages,incorporateshispastintohispresent, theexistential burden on his more ambitious lyrics becomes heavier over time.Ideally,alyricoflargescope–‘Lycidas’or‘NineteenHundredandNineteen’or‘TheWasteLand’–wants to leaveitsreaderfeelingthatnothinghasbeenleftout,thateverythingrelevanttothecurrentsituationandthespeaker’sresponsetoit has been brought into expression. Heaney’s sequences – from the 1975‘Singing School’ to the 1996 ‘Mycenae Lookout’ – attempt, by a series ofsymbolicpurchases,togainalarger,thoughstillpartial,holdonthepresentandpasttogether.Iadmirethisattempttobecomprehensivewhilenotbetrayingthefundamentalaimoflyric:tograspandperpetuate,bysymbolicform,theself’svolatileandtransienthereandnow.InthepagesthatfollowItakeupindetailsomeofHeaney’sstrongestpoems

to show the lyric process in action, and to investigate how form becomesrealized in words. ‘To hold in a single thought reality and justice’ – Yeats’sdefinitioninAVisionofthehopeoflyric–isonethatHeaneyhasoftenquoted.Realityishowthingsare;justiceishowthingsshouldbe.Becauseone’ssenseofbothrealityandjusticechangesovertime,Heaneyisawriterespeciallygiven,ashesaysin‘Terminus’,to‘secondthoughts’.

Twobucketswereeasiercarriedthanone.Igrewupinbetween.

Mylefthandplacedthestandardironweight.Myrighttiltedalastgraininthebalance.

Baronies,parishesmetwhereIwasborn.

[HL,5]

‘Is it anywonder,’ he comments, that ‘when I thought / Iwould have secondthoughts?’ As his intellectual and moral horizons widen, Heaney’s ‘secondthoughts’ become fundamental to his development, so much so that I haveappended toeachchapter,under theheading‘SecondThoughts’,a foretasteofhowHeaneywillwrite,laterinlife,abouttheconcernstakenupinthatchapter.Heaney’sprose shows similar changesover time.Though fundamental aspects

ofhisthoughtremain–theabidinganxietyoverthesocialfunctionofpoetry,forinstance, or the quarrel between aesthetic form and moral urgency – themetaphorsinwhichheembodiessuchworriesdoalterfromessaytoessay,frompoem to poem. It is for this reason that quoting a sentence or a stanza fromHeaneyandadducingthatitgives‘hisopinion’onthisorthatpoliticalquestionbetraysthefluidityandresponsivenessofhismind.Ihavetriedhere,aboveall,tobefaithfultohisvigilantwillingnesstochange.InthetitleessayofTheGovernmentof theTongueHeaneymakeshissingle

mostprofoundstatementonthesocialfunctionofwritinginamomentofhumanextremity.HeborrowsanimagefromthegospelofJohn,thatofJesuswritinginthesandwhenconfrontingtheaccusersofthewomantakeninadultery.Heaneysays:

Inonesensetheefficacyofpoetryisnil–nolyrichaseverstoppedatank.Inanothersense,itisunlimited.Itislikethewritinginthesandin the face of which accusers and accused are left speechless andrenewed.IamthinkingofJesus’writingasitisrecordedinChapterEightof

John’sGospel[inwhichJesustwice,inanswertothehectoringscribesandPharisees,bendssilentlyandwriteswithhisfingerontheground;theevangelistdoesnotsaywhathewrites,butthewriting–inadditiontoJesus’answer,‘Hethatiswithoutsinamongyou,lethimfirstcastastoneather’–leadsthecrowd,‘convictedbytheirownconscience’,todepart].Thedrawingofthosecharactersislikepoetry,abreakwiththeusual

lifebutnotanabscondingfromit.Poetry,likethewriting,isarbitraryandmarkstimeineverypossiblesenseofthatphrase.Itdoesnotsaytotheaccusingcrowdortothehelplessaccused,‘Nowasolutionwilltakeplace’,itdoesnotproposetobeinstrumentaloreffective.Instead,in the rift betweenwhat is going to happen andwhateverwewouldwish to happen, poetry holds attention for a space, functions not asdistraction but as pure concentration, a focus where our power toconcentrateisconcentratedbackonourselves.

[GT,107–8]

Heaney’semphasishereisthatoflyric:‘afocuswhereourpowertoconcentrateis concentrated back on ourselves’. Lyric is not narrative or drama; it is not

primarilyconcernedtorelateevents,ortoreifycontestingissues.Rather,itsactis to present, adequately and truthfully, through the means of temporallyprolonged symbolic form, the private mind and heart caught in the changingeventsofageographicalplaceandahistoricalepoch.Heaney’s lyrics–as thechapters that follow will, I hope, convey – have done that for himself, hiscountry and his time, while enlarging the specifically literary inheritance onwhichtheydepend.Hehasrethoughtthesonnet,theelegy,thehistoricalpoem,the archaeological poem, the sequence; he has invented a new vein ofphenomenologicalabstraction in landscapepoetry;hehas renovated terzarimain demotic language, and, in his ‘squarings’, explored the potential of thedouzain.Hehaswrittenwithanacutesenseof thelinguistic inheritances,bothetymologicalandsyntactic,ofEnglish–fromAnglo-Saxon,Latin,theRomancelanguages – and has renovated the English of Irish poetry in consequence.Poemsbecomememorable if, andonly if, they renovate language and symboland structure and genre; otherwise they fall into the abyss of the forgotten.ThoughIhaveattemptedtomakefairsummariesofHeaney’sintentionsinthecommentariesthatfollow,Ihavetriedtopointout,too,howeachpoemmakesitselfdistinctiveandstriking.(AllpagereferencesfollowingcitationsofpoetryaretothefirstFabereditionofthatvolume.)

1

Anonymities:DeathofaNaturalist,

DoorintotheDark,WinteringOut

Underthebroom…Yellowingoverthem,composethefriezeWithallofusthere,ouranonymities.

‘TheSeedCutters’(N,xi)

FrombeingafriezeofsymbolicfiguresrepresentativeofthematterofIreland,Clarke’spoetrybecameaseriesofrapidprobesandsketcheswhichweresymptomaticofwhatwasthematterwithIreland.

SEAMUSHEANEY,‘Ataleoftwoislands:reflectionsontheIrishLiteraryRevival’3

Tomove from ‘thematter of Ireland’ to ‘whatwas thematterwith Ireland’ –Heaney’ssummaryofthechangeinthepoetryofAustinClarke–couldaswelldescribehisowndevelopment.InHeaney’searlywork‘symbolicfigures’,suchas those in ‘The Seed Cutters’, stand for the poet’s recognition of theimmemorialnatureof theworkdoneonthefamilyfarm,whichheis intentonperpetuatinginlanguage.Becausesuchfiguresareanonymous,hispoeticvoicewillalsobeanonymous:hewillspeakbothaboutandforthosewhosenamesarelosttohistory.Theparticularityconferredbyone’spropernameisofinteresttoHeaney,too,

andwill play its role in his poetrywhen he turns from anonymity to historicspecificity–writingas anadultmanof aparticularplace in aparticular time.But his child-self is almost anonymous, andmany of the poems of childhoodtreat(inampleandbeautifulways)experiencesthatcouldbethoseofanychildgrowing up on a farm and watching the daily and seasonal rituals such aschurningorhaymaking.Throughhischildhoodrecollections,Heaneyattainsanalmostanonymousmanner,andtheserecollectionsformthecentralgroupofhis

firsttwobooks,DeathofaNaturalist(1966)andDoorintotheDark(1969).Yetanonymityisnotusuallythefirstchoiceofayoungpoet,andtocomprehendthisinitialchoiceofwriterlyidentitywemightenquirewhatHeaney’sotherchoicesofidentityasaspeakermighthavebeen.Those who grow up with an awareness of words very soon tabulate the

anonymous group-names under which others denominate them – in Heaney’scase, ‘Catholics’, ‘farmers’, ‘Northern Irish’.These group-names exist beyondone’s first, familial, child-name (‘Seamus’); beyond the family name (‘theHeaneys’);beyondone’ssurnameinformaluseatschool(‘Heaney’).Heaney’spoetrynoteseachoftheseidentitiesasit isinscribed.Asthechildhidesinthehollow trunkof a tree,hehears the family callinghis first name, seekinghimout:

Hideinthehollowtrunkofthewillowtree,itslisteningfamiliar,until,asusual,theycuckooyournameacrossthefields.Youcanhearthemdrawthepolesofstilesastheyapproachcallingyouout.

The family summons, announcing the claims of home, disturbs the child’sanonymouscrouchinginthe‘secretnest’ofnature(‘Mossbawn’,P,17),whereheismoreatree-spiritthanahumanchild:hebecomesa

smallmouthandearinawoodycleft,lobeandlarynxofthemossyplaces.

[‘Oracle’,WO,28]

In a later poem, ‘Alphabets’, the child’s recognition that he is more than‘Seamus’, that he is one of a circle of kin sharing his surname, closes thenarrative:aftertheplasteringofhischildhoodhouseisfinishedtheboy,notyet

ofschoolage,watcheswitha

widepre-reflectivestareAllagogattheplastereronhisladderSkimmingourgableandwritingournamethereWithhistrowelpoint,letterbystrangeletter.

[‘Alphabets’,HL,3]

Stilllater,insecondaryschool,thereisamomentofadolescentconfusionwhena priest asks the boy-student (normally called ‘Heaney’) what his name is(meaninghis firstname): theboy, flustered, repliesautomatically,andreceivesinturnawryacknowledgement:

‘What’syourname,Heaney?’‘Heaney,Father.’‘FairEnough.’

[N,58]

Then,asayounguniversitystudent,headinghomeinhiscarafteraneveningoutwith a girl, the poet is stopped and interrogatedbypolice at a road-block.Hegives his personal and familial name insteadof the full name expectedby thepolicewho,inreply,challengehim:

policemenSwungtheircrimsonflashlamps,crowdingroundThecarlikeblackcattle,snuffingandpointingThemuzzleofasten-guninmyeye:‘What’syourname,driver?’

‘Seamus…’Seamus?

[‘SingingSchool’,I,N,58]

Thepolice inUlster,normallyProtestant,werenotfriendly toanyonewith the‘Catholic’nameofSeamus(theIrishversionof‘James’),but the innocenceofthepoet’sreplyshowsthathestillidentifieshimselfasthepersonhisfriendsand

familyknow.Alltheseidentities,andmore,enterintothevoicethatbecomesthatofapoet.

How,then,shouldthepoetwrite?Asachildandfamilymember(‘Seamus’)?Asan individual adultwith a singular identity (‘SeamusHeaney’)?Or should hewrite more anonymously: as a representative of the rural (by contrast to theurban)population?Assomeonewho isculturally Irish,attached toahistoricalandanthropologicalidentitythatpredates,initsbeginnings,theChristianizationofthecountry?Orasa‘Catholic’,aspokespersonforanethnicgroupsharingacertainculture(ofwhichonestrandisthechildhoodpracticeofCatholicismthatmaywellbeabandonedinadultlife)?AsanEnglishspeaker,readerandwriter?OrasatransmitterofanIrishliterarytradition?PerhapsasaEuropean,oreven(likeYeats in his latter years) as aworld poet?Or, rather, should the poet becontent to write as an anonymous moral perceiver – setting aside, as far aspossible, the local ideological assumptions acquired through family andeducation? These are – as Heaney said in the Foreword to the 1980Preoccupations,hisfirstcollectionofessays–centralquestions:‘Howshouldapoetproperlyliveandwrite?Whatishisrelationshiptobetohisownvoice,hisownplace,hisliteraryheritageandhiscontemporaryworld?’(P,11)YetHeaneyknew that suchquestionscouldnotbeansweredby looking to theopinionsofothers: he made that clear by quoting, as epigraph to those early essays, thefollowingsentences,writtenbyYeatsin1905:

IfIhadwrittentoconvinceothersIwouldhaveaskedmyself,not‘IsthatexactlywhatIthinkandfeel?’but‘Howwouldthatstrikeso-and-so? Howwill they think and feel when they have read it?’ And allwould be oratorical and insincere. Ifwe understand our ownminds,andthethingsthatarestrivingtoutterthemselvesthroughourminds,we move others, not because we have understood or thought aboutthoseothers,butbecausealllifehasthesameroot.

[P,14]

If, then, Heaney is to write about any of the several groups to which hebelongs(ortowhichheisassignedbyothers),hevowsnottobeintimidatedbywhat thosegroups thinkofhimandhiswork–what thepriestsmightwant tofind;what the relativesmay say,whatUlsterProtestantswould approve;whatfellow-poetshope tohear;whatpredecessorsadvise.Thisvowisoneallpoetsmust take, and one which is always very difficult to keep; but it becomes

particularlyhardwhentheclaimsofaffectionandsolidarityattempttoestablishconfinesaroundwhatcanbesaidandwritten.ThefirstlectureinHeaney’s1995collection of essays, The Redress of Poetry, contemplates those pressures,weighted by the events of ‘Bloody Sunday’ in January of 1972; but for themoment we are in the 1960s, the ‘Troubles’ have not yet reached their 1972exacerbations, and Heaney has written two books:Death of a Naturalist andDoorintotheDark,whichIamtreatingashisbooksof‘anonymities’.Thewayoflifeofhisfather’sruralfamily,asHeaneyhasremarked,differed

little from medieval custom: and in ‘Anahorish’ his neighbours becomeindistinguishablefromtheirNeolithicancestors:

Withpailsandbarrows

thosemound-dwellersgowaist-deepinmisttobreakthelighticeatwellsanddunghills.

[WO,16]

Onehas, of course, alreadymoved far away fromone’s family if one can seethem as ‘those mound-dwellers’; and Heaney’s commemorative lyrics on thelongstandingfarm-practicesofhisfamily,hisneighboursandhisancestors(handscything; digging potatoes; dealing at cattle fairs; retting flax in a flax dam;thatching;churning;carryingwaterfromapumpsharedbyseveralfamilies)aretestaments to his first, preservational instincts. He makes himself into ananthropologist of hisownculture, and testifies, in eachpoem, tohisprofoundattachmenttothepracticedescribedwhilenotconcealinghispresentdetachmentfromrurallife.Theearly‘poemsofanonymity’arealwayselegiac:Heaneywillnotwrite from ‘inside’or fromapresent-tenseperspective, as thoughhewerestilllivinginthearchaicculturehedescribes.The eloquent poem ‘Thatcher’ – which I will take as my example of

functional anonymity, though ‘The Seed Cutters’ or ‘The Forge’ would do aswell–beginsas though thecomingof the thatcherwereanordinaryaffair (asindeeditwas,whenhisworkwaspartoftheusualmaintenanceofahouse):

Bespokeforweeks,heturnedupsomemorningUnexpectedly,hisbicycleslung

Withalightladderandabagofknives.Heeyedtheoldrigging,pokedattheeaves,Openedandhandledsheavesoflashedwheat-straw.

Everything in this stanza might be said by any one of the inhabitants of thecottage.But by the last stanzaHeaney’s ‘outsideness’ is quietly present in theclosing reference to ‘them’ – not ‘us’. It is also present in the ‘educated’vocabulary (of heraldry in ‘couchant’, ofmythology in ‘Midas’) that the poetbrings to bear in order to exalt themedieval form of the thatcher, and in theKeatsianmetaphoricalturn(‘honeycomb’,‘stubblepatch’)bywhichhegathersthethatchedroofintothestorehouseofEnglishpastoral:

Couchantfordaysonsodsabovetherafters,Heshavedandflushedthebutts,stitchedalltogetherIntoaslopedhoneycomb,astubblepatch,AndleftthemgapingathisMidastouch.

[DD,20]

Forthereaderwhonoticesliteraryform,the‘outsideness’isalreadypresentinHeaney’s choice here of the stately pentameter quatrain – a variant (in itsrhymed couplets) of the alternately rhymed stanza known in prosody as the‘heroic quatrain’. Such a ceremonious stanza helps to monumentalize thethatcher into a lone survivor from the artisanal days of the guilds. Like theploughman,theblacksmith,theeel-fishersin‘ALoughNeaghSequence’,orthefamilythawingthefrozenpumpbysettingropesofwheatstrawaflame(‘RiteofSpring’), the thatcher does not realize his own imminent obsolescence. ButHeaney does: and though one of these poems (‘The Wife’s Tale’) isBreughelesque in itsportrayalof the threshers taking theirmiddaymeal in thefields, thepresenceofa threshing-machinebringstheindustrialworldintothisscene,whichotherwisemightbedrawnfromamedievalbookofhours.Bychoosingashissubjectanonymousrurallabourers,theyoungpoeterectsa

memorialtothegenerationsofforgottenmenandwomenwhosenamesarelost,whosegravesbearnotombstones,andwhoselivesareregisteredinnochronicle.Soon even the tools they used will be found only in museums, and themovements they made in wielding them will be utterly lost. It is immenselyimportant to Heaney to note down those expert movements – like ananthropologist inventinganotation for anunrecordeddance– lest theyvanish

unregistered.So in ‘Follower’his fatherat theplough isdescribedmomentbymoment,withapietynotonlyfilialbutgenerational:

Myfatherworkedwithahorse-plough,HisshouldersglobedlikeafullsailstrungBetweentheshaftsandthefurrow.Thehorsesstrainedathisclickingtongue.

Anexpert.HewouldsetthewingAndfitthebrightsteel-pointedsock.Thesodrolledoverwithoutbreaking.Attheheadrig,withasinglepluck

Ofreins,thesweatingteamturnedroundAndbackintotheland.HiseyeNarrowedandangledattheground,Mappingthefurrowexactly.

[DN,12]

Heaneyisnotuncriticalofrurallife.Potato-diggersarefollowedastheypassbyonaheadland,gatheringthecropastheygo:‘Processionalstoopingthroughthe turf /Recursmindlesslyasautumn’ (‘AtaPotatoDigging’,DN,18).Hereand in ‘Follower’,as in ‘Thatcher’,eachvignetteofanonymous labourhas itsdistancing moment: ‘I wanted to grow up and plough,’ says the adult poetremembering his child-self: and the characterization of the potato-diggers’movementasapre-ordained‘processional’ liturgy,coupledwiththecritiqueofits‘mindless’recurrence,makesthatpoemtooanelegiacone,representingalifewhich the poet does not want to follow, could not follow, but none the lessrecognizesasforeverapartofhisinnerlandscape.If writing about labourers engaged in archaic occupations is oneway for a

modernpoettosubmergehisownadultidentityinanonymity,anotherwayistoleavehisownhistoricalmoment, tospeakasan‘I’ora‘we’fromanotherera.Heaney’s earlypolitical poem, ‘Requiem for theCroppies’, offers in its title areply toGeoffreyHill’s ‘Requiem for thePlantagenetKings’. It imagines thattheCroppies–crop-hairedIrishfootsoldiersof1798,carryingtheirfoodintheirpockets,whowere killed by theEnglish army at the battle ofVinegarHill inCountyWexford – can posthumously speak out to tell their tale. Though the

poemhasbeen called (byNeilCorcoran) a ‘dramaticmonologue’, it does nottake the characteristically social form of the Browning monologue (which isalwaysaddressedtooneormorepeopleinthesameroomasitslivingspeaker).Heaney’spoemis,rather,aself-epitaphbytheCroppies,spokentoanyonewhohasearstohear:

Thepocketsofourgreatcoatsfullofbarley–Nokitchensontherun,nostrikingcamp–Wemovedquickandsuddeninourowncountry.

TheCroppiesdie‘shakingscythesatcannon’:‘Theyburieduswithoutshroudorcoffin / And in August the barley grew up out of the grave’ (DD, 24). Theresurrection-motif makes the Croppies resemble a vegetation-god. The poet’spietywritesforthem–createsforthemtospeak–theepitaphthattheirlackoffuneralritesoragravestonedeniedthem.‘Requiem for the Croppies’ is an anomalous sonnet, adding to its three

Shakespeareanquatrainsacoupletthatprolongstherhymesofthelastquatraininsteadofintroducinganewrhyme-sound:ababcdcdefefef.Heaney’ssurprisingchoice of the sonnet – thatEuropean court form– for his epitaph for an Irishpeasantarmyhasformalmeaning:itaffirmsthattheoldaristocraticgenreshavelife in them yet, and may be translated into poems defending rural values.(Heaney’s experimentation with the sonnet continues throughout his writinglife.)Perhapsthemostusualwaypoetsdevisetobeanonymousistoturntomyth

andlegend(whetherclassical,Christianorfolk-derived),andHeaneytakesthispathaswell.Inaratherself-consciousearlypoemcalled‘Undine’hewritesinthevoiceof thewater-nymphassherecollectsher liberationfromtheearthbythemanwho‘slashedthebriars,shovelledupgreysilt/Togivemerightofwayinmyowndrains’(DD,26).Thoughthesexualanalogybecomesstrained(‘Hedugaspadedeepinmyflank/Andtookmetohim.Iswallowedhistrench’),thepoem announces Heaney’s interest in assuming (as in ‘The Wife’s Tale’,‘Mother’,‘Limbo’,‘ShoreWoman’andelsewhere)aspecialtypeofanonymity:what it might mean to imagine oneself inside a woman’s experience. In thisregard,Heaneymakesuseoffolktaleaswell,summoningupthelegendofthecapture of a mermaid (‘MaighdeanMara’) to account for a woman’s suicide.ChristianlegendalsoattractsHeaney,andinhisretellingofStFrancis’ssermontothebirds,heannounces,bydescribingFrancis’smeans,anaspectofhisown

literary resolve: ‘Hisargument true,his tone light’ (‘StFrancisand theBirds’,DN,40).Thegods,goddesses,nymphsandnaiadsofclassicalpastoraldonot,finally, become useful toHeaney; and he does notmake a practice ofwritingfromwithina female sensibility.Buthewill eventuallymakenotableuse– inwriting‘anonymously’–ofGreekandLatinhistoricalmyth(Mycenae;RomulusandRemus)inTheSpiritLevel(1996).And still another formof anonymity can be gainedwhen the poet becomes

whollyaperceptualobserver–onewithnohistory,noethnicity,noreligion,nofamily.This is the formof anonymity thatHeaneyhas, in the long run, foundmostrewarding.Itshowsupearlyin‘ThePeninsula’.Morethanasonnet,lessthan a narrative, this important poem (written in four irregular quatrainswithembraced rhymes) is chiefly a meditation on the purifying power, for humanbeings,oftheprimarysensesandofmemoryfoundedinthesenses.ItdeservestobequotedinfullasanexampleofHeaney’searlyrelianceontheperceptualasa never-to-be-forgotten standard of veracity and plain speech. The poem hasthree parts: the first, a day’s drive around the peninsula; the second, the nightdrivereturninghomerememberingtheday’ssights;thethird,avowtaken.Themotiveforthedriveiswriter’sblock,perhapsasymptomofemotionaldistressorfear:

ThePeninsula

Whenyouhavenothingtosay,justdriveForadayallroundthepeninsula.Theskyistallasoverarunway,Thelandwithoutmarkssoyouwillnotarrive

Butpassthrough,thoughalwaysskirtinglandfall.Atdusk,horizonsdrinkdownseaandhill,TheploughedfieldswallowsthewhitewashedgableAndyou’reinthedarkagain.Nowrecall

Theglazedforeshoreandsilhouettedlog,Thatrockwherebreakersshreddedintorags,Theleggybirdsstiltedontheirownlegs,Islandsridingthemselvesoutintothefog

Anddrivebackhome,stillwithnothingtosay

ExceptthatnowyouwilluncodealllandscapesBythis:thingsfoundedcleanontheirownshapes,Waterandgroundintheirextremity.

[DD,21]

Thefirstscanningofthepeninsulaisverygeneral(a‘tall’sky,aland‘withoutmarks’,sea,hill,ploughedfield,whitewashedcottage).Onthedarkdrivehome,the poet takes an inventory ofwhat he has (perhaps unconsciously) internallyregisteredassignificantHowdidtheforeshorelook?Asifithadbeenglazed–luminous,smooth.Whatbrokethehorizonline?Asilhouettedlog,outofplace,farfromwhereitfell.Whatdidthebreakerslooklike?Likeaboltofwhiteclothbeingshredded into ragsby the rockAndwhatwasstrangeabout theway thesea-birdswalked?Theymovedwiththeawkwardgaitofoneonstilts–buttheirstiltsare theirownlegs.And, finally,Howdid the islandappearwhen the fogmovedin?Theswirloffogmadetheoffshoreislandsseemtomoveoftheirownvolitionoutintotheocean.Thatisthedriver’svisualandmentalandemotionalharvest–whatwon’tbe

lostof theday’s experience.This reservoirof images that struckhome (asweknow because they called up metaphors for themselves – glazing, a profiledsilhouette,rags,stilts,riding)isatreasuryof‘thingsfoundedcleanontheirownshapes’.Butitisnotsolelythislessonofexactnessthatthepoettakeshomewithhim from perceptions brought to clear outline and emotionally inscribed: it isalsothelessonofpeninsularremoteness,wherewaterandgroundmeetintheiroutermostreach,withoutdistraction.I will be emphasizing, throughout this book, Heaney’s recourse to ‘second

thoughts’,andthis isanoccasionwhentheycanbeclearlyseen,sinceHeaneymuch later ‘rewrites’ ‘ThePeninsula’ in ‘Postscript’, thepoem that closesTheSpiritLevel(1996).‘Postscript’isanothersixteen-lineimageofadrive,thistime‘outwest / IntoCountyClare,alongtheFlaggyShore’. It isnotwriter’sblockthat now afflicts the poet, but rather the tendency of the preoccupiedmiddle-agedhearttoshielditselfagainstfeeling.Heaneyheregratefullypayshomagetothesheerpowerofperceptionitself–howmuchitseesinaglimpse,inaglance– how many objects and shades it absorbs at once, how breathtaking theconjunctionofworldandsensescanbe,breakingopentheshutdooroftheheart.ThepoemisperhapsadistantdescendantofHopkins’s‘HurrahinginHarvest’:

Thesethings,thesethingswerehereandbutthebeholder

Wánting;whíchtwo,whéntheyónceméet,Thehéartréarswíngsbóldandbolder,Andhurlsforhim,ohhalfhurlsearthforhimoffunderhisfeet.

But Heaney’s poem, caught between the rush of a moment’s pure visualsatisfaction and the frustration of its transience, goes beyond the ecstatic to adefinition of selfhood so fugitive as to be insubstantial. The self is ‘a hurrythrough which… things pass’, nothing more. Itself unfounded, it can hardlyhopeto‘foundthings’inthewaytheyoungerselfthoughttodo.The ecstaticmoment in ‘Postscript’, like that in ‘Peninsula’, ismade up of

simplecomponents:wind, light,ocean,an inland lake,stonesandswans. (InanodtoYeats’sCoole,Heaneyrhymes‘stones’and‘swans’,buthisswansarenotpaired, ‘loverby lover’, asYeats’swere: theyare, ifbeautiful, alsocommunalandpractical.)Everydayat thisshore there iswind, light,ocean, the lake, theswans.Butnoteverydaydotheylapintosynergy,astheydoatthismoment,

whenthewindAndthelightareworkingoffeachotherSothattheoceanononesideiswildWithfoamandglitter,andinlandamongstonesThesurfaceofaslate-greylakeislitBytheearthedlightningofaflockofswans,Theirfeathersroughedandruffling,whiteonwhite,Theirfullygrownheadstrong-lookingheadsTuckedorcrestingorbusyunderwater.

Thispassagecouldserveasan index toHeaney’ssensibility inhis fifties.Thewildisnotforsaken,butitis,liketheswans,sometimes‘earthed’.Thebeautifulisnomorealientothepoetthaniteverwas,buttheordinarymustalsoplayitsrole:theswansare‘headstrong’and‘busy’.Thebestmomentsofallaretheoneswhenthewildandthesettledpartsofbeingdonotforgeteachother,whentheocean is thepartnerof the lake,andwhenwindand light,strengthandclarity,contest for presence. (I have allegorized for explicitness; but the poem itselfrefrainsfromallegorizing,andkeepstheillusionofreportage.)And then the ecstatic moment is gone; or you are gone; and nothing is

retrievable:‘Uselesstothinkyou’llparkandcaptureit/Morethoroughly.’Buttheprecioussensationoffullreceptivityhasreturnedforanunforgettableinstantinwhichone’shearthasbeenagainasopentofeelingasitwasinyouth:

Youareneitherherenorthere,AhurrythroughwhichknownandstrangethingspassAsbigsoftbuffetingscomeatthecarsidewaysAndcatchtheheartoffguardandblowitopen.

[SL,70]

Perhaps the one thing that all human beings have in common is sense-perception:andtherearemanyshoresaroundtheworldwheresuchbuffetingsofwind and light can be experienced. There is no way of knowingwhether theauthor of this poem is male or female, old or young, Catholic or Protestant,Northern or Southern Irish, a city-dweller or a country-dweller. This form ofanonymity–inwhichelusivestatesoffeelingarecaughtinadescriptivegestaltwhich powerfully renders them available to others – is one often practised byWordsworth,whoseexamplecanbe felt inHeaney, though theWordsworthianlegacy has been powerfully altered through Heaney’s deliberately casual andmoderndiction.InhisearlyworkeventhepersonalHeaneyisoftenalmostanonymous.Ashe

tells us in ‘Stations’ (SP, 59), his first poems were published under thepseudonym ‘Incertus’ – as thoughhewere as yet uncertainwhat his signaturewould be – and the youthful books contain a generic child as much as anindividual one. This child is terrified of the rats in the barn and on the river-bank;helooksathisimageinwells,andwatchesthecowincalfandthetroutinthestream;hemissesanoldhorsewhohasdied;hegathersblackberriesandisdisturbed when they rot; he is fascinated by the water-diviner and theblacksmith,andbytheservicingofthecowbythebull.Tothisextent,abroadandgeneralizedpastoraldirectivegovernstheearlyself-portraits.Yetinseveralpoems the idiosyncratic rises through the general, and these are, justly, thepoemsthathavebeenmuchanthologized.Theyinclude‘Digging’,‘DeathofaNaturalist’, ‘Mid-Term Break’, ‘Personal Helicon’, ‘Relic of Memory’,‘Anahorish’,‘Oracle’and‘TheOtherSide’.HeaneyincludedalloftheseinhisSelectedPoems.Whatmakesthemmoreindividualthanmanyothersinhisfirstthreebooks?In ‘Oracle’ it is the announcement of the poetic vocation: the generalized

pastoralchildwouldnothave thoughtofhimself inretrospectas‘the lobeandlarynx/oftheleafyplaces’.Thesheerpeculiarityofthesetwolines,inwhichaperson is reduced, by synecdoche, to two biological parts – an earlobe and a

voice-box–drawstheportraitofthechildinawaythatthemoregenericpoemsdo not. In ‘Digging’ the childwho carried a bottle ofmilk to his turf-digginggrandfather,andwhopickedpotatoesspadedoutoftheirdrillsbyhisfather,hastobelieve,nowthathehasbecomeaman,thathispenisadigginginstrumenttoo:

I’venospadetofollowmenlikethem.

BetweenmyfingerandmythumbThesquatpenrests.I’lldigwithit.

[DN,2]

The disturbing thing about ‘Digging’ is that the Irish Catholic child grew upbetweentheoffersoftwoinstruments:thespadeandthegun.‘Choose,’saidtwoopposingvoices fromhisculture: ‘Inherit the farm,’ saidagricultural tradition;‘Takeuparms,’saidRepublicanmilitarism.Andindeedthepoet’sfirstthoughthadbeentomeasure,sotospeak,thepenagainstthesword:‘Betweenmyfingerandmythumb/Thesquatpenrests;snugasagun’(DN,I).Thisistoconceiveofwritingas,likewar,politicsbyothermeans.Itissignificantthatinthis–thefirstpoeminhisfirstbook–Heaneyrejectstheconceptofwritingasaggression,andchoosesthespadeashisfinalanalogueforhispen:thepenwillserveasaninstrument of exploration and excavation, yielding warmth (like hisgrandfather’sturfforfires)andnourishment(likehisfather’spotatoes).But it is not only in the child as future poet (as in Oracle’, ‘Digging’ and

‘Personal Helicon’) that we find something non-generic about the boy ofHeaney’schildhoodpoems.LikeWordsworth’sboyofWinander,thisisachildwhothinksmorethantheusualpastoralchilddoes.Itistheintellectualshockofthe revision of his initial knowledge of sex that sets the child of ‘Death of aNaturalist’ – the title poem of Heaney’s first book – aswarm with inchoatefeelings of curiosity, terror and disgust.The innocent schoolteacher version ofsex (phrased in the naive voice of the child retelling his school day) sets thescene:

MissWallswouldtellushowThedaddyfrogwascalledabullfrogAndhowhecroakedandhowthemammyfrog

LaidhundredsoflittleeggsandthiswasFrogspawn.

But then,with the advent of pre-adolescence, the real frogs come; and all theforce of this child’s unusual sensibility projects itself on the (blameless) frogscroakingtheirspringmating-songsin thefesteringflax-dam.InHeaney’smostvirtuosic moment of sound inDeath of a Naturalist, the frogs’ sexual noisesawaken self-lacerating shame in the boy, as the smear of ‘frogspawn’contaminatesinnocence:

Rightdownthedamgross-belliedfrogswerecockedOnsods:theirlooseneckspulsedlikesails.Somehopped:Theslapandplopwereobscenethreats.SomesatPoisedlikemud-grenades,theirbluntheadsfarting.Isickened,turned,andran.ThegreatslimekingsWeregatheredthereforvengeanceandIknewThatifIdippedmyhandthespawnwouldclutchit.

[DN,3–4]

Thus ‘dies’ the dutiful child who used to like watching frogspawn turn intotadpoles, and who believed the teacher’s sanitized version of the deepestpropulsion of animate life. Heaney turned loose all his thickest and mostresonantorchestration(‘cocked’,‘hopped’,‘plop’;‘pulsed’,‘blunt’,‘clutch’)forthisadolescentcartoon-versionofsexualdesire:neitherWordsworthnorKeatsnorHopkinswouldhavequiteacknowledgedthattheirstylisticinventionscouldbe put to such a brutal use. Idyllic pastoral has been exploded by thosemud-grenades,thefrogs,andtheconsistencyoffinishinthemoreanonymouspoemsof rural piety has been grossly disturbed by the intrusion of introspectivesexuality.Themost individualized of the first-person speakers inHeaney’s childhood

poems is theadolescentboywhonarrates ‘Mid-TermBreak’;his four-year-oldbrotherhasbeenkilledinanaccident,andhehasbeencalledhomefromschoolfor thewakeand funeral.But thoughaneighbour (‘bigJimEvans’) isnamed,thespeakerandthedeadfour-year-oldarenot.Thewake;ofthechildisinpartdescribedinritualizedpost-Joyceanterms:

Iwasembarrassed

Byoldmenstandinguptoshakemyhand

Andtellmetheywere‘sorryformytrouble’,WhispersinformedstrangersIwastheeldestAwayatschool….

NextmorningIwentupintotheroom.SnowdropsAndcandlessoothedthebedside;IsawhimForthefirsttimeinsixweeks.Palernow,

Wearingapoppybruiseonhislefttemple,Helayinthefourfootboxasinhiscot.

[DN,15]

What is leastJoyceanandmostHeaneyesqueabout thepoemis theportraitofthepoet’smother–notidealizedorswooninginhersorrowinJoyceanfashion,sheisuprightandcontained,eventhoughovermasteredbyemotion:‘Mymotherheldmyhand/Inhersandcoughedoutangrytearlesssighs.’ThatbriefpassageisanindexofhowsoonHeaneybrokefreeofJoyceanunrealitywithrespecttowomen,andhowwellhisownadjectivalgiftservedhim: theconflictbetween‘angry’and‘sighs’,andtheviolentlysuppressedtearsstifledunder‘tearless’areallpartofthepoweroftheline.Theadolescentboywhoseawarenessmakesthemother’s inscape unforgettable is the differentiated speaker who rises abovestereotypeandanonymity.If the anonymous nature of farm labour and the generic perception of the

anonymous rural child animateHeaney’s relatively idyllic first two books, histhirdbook,WinteringOut(1972),takesupanonymitywithadifferentandnewsharpness,exposingtherawundersideofrural‘decency’,andinvestigatingtheplight ofwomen in a sexually repressive culture. In ‘Limbo’ a newborn baby,never christened and therefore never given a name, is drowned by its shamedmother and dragged up by fishermen; in ‘Bye-Child’ a nameless half-grownillegitimatechild,incapableofspeech,isrecoveredfromthehenhousewherehismotherhadconfinedhimsincehisbirth.Forsuchpoems,whichsilentlyreprovethepietiescondemningsexualityoutsidemarriage,Heaneyabandonedthebroadandplacidpentameter thathad servedhimwell forpoemsaboutchurningandthatching and dowsing, ‘turning instead to lines that are short, sharp, taciturnand,foralltheirpity,‘cold’and‘lunar’:

Nowlimbowillbe

AcoldglitterofsoulsThroughsomefarbrinyzone.EvenChrist’spalms,unhealed,Smartandcannotfishthere.

[WO,70]

(According toamedievalCatholicdoctrine,oncepowerfulbutnowdiscarded,thesoulsofunbaptizedchildrencouldnotenterheavenbutwerethoughttobeconsigned to a place called Limbo – from the Latin limbus, ‘border’ –wheretheyweredenied thebeatificvision, just as their bodiesweredeniedburial inconsecrated ground.) Heaney’s identification with the suffering mother of the‘smallonethrownback/Tothewaters’appearsinhisdescriptionofherfreezingwristsassheheldthebabyunderwater(anactioneuphemizedas‘Duckinghimtenderly’):

I’msureAsshestoodintheshallowsDuckinghimtenderlyTillthefrozenknobsofherwristsWeredeadasthegravel,HewasaminnowwithhooksTearingheropen.

Andwouldithavebeenbettertoletthebabylive–only,perhaps,tobeconfinedlikethe‘Bye-Child’oftheneighbouringpoem,the‘littlehenhouseboy’whosephoto,saysthepoet,is‘still/Glimpsedlikearodent/Onthefloorofmymind’?Fedonscrapsmorningandeveningthroughatrapdoor,thehenhouseboysheds‘unchristenedtears’,andnow,freed,transmitssilently

aremotemimeOfsomethingbeyondpatience,YourgapingwordlessproofOflunardistancesTravelledbeyondlove.

[WO,71–2]

Theghostofrhymeispresentintheseharshnarrow-linedpoems(asthelastquotedstanzareveals),butoftenHeaneyiswillingtoallowseveral lines togoby with nothing but the occasional alliteration to bind his stanzas togetherphonetically.Byturninghisgazefromtheabundancesandconfirmingritualsoffamily life toadarkandcruelundersideof theculturehewasbred in,andbydirecting his gaze away from artisanry and agriculture to illegitimacy andintimidatedwomen,Heaneyadmitted–inacharacteristicenquiryintofacetsofhis culture thatwere taken for granted – longstanding ‘anonymities’ thatwereotherthanbenevolent.ButWinteringOutalsofoundadifferentsortofanonymitythatwastoprove

immeasurablyproductiveforHeaney:thiswasthearchaeologicalanonymityoftheburiedbodiesknowntothepoetfromabookbyaDanisharchaeologist.P.V.Glob’s The Bog People (published by Faber in 1969), described bodies ofmurdervictimsfromtheIronAgepreservedinpeatbogsinDenmark.ThebookhadanimmediateandrivetingeffectonHeaney:‘Theunforgettablephotographsof these victims blended inmymindwith photographs of atrocities, past andpresent,inthelongritesofIrishpoliticalandreligiousstruggles’(P,57–8).Thisprovoked in him ‘a vow to go on pilgrimage’ to see the body known as ‘theTollundMan’, accompanied by a feeling that ‘unless I was deeply in earnestaboutwhatIwassaying,Iwassimplyinvokingdangersformyself’(P,58):

SomedayIwillgotoAarhusToseehispeat-brownhead,Themildpodsofhiseye-lids,Hispointedskincap.

Intheflatcountrynearby…

Iwillstandalongtime….

OutthereinJutlandIntheoldman-killingparishesIwillfeellost,Unhappyandathome.

[WO,47–8]

‘The Tollund Man’ makes perhaps too explicit the equation of the medievalcorpse and those of ‘four young brothers’murdered in the early 1920s by theauxiliarypoliceforce,theBSpecials.Thebrothersweredraggedbyatrain,their‘tell-tale skin and teeth / Flecking the sleepers’ (WO, 48). Balked by theimpossibilityofwritingofthe‘sectarianmurders’(astheyarecalledinIreland)ofthelatesixtiesandearlyseventiesinthejournalistictermsinwhichtheyhadalready been described by reporters and rumour, Heaney turned to the bogbodies as images of slaughter rising to view after centuries of secrecy. Theiranonymity gave him an imaginative scope he would have been unwilling toassume in a literal retelling of local assassinations. The bog bodies alsopersuadedhimthatritualkillinghadbeenafeatureofNortherntribalcultureinawidegeographicalswath:thatimmediatehistoryalonedidnotbegintoexplaintherecrudescenceofviolenceinNorthernIreland.

SecondThoughtsThelargelybenevolentpictureofanonymousruralpieties–fromthechurningofbutter (‘ChurningDay’) to the family rosary (‘TheOtherSide’)– inHeaney’sfirst three books is rethought in Station Island (1984) where, in ‘The FirstKingdom’ (from the sequence ‘Sweeney Redivivus’), the anonymities are re-explored, this time in a savage self-correctionbywhichearly idealizations arebroughtsharplydowntoearth:

Theroyalroadswerecowpaths.Thequeenmotherhunkeredonastoolandplayedtheharpstringsofmilkintoawoodenpail.Withseasonedsticksthenobleslordeditoverthehindquartersofcattle….

Theyweretwo-facedandaccommodating.Andseed,breedandgenerationstilltheyareholdingon,everybitaspiousandexactinganddemeaned.

[SI,101]

ThevoiceofSweeney–liberatedfromsocialconstraintbyhavingbeenchangedtoabird–allowsremarksHeaneydoesnotutterelsewhere.Ofcoursethemost

acerbicoftheseobservationsconcernhimselfratherthanhisfamily:he,afterall,was the one who exalted an ordinary farmstead into a ‘royal’ kingdom, andcattle-dealerrelativesinto‘nobles’.Theviolenceofthepoet’sreactioninthelaststanzaof‘TheFirstKingdom’ishisrevengeonhisownpreviousenhancementofreality.And a second revisionary poem, ‘In the Beech’ (SI, 100), looks back to

another timewhen theyouthfulpoet ensconcedhimself in a tree;buthe isnolonger purely sequestered in nature as the innocent ‘lobe and larynx / of themossy places’. Now the tree is a boundary between the farm (‘the bullocks’covert’) and the larger world (‘the concrete road’), and the boy – enteringadolescence–experiencestwonewsensationsashehidesinthetree.Thefirstishis aesthetic reaction to the decorativeness of ivy twining around the tree: itremindshimoftheleafydecorationonGreekcolumns:

Theveryivypuzzleditsmilk-toothfrillsandtapersoverthegrain:wasitbarkormasonry?

The second sensation arises because the tree has a new function as a placeofsexual privacy ‘where the school-leaver discovered peace / to touch himself’.The tree is also a lookout on awiderworld: the boy sees (it iswartime, andBritish tanks and planes are based inUlster) ‘the pilot with his goggles back[come]in/solowIcouldseethecockpitrivets’.Summedup,itis‘Mytreeofknowledge’,wherewarforthefirsttimedisturbedtheruralscene,andwheretheintertwiningstrandsofadolescentconsciousness–perceptual, social,aesthetic,sexual–findalocationtomakeeachothers’acquaintance.Thenostalgicidyllofthe pre-social, pre-sexual ‘secret nest’ is now distant, judged by the amplersecondthoughtsofafullerworld.These more individualized reflections in ‘The First Kingdom’ and ‘In the

Beech’revealtheconstraintsexercisedonlyricwhenthepoetresolvestospeakinapurelyanonymous(andoftennostalgic)voiceastheperpetuatorinlanguageof an archaic culture soon to disappear. It was inevitable that a wider socialworldshouldintrudeonHeaney’spastoral:butitshouldnotbeforgottenthathisearlypastoralwasnotalwaysidyllic(thecroakingfrogs,theratsinthebarn,the‘stink’inthehouseonchurningday,thewearinessofthepregnantyoungfarmwife in ‘Mother’, the illegitimatechildrenofWinteringOut)and thathisearlyeloquence was not reserved for the beautiful alone. To that degree, even his

anonymitiesborewitnesstoasharpandidiosyncraticobserversilentlyarrangingtheirtableauxandfriezes.

2

Archaeologies:North

theprocessiondragsitstailoutoftheGapoftheNorthasitsheadalreadyentersthemegalithicdoorway.

‘FuneralRites’[N,8]

Toenterthemegalithicdoorwayistogounderground,workingbackintowhatseems a bottomless pre-history, to a ‘matter of Ireland’more archaeo-culturalthanagricultural,andHeaneywasbroughttohisarchaeologiesinNorth(1975),asweshall see,by theviolenceunleashed in Irelandfrom1972on.Earlier, in1969,Heaneyhadclosedhissecondbook,DoorintotheDark,withapropheticpoemcalled‘Bogland’,inwhichtheunearthingofburiedthingsfrompeatbogswasrepresentedasinstructiveandbenevolent:

They’vetakentheskeletonOftheGreatIrishElkOutofthepeat,setitupAnastoundingcratefullofair.ButtersunkunderMorethanahundredyearsWasrecoveredsaltyandwhite.Thegrounditselfiskind,blackbutter

Meltingandopeningunderfoot.

[DD,55]

Andthough‘Thewetcentreisbottomless’,‘Bogland’doesnotenvisagehorrorsto be foundwithin it. Resisting the usual image of bog-discovery –medievalgold objects – Heaney clearly seeks either domestic ordinariness (butter) or

evolutionary astonishment (the giant elk). A comparable childhood poem inDoorintotheDark(37)praisesthe‘oatmealcoloured’pieceofpetrifiedwood(a‘Relic ofMemory’) retrieved from ‘the loughwaters’ and storedon a shelf atschool.Other forms of stone – lava,meteorite, coal, and even diamond – areunfavourably compared with it: they cannot ‘incarcerate ghosts / of sap andseason’as thewooddoes.Loughsandbogscontain Irishnaturalanddomestichistory, and in ‘Bogland’ the poet enters history willingly, as a ‘pioneer …striking/Inwardsanddownwards’(DD,56).All this changes when archaeology ceases to be interesting and beneficent,

andinsteadisinterrogatedforanexplanationofviolence.Now,whatHeaney’spoetry (inspired by P. V. Glob’sThe Bog People) retrieves from the bog is aseriesofmurderedbodies,servingasemblemsofculturalpredispositiontotribalsacrifice. In 1972, when Heaney published Wintering Out, Northern Irishviolencehadalreadyescalated:in1969BritishtroopshadbeensentintoBelfastandDerry;in1971internmentwithoutjurytrialhadbeguninUlster,withover1,500people interned in the first year; on30 January1972, ‘BloodySunday’,BritishparatroopersfireduponDenycivilrightsmarchers,killingthirteen;and‘sectarian’violence(oneofthemanyadjectivesessayedtodescribetheevents)reached new heights. But it was in the years between 1972 and 1975, whenNorthwaspublished, thatHeaney’spoetrywasable to reflectmoredeeplyontheseevents. ‘TheTroubles’, likeallcomplexhistoricalevents,haveproducedrivalexplanations: theyhavebeenseenastheaftermathofcolonization;astheclash of religions; as class warfare; as ethnic disputes; or, in their degenerateforms, as the thuggeryof rival gangs.Noone living inNorthern Irelandwentunscathedby them;eventuallyeveryoneonbothsidesknewafriendorfamilymemberwhose life had been changed (or ended) by them. InAugust of 1972HeaneyandhisfamilyleftBelfastandmovedtotheRepublicofIreland,wherethey lived for four years in Glanmore, County Wicklow, in a gate-keeper’scottageattachedtotheSyngeestateandrentedtothembyitsowner,theirfriendAnnSaddlemeyer, editorofSynge’s letters.Heaney resignedhis lectureshipatQueen’sUniversityandcommittedhimselffullytowritingpoetry(free-lancingasajournalistandradiocommentatortosupporthisfamily).HeaneyhadknownassoonashewroteWinteringOut(publishedjustafterthe

move toGlanmore) that a journalistic approach to the Troubleswas bound toleadtocliché.Hisfirstattemptatdealingwithcurrentevents–twelvelinesthatlater, with one slight change, were used to close ‘Whatever You Say, SayNothing’inNorth–beginsinrealism:‘Thismorningfromadewymotorway/I

sawthenewcampfortheinternees.’However,thepoemquicklysubvertsitself(‘anditwasdéjà-vu,somefilmmade/ofStalag17’),andasquicklyderidesitsownwish to insert theTroubles into some repetitive frame: ‘Wehugour littledestinyagain’(WO,5).TheusualjournalisticandbienpensantremarksabouttheTroublesarelatermercilesslyexposedin‘WhateverYouSay’,andthepoetdoesnotsparehimself.The‘media-menandstringers’revelintheirnewvocabulary;theyhave

provedupontheirpulses‘escalate’,‘Backlash’and‘crackdown’,‘theprovisionalwing’,‘Polarization’and‘long-standinghate’.

‘YetIlivehere,Iliveheretoo,Ising,’beginsthepoet,butgoesontocondemnhimself,

ExpertlyciviltonguedwithcivilneighboursOnthehighwiresoffirstwirelessreports,Suckingthefaketaste,thestonyflavoursOfthosesanctioned,old,elaborateretorts:

‘Oh,it’sdisgraceful,surely,Iagree,’‘Where’sitgoingtoend?’‘It’sgettingworse.’‘They’remurderers.’‘Internment,understandably…’The‘voiceofsanity’isgettinghoarse.

[N,51–2]

There is simply no room left in style for either reportage or conventionalideology: ‘The liberal papist note sounds hollow.’ Yet Heaney continues tobelievethatwithatrueart,‘anyofus/Coulddrawthelinethroughbigotryandsham/Giventherightline,aereperennius’(N,53).AndsoGlob’sbookonthebog people strikes with electric effect the poet seeking ‘befitting emblems ofadversity’ (Yeats) or ‘symbols adequate to our predicament’ (Heaney, ‘FeelingintoWords’,P,56).AsHeaneysaidinaradiointerview,

Myemotions,myfeelings,whateverthoseinstinctiveenergiesarethathavetobeengagedforapoem,thoseenergiesquickenedmorewhencontemplatingavictim,strangely,from2,000yearsagothantheydid

fromcontemplatingamanattheendofaroadbeingsweptupintoaplasticbag–1meanthebarmanat theendofourroadtriedtocarryoutabombanditblewup.Nowthereisofcoursesomethingterribleaboutthat,butsomehowlanguage,wordsdidn’tliveinthewayIthinktheyhavetoliveinapoemwhentheywerehoveringoverthatkindofhorrorandpity.4

Thepoet recognizes adequate symbols by a ‘first stirringof themind round aword or an image or amemory’,5 andmust then follow the symbol where itleads.Thearchaeologyofbodiesis,forHeaney,suchasymbol.Havingfoundthebogbodies,howisthepoettomakepoemsoutofthem?In

‘The Tollund Man’ Heaney attempted a binocular view of the past and thepresent:on the left, so to speak, theexhumed IronAgebody;on the right thefour murdered brothers and other ‘stockinged corpses / Laid out in thefarmyards’afterbeingambushed.Thearchaeologicalpartismoreimaginativelystirring than the twentieth-centurypart, perhapsbecause thepoet is put onhismettlebyhavingtodelineatetheimprobablebog-tannedbody:

…hispeat-brownhead,Themildpodsofhiseye-lids…

HislastgruelofwinterseedsCakedinhisstomach.

[WO,47]

Butthepowerofthebogbodieshasyetanothercomponent.Thearchaeologists’conclusionthatthesearevictimsofritualsacrificetoanearth-goddessnotonlyeroticizesthenakedcorpseoftheTollundManforthepoet,butalsolendsitthereliquaryairofthepreservedandexhibitedbodiesofCatholicsaints:

Bridegroomtothegoddess,

ShetightenedhertoreonhimAndopenedherfen,ThosedarkjuicesworkingHimtoasaint’skeptbody…

NowhisstainedfaceReposesatAarhus.

[WO,47]

Expertly done though this is, and courageous as Heaney was in allowing somuchpsychicmaterial to bedetonatedbyGlob’s book, thebinocular poem isuneasy in proposing that these sexual and religious interpretations havesomethingtodowiththe‘scattered…flesh’,the‘tell-taleskinandteeth’ofthe1920s’ corpses. The poem recovers itself in its conclusion,where the speakercomes home to himself, imagining the Tollund Man’s last moments beforeexecution:

SomethingofhissadfreedomAsherodethetumbrilShouldcometome,driving,Sayingthenames

Tollund,Grauballe,Nebelgard…

[WO,48]

The‘sadfreedom’ofthecertainknowledgeofdeath–Hamlet’ssadfreedominthelastact–isbestowedontheyoungpoet(Heaneyisstillonlythirty-three)bythe apparent repetitiveness of history. It happened at Tollund, it happened atGrauballe,itishappeninginDerry,itwillhappenelsewhere…Becauseof themultiple and asyet intractablematerialsofferedby thebog-

bodies, Heaney ‘rewrites’ ‘The Tollund Man’ several times in North. TheTollundManistwinnedbytheGrauballeMan(inHeaney’smostbeautiful‘bogpoem’, meditating on the relation between art and suffering); and there aretwinned poems of female bodies – ‘Bog Queen’ and ‘Punishment’.Understandably,thepoemsaboutthebog-bodieshavebeenexaminedbyliteraryhistorians chiefly as comments on the Troubles; and it is unlikely thatGlob’sbookwouldhavehadthesameeffectonHeaneyifNorthernIrelandhadbeenatpeace.But ifwe recall thatpoemsare thepoet’s attempt to replicate inwordssomeversionofhimself,wecan–withoutforgettingtheirfunctionassymbolsofaculturalpredicament–comeclosertotheirwholebeingasartworks.Let me summarize briefly. ‘The Grauballe Man’ does not attempt the

binocular vision of ‘The Tollund Man’, but withholds its contemporaryapplicationuntilthepoethascompletedhismeditationonthebog-body.Wearefirst given forty-five deeply imaginative lines for the preserved body of theGrauballeMan,almostvegetative,almostbronze:

Thegrainofhiswristsislikebogoak,theballofhisheel

likeabasaltegg…

Whowillsay‘corpse’tohisvividcast?Whowillsay‘body’tohisopaquerepose?

[N,28–9]

Then come the three shocking closing lines, throwing on the scale ‘the actualweight/ofeachhoodedvictim,/slashedanddumped’(N,29).Itisaffronting–after being lost in detached and even aesthetic contemplation of thearchaeologicalspecimen–tobesubjectedtothe‘actualweight’ofthe‘slashedanddumped’contemporary.Thepoetoverturnstheobjectivityofhistorybytheinsultof theactual,puttinghiscontemplativepower toaestheticizesquarely inconflictwithhispoliticalpowertosympathize.Ihaveputthistoocrudely(because‘TheGrauballeMan’hasinfinitenuance,

revealing Heaney’s gift for stunningly exact description better than any otherpoeminNorth),butthepoembecomesabetterartworkforhavingfaceditsownmetaphysical stance so clearly. Is itwrong to aestheticize? Is it possible todootherthanlookobjectivelywhenwhatisbeforeone’seyesisalong-deadcorpse,and not a recently living person? What would the corpse himself sayposthumously about his own state?Heaney answers this question in the regalpoem ‘Bog Queen’, in which the corpse (this time an Irish one, and not asacrificialvictim)speaksoutforherself,narrating,withdelayandceremony,herlongstayinthebog.(Shewasdiscoveredin1781byaturfcutterontheMoiraestatesouthofBelfastandsoldtoLadyMoira.)Fortenofherfourteenstanzasthe bog queen rests undisturbed by human enquiry, and she is not resurrecteduntilthelaststanza:‘andIrosefromthedark,/hackedbone’.Inthatfinalrising

‘The Bog Queen’ owes something to Plath’s ‘Lady Lazarus’; but before that,when she speaks, it is with the objectivity of one who can see her owndisintegration. Gradually, she is ‘digested’ by natural process, and heradornmentsandgarmentsdecay.Thenarrative iseloquentand rich,as stepbystep the buried woman is undone until she becomes a geologic rather than ahumanphenomenon:

throughmyfabricsandskinstheseepsofwinterdigestedme,theilliterateroots

ponderedanddiedinthecavingsofstomachandsocket…

Mydiademgrewcarious,gemstonesdroppedinthepeatfloelikethebearingsofhistory.

Mysashwasablackglacierwrinkling,dyedweavesandphoenicianstitchworkrettedonmybreasts’

softmoraines.

[N,25–61

WhatcanbededucedaboutHeaneyasapoetfromsuchasample?Asthebogqueendescribesherslowchanges,shehastheequanimityofthedead,andshereaches almost the unintelligibility of a script in a lost language: as the two-thousand-year-longdisintegrationisnarrated,herequalandfarmoresurprisingundergroundresistancetodisintegrationisnotmentioned.Afterall–despitethe‘creeping influences’, the ‘darkening’ and ‘fermenting’ and ‘reducing’ and‘wrinkling’ and ‘soak[ing]’ and ‘fray[ing]’ – the bog queen, once exhumed, isstillunitary,recognizable,present.Heaney’seven-handedattentionstobrainand

nails,pelvisandbreasts,thighsandskull,hairandfeet,‘realize’thebodyentire,withablazonfullerthantheconventionnormallyallows.Thebogqueenismuchchanged,but(touseherownmetaphor),shewasonlyhibernating,andhasnowreappearedtotestifyto–towhat?Firstofall–ifwerecallHeaney’stitleandnoticeherregalia–tohernobility.

Her(lost)diademisthewitnesstothatcivilizationoftorcsandgemstonesthatHeaneyhadoncerejectedinfavourofelkandbutterasbog-treasure.Sherevealsnot violence, like the other bog-bodies, but patience. Twice she says, ‘I laywaiting.’Whensherises,sherisesnotasaqueenbutasawoman‘robbed…/barbered and stripped’, her hair cut off, her skull hacked by the turfcutter’sspade.She thereforegivesoffnother full radiancebut ‘frayedstitches, tufts, /small gleams on the bank’. Of course analogies can be drawn to the reducedstateofthevisioninthisrenovationoftheaislingpoem(apoemenvisagingthenationasamaidenappearingto thepoet);but thepoemisalsoanassertionofthedeeppoeticinterestHeaneynowfindsintheprocessesofunmaking,oftheresonance he gives to the frayed, the hacked, the incomplete. For a poet likeHeaney–whoso loved the‘slopedhoneycomb’of theorderedandbuttedandstapled thatch, who praised the ‘heavy and rich, coagulated sunlight’ thatappeared on churning day, both when the butter was ‘heaped up like gildedgravel in the bowl’ and when it was civilized into ‘soft printed slabs’ in thepantry(DN,9–10),whopraisedtheretentionofsapandseasonsinthepetrifiedstone–forsuchapoettobecomethecuratorofundoing,ofdilution,ofloss,isto reverse direction with surprising force. Death having entered the poet’sdomainwithsuchsuddenness,heresolvestounderstandit,toliveitoutthroughthedeliberatephasesofthebogqueen’sundoing.Yettheprocess(thankstotheembalming power of the bog) stops short of entire disintegration; the poemassertsthatsomethingofthepastisalwayspreserved,andisalwaysreadytoberediscovered.Inspiteof thebogqueen’sdistressatherviolationby thespade,shedoesnotobjecttobeingexhumed:‘Ilaywaiting,’shehassaidtwice,waitingfor thisveryday.Thebogbody, then, in thepersonof this examplewhodiednaturally, can speak of the permanence of human nobility, not only ofassassinationand sacrifice.Heaney’s respect for thecomplexityof thepast, asonesortofbog-bodybalancesanother–thebogqueenagainsttheTollundManorGrauballeMan–isonefactorinthegreatnessofNorth.Heaneypursueshisarchaeologylesssuccessfullyinthepoemonthemuseum-

displayoftheexhumedheadofagirl(‘StrangeFruit’),whichreliestooheavilyonlavishbutconventionaladjectives:‘Murdered,forgotten,nameless,terrible/

Beheadedgirl’(N,32).Ihavesaidthatthebogpoemsare,forthepoet,asmuchareplicationofselfasasymbolicrepresentationofhistory,andthistruthcanbeseen through ‘Strange Fruit’. Here Heaney recognizes his own tendency tobeatify and to venerate, and he finds this response inadequate to the girl’smurder. Like an uninterpretable residue – or some other form of art beyondmimeticrepresentation–thegirlisseen‘outstaringaxe/Andbeatification’.TotheextentthattheTollundManwas‘asaint’skeptbody’reposingatAarhus;tothe extent that the bog queen is a resurrected goddess, so far has death beenmisrepresented, as Heaney’s second thoughts advise him, and as his poemreproaches him.The bodies do notwant to be beatified (religious language isinadequatetothem),nordidtheyexisttobemurdered(thelanguageofviolenceis inadequate to them).What they claim now, and claimed in life, iswhat allhumanbeingswant:existenceonthesametermsastheirfellows.As Heaney wrote the bog poems, the archaeological and the contemporary

convergedmore andmore. It is thehumanity, and the contemporaneity, of thebog corpse in ‘Punishment’ that has made this the most controversial ofHeaney’s archaeologies. Heaney makes the archaic murdered young woman(‘the Windeby girl’ disinterred in Northern Germany) one of his own ethnicgroup, a ‘sister’ to the Catholic women whose heads were shaved, and whothemselves were tarred, for fraternizing in the seventies with British soldiers.Because hewants to correct his tendency to ‘venerate’ the bodies, to distancetheir suffering by aestheticizing them into museum objects, he confronts the‘littleadulteress’directly.Hefirstspeaksaboutherinthethirdpersonandthen,attheexactcentreofthepoem,speakstoherinasecond-personaddresswhichhemaintainstotheend.‘Icanfeel,’thepoetbegins;‘Icansee,’hecontinues:‘Ialmostloveyou,’heprotests–butthenheindictshimself:hewasamongthose‘whostooddumb’whileher ‘betrayingsisters…/cauled in tar, /weptby therailings’.With ‘Punishment’, Heaney’s archaeology of persons becomes an

anthropology of the present: dig however deep, the person who rises to thesurfaceisoneyourecognizefromyourownlife.Thesituationsof thepastarereplicatedattherailingsofBelfast.Thiscastoftheimagination–inwhichthepresent (the tribal abuse of ‘betraying’ women) makes the past (theWindebygirl)suddenlyrelevant,andinwhichthepast(thebog-body)makesthepresent(Heaney’sownself-admittedcomplicity in theabuse)unignorable– isone forwhichHeaney has been condemned.But no poem is a poem unless, asYeatssaid,itisaboutaquarrelwithinoneself:ifHeaneyhadnoambivalenceaboutthe

fraternizingwomenand theirabusers,hewouldnothavebeenmoved towritethepoem,saying,

[I]wouldconniveincivilizedoutrageyetunderstandtheexactandtribal,intimaterevenge.

[N,31]

Therearethreecriminalactsinventoriedinthepoem:thefirstisstandingsilentwhile ‘punishment’ is carried out; the second is ‘conniving’ in hypocriticalcondemnationoftheact;andthethirdisthepunishmentitself,asthetribetakesitsvengeance.Thepoet isnotguiltyof the third;buthowmanyofhis readerscould honestly exempt themselves from the first and second crimes, those ofwhichheaccuseshimself?Thebestwriting in ‘Punishment’comesat theend.Though the languageof

archaeologicaldiscoveryis,asitalwaysisinHeaney,expert,ashedescribesthecorpse–‘hershavedhead/likeastubbleofblackcorn,/herblindfoldasoiledbandage’– themotiveforcewithin thepoet isnot thebeautyof theblackenedbody(as in‘TheGrauballeMan’),nor theback-and-forthcomparisonbetweenhistoricalpastandjournalisticpresent(asin‘TheTollundMan’),norinterestintheslowdisintegrationofthephysicalovertime(asin‘BogQueen’),butratheran examination of conscience with respect to personal behaviour. The linebetweenpastandpresenthasreacheditsvanishingpoint:andwhereasthepoetdidnot standpersonallyguiltybefore the ‘slashed anddumped’victims at theclose of ‘The Grauballe Man’, he does stand self-indicted before the victims‘cauled in tar’ at the close of ‘Punishment’. The uses of the archaeology ofbodiesendshere,aspastandpresentcoincide.Intheself-indictmentoftheendthepoethaspassedbeyond‘veneration’andbeyond‘atrocity’:hehasreplicatedhimselfintheverypostureofthesilentonlooker.InanattempttogobeloworbeyondjournalisticexplanationsoftheTroubles,

HeaneyturnedinNorthtoanarchaeologicalmythaverringthatawidepracticeof prehistoric violence, encompassing both the Scandinavian countries andIreland,accountedforthesurvivalofsavagetribalconflict,whichfundamentallywasneithercolonialnorsectarian,neithereconomicnorclass-caused,butratherdeeply cultural. This was a way of saying that other countries have religiousdifferenceswithoutreligiouswars;thatothercountriesenduredeepriftsbetween

classeswithoutresortingtomurder;thatothercountriesarepostcolonialwithoutcontinuing to avenge grievances dating from the sixteenth century. Can it be,Heaneyproposes,thatwhatweareseeingisnotCatholicsagainstProtestants,orrichagainstpoor,orloyalistagainstnationalist,butratherageneralizedculturalapprovalofviolence,datingbackmanycenturies?Inthesummerof1969,whenthepoliceandresidentsofDerrywereinvolved

inwhatcametobeknownasthe‘BattleofBogside’,HeaneywasinMadrid,ashetellsusin‘SingingSchool’.HegoestothePradoandseestheGoyas,whichhe recalls, for the purpose of the poem, in a climactic order. First, the instantpoliticalreprisalcapturedin‘ShootingsoftheThirdofMay’–

thethrown-uparmsAndspasmoftherebel,thehelmetedAndknapsackedmilitary,theefficientRakeofthefusillade.

This is murder under the cover of military order, as the Napoleonic troopsexecute ‘traitors’. Northern Ireland knows about this, but so do many othercountries.Second,Goya’slavishallegorical‘nightmares’:

SaturnJewelledinthebloodofhisownchildren,GiganticChaosturninghisbrutehipsOvertheworld.

Northern Ireland knows about this, too; but again, it is not alone in thatexperience.Finally,aGoyathatcomesclosesttotheoriginsofIrishviolence,asHeaneynowunderstandsit:

Also,thatholmgangWheretwoberserksclubeachothertodeathForhonour’ssake,greavedinabog,andsinking.

[N,63–4]

Thismindless clubbing,without justification bywar or other cause, is simplyviolenceforthesakeofviolence,thoughthearmedberserkers(fromOldNorse‘bear’plus‘shirt’,thedressofthefrenziedwarriors)invokeaprimitiveidealof

‘honour’todefendtheirsuicidalslaughter.ItisthisformofmutualslaughterthatHeaneywishestoanatomizeinthecultureofIreland.Togobacktoaprehistorictimebeforethecurrentjournalisticclichésapply,

Heaneyreturns,in‘FuneralRites’,totheBoynevalleyanditsmegalithictombs,built in a time when, it is presumed from archaeological evidence, humansacrificewasstillpractisedinIreland,andtribalwarwasendemic:

Nowasnewscomesinofeachneighbourlymurderwepineforceremony,customaryrhythms:

thetemperatefootstepsofacortège,windingpasteachblindedhome.Iwouldrestore

thegreatchambersofBoyne,prepareasepulchreunderthecupmarkedstones….QuietasaserpentinitsgrassyboulevardtheprocessiondragsitstailoutoftheGapoftheNorthasitsheadalreadyentersthemegalithicdoorway.

[N,7–8]

This eerily liturgical piece of writing reveals a wholly male procession fromNorthtoSouth,onesolongthatwhenitsheadreachesthetombsnorth-westofDublin,itsserpentinetailisstillat‘theGapoftheNorth’atCarlingfordLough.The ‘somnambulantwomen’ of the tribe have been left behind to imagine the‘slowtriumph’ofthemen–‘ourslowtriumph,’saysthepoet,speakingasoneof the participants in this ‘neighbourly’ ritual following on ‘each neighbourlymurder’.Insteadofintensifyingangerorgrief,thefuneralactsasanarcotic,onthemenaswellasthewomen:oncethetombmouthhasbeenclosedagainbyitsgreatstone, theprocessionwindsbacknorth, ‘thecudofmemory/allayedfor

once,arbitration /of the feudplacated.’Thestep-by-stepadvanceof the lines;thereligiousceremonyofthecortège;theunstatedconflictbetweenaChrist-like‘sepulchre’ and an immense ‘serpent’ approaching it; the attempt to dignifyviolentdeathbyfiat(I‘wouldrestore/thegreatchambersofBoyne/prepareasepulchre / under the cupmarked stones’); the savage understatement of ‘eachneighbourlymurder’–all thesearepartof thenewcivilmotions inwhich thepoet, however unwillingly, finds himself a participant. Though he imagines apossiblecessationtoconflictintheimageofGunnarHamundarson,fromNjal’sSaga,who,thoughdeadbyviolence,wasdeliberatelyleftunavenged,Heaney’sperennialhoperemainsunfulfilledinthemomentofthewritingofthepoem.Other archaeological remains – theViking ships, one of themunearthed by

archaeologistsinDublin–offerHeaneyanoccasiontocounselhimselfagainstthe voyeuristic attraction to ‘violence and epiphany’ always endangeringwhathas come to be known (and increasingly exploited by contemporary poets) as‘the poetry of witness’. Like the bog queen, the Viking raiders now lie as‘hacked and glinting’ corpses, their ships petrifying in the earth, ‘their longswordsrusting’.Itisthe‘swimmingtongue’ofthelongshipitself–thatsuperblymadeandfunctionalarchaicobject–thatadjuresthepoetto

Liedownintheword-hoard.…Composeindarkness….Keepyoureyeclearasthebleboftheicicle.

[N,11]

Anothersortofinstructionissoughtfromexcavatedbonesusedas‘trial-pieces’byVikingartists;but though theyshowhowan incised line following itsownbuoyant migrations can unfold itself into life-giving ‘foliage, / bestiaries, /interfacings’,thisheavenlyglimpsecannotbesufficienttotimessogrimasthepresent. In a parodie self-image of his archaeological excavations, Heaneybecomes‘HamlettheDane’,

pinionedbyghostsandaffections,

murdersandpieties,

comingtoconsciousnessbyjumpingingraves,dithering,blathering.

IN,14]

The exhuming of symbols, both human andmonumental, can nomore affectreality,Heaneymordantlyargues, thanHamlet’s theatricalbravadoashe leapsinto Ophelia’s grave.With this turning on his own processes, Heaney leavesbehindtherecoursetoarchaeologythat,whileitlasted,gavehimwaystodistilhisanguish,guiltandfeelingsofcomplicitybeforethe‘wearytwistedemotionsthatarerolledlikeaballofhooksandsinkersintheheart’(P,30).Noonecouldbe more conscious than their author that these poems alone could not telleverything about political events and the feelings they evoked in the yearsbetween1968and1975.Yet there isnootherbodyofworkabout thoseyearsthatsowhollyevokesthedesperationanddevastationfeltinthatperiod.Northreconstitutes, in powerful symbolic form and tense imaginative language, theimpactofthoseyearsononeperson.Thatsomanyreaders,bothinIrelandandabroad, have found North an unforgettable book means that Heaney’sarchaeologieshaveconsolidatedthepersonalintothecommunicable.

SecondThoughtsTombs, caves, tribal pasts– all the appurtenancesof archaeology– areblood-tingedandcorpse-hauntedinNorth:thearchaeologyofthenorthlandsalonehascometousurptheverymeaningoftheword‘archaeology’.InthelastpoemofStation Island, however, an alternative archaeology comes into view – notentirely consoling, but at least not blood-besmirched; primitive and tribal, butsolacingratherthanmurderous.ItisthearchaeologyofLascaux,thecaveintheDordognewhereNeanderthalpaintings–amongthem,oneofadeerdrinkingata pool –were first discovered in 1940. The unknown artists – older than thebuildersoftheBoynemegalithicchambersorthehonour-berserkScandinavianwarriors– tookadvantageof relief-variations in the stoneof thecavewalls ininventinganddisposingtheirstylizedimagesofanimals.Atthecloseof‘OntheRoad’thepoet(inthepersonofthebird-kingSweeney,andusingthe‘archaic’thin stanza of North) contemplates coming to rest at last in Lascaux, thebirthplaceofWesternart:

Iwouldmigrate

throughahighcavemouthintoanoaten,sun-warmedcliff,

ondownthesoft-nubbed,clay-flooredpassage,face-brush,wing-flap,tothedeepestchamber.

Thereadrinkingdeeriscutintorock,itshaunchandneckrisewiththecontours,

theincisedoutlinecurvestoastrainedexpectantmuzzleandanostrilflared

atadried-upsource.FormybookofchangesIwouldmeditatethatstone-facedvigiluntilthelongdumbfoundedspiritbrokecovertoraiseadustinthefontofexhaustion.

[SI,120–21]

Archaeological investigation can reveal not onlydeadbodies (whethervictimsor,likethebogqueen,merelydisintegratingorganicforms)butalsoasolacingart.Thereisnopoolyetforthepoettodrinkfrom:asthebird-Sweeney,hecanonly ‘raise adust / in the font of exhaustion’.Yethehopes that the spirit caneventually refresh itself, like the deer at the source: to that end, hewill keepvigil.

3

Anthropologies:FieldWork

gleaningsandleavingsinthecombsofafieldworker’sarchive.

‘TheBackwardLook’(WO,29–30)

The title of Heaney’s 1979 volume FieldWork has of course an agriculturalimplication.Butitisalsoaphraseusedinanthropology:‘Wheredidyoudoyourfieldwork?’Inthatsenseitimpliesinvestigationintoaculturenotone’sown,oratleastoneremovedintime.ReadershadalreadymetthenotionoffieldworkinHeaney’s poetry: in ‘The Backward Look’ inWintering Out the poet recallsobsolete Irish-language kennings for the snipe: little goat of the air, / of theevening, / little goat of the frost. As the snipe disappears in the air over thedangerouslandscapesoftheNorth,itsobsolescentIrishnamesdisappearinto‘afieldworker’s archive’. The poet’s ‘backward look’watches as, in present-dayIreland,snipemeetssniper:

hecorkscrewsawayintothevaultsthatweliveoff,hisflightthroughthesniper’seyrie,overtwilitearthworksandwall-steads,

disappearingamonggleaningsandleavingsinthecombsofafieldworker’sarchive.

[WO,29–30]

The Heaneys – Seamus andMarie, and their two young sonsMichael andChristopher – have moved to the Republic, to Glanmore in CountyWicklowsouthofDublin. (TheirdaughterCatherinewillbeborn there, and someyearslater,aftersettlinginDublin,theHeaneyswillbuytheGlanmorecottage.)Thepoethasnowchangedcountries inapolitical sense, ifnotageographicalone,andcomesamongthenewscenesandpeopleoftheRepublicasa‘fieldworker’in an alternate culture; he is also (after living inBelfast for years) once againlivingamongfields,inaruralsetting.Theworkhehasbeforehimistoregisterthe new ambience and the new feelings it brings with it, while keeping aconnectionwithhisNorthernpast.InFieldWorkHeaneymakesanalmostcompletebreakwithbothanonymity

and archaeology. He is no longer the anonymous child of a quasi-medievalrusticity,northespectatorofarenewedarchaicviolence,symbolizedbybodieslong nameless. Rather, his poetry becomes recognizably that of an individualmanengagedinordinarydomesticandsocialrelations,whowritesinanidiomlargelyshornofbotharchaismandportent,hispoemsvisiblykeptatamiddlelevelofbothgenreandstyle.Heisahusband,afather,apersonwithfriendsandrelatives–andincreasinglyanelegist.In Field Work alone, there are six elegies: for Heaney’s cousin Colum

McCartney(ambushedandshot inasectariankilling); forhis friend thesocialworkerSeanArmstrong(shotbya‘pointblankteatimebullet’(FW,19);forthecomposerSeanO’RiadaandthepoetRobertLowell;foranacquaintance,LouisO’Neill, victim of a bomb explosion (‘Casualty’); and for the young IrishCatholicpoetFrancisLedwidge,killedinactionfightingforEnglandintheFirstWorld War. Work in the field, in this sense, arises from the obligation ofsurvivorstocelebratethosewhohavedied:witheachperson,thepoethashadaseparaterelation;ineachpoem,anindividualmustbecharacterizedandvalued.TheHeaneystyle–earliersoaptinconveyingtheimmemorialandtheimmobile–isnowcalledontosketchthelivingastheywerebeforetheirannihilation,andtodojusticetothemomentofextinction.Theproblemofelegyisalwaystorevisitdeathwhilenotforgettinglife,and

thestructureofanygivenelegysuggeststherelationthepoetpostulatesbetweenthose twocentral terms. In ‘TheStrandatLoughBeg’ [FW,17–18]deathandlifeuneasilyalternate.Thedeath-vignetteofHeaney’smurderedcousinisaluridone:

Iturnbecausethesweepingofyourfeet

Hasstoppedbehindme,tofindyouonyourkneesWithbloodandroadsidemuckinyourhairandeyes.

Yetamomentearlier in thepoem, thecousin’sfamilywerestillenjoying theirbucolicpeaceas

Big-voicedscullions,herders,feelersroundHaycocksandhindquarters,talkersinbyres,Slowarbitratorsoftheburialground.

StructuraloscillationsofthissortbetweenmurderandpeaceorganizethewholeoftheMcCartneyelegy.Weseefirstthecousin’suntroubleddrive‘outbeneaththe stars’, then behold (in an allusion) the firstmalign foretaste ofwhat is tocome as the cousin’s car passes the place ‘WhereSweeney fled before the…demonpack/Blazingoutoftheground,snappingandsquealing’.Nosoonerhasthe ambushhappened than the poem follows itwith a glimpseof the cousin’sidyllichomelandscape:‘ThelowlandclaysandwatersofLoughBeg,/ChurchIsland’sspire,itssofttreelineofyew.’Ifthisparadisalsceneisspoiledbyduckshooters, with their ‘spent cartridges, / Acrid, brassy, genital, ejected’, it iscalmedagainbycattlegrazingwith‘unbewilderedgaze’inanearlymist.Uponthis scene breaks the horrifying vision of the kneeling victim,which the poetattemptstosoothebywashingandlayingoutthecorpse.Thiselegy,withitsfitfulalternationbetweenpeaceandviolence,violenceand

peace, though it may wish to represent social and geographical calm asnormative(thecattle-dealers,thecattle,thepeaceofChurchIsland)andtofindmurder(evenintheanalogousformofduck-shooting)anunnaturalandviciousinterposition, yet, by its form,makesmurder the norm,which peace can onlybrieflyassuage.Thoughweinferfromthestructuralrecurrenceofviolencethatoncemurderhashappened,notruepeacecanberestored,thepoemstopsshortof saying so in words, and ends pacifically and assuagingly with the rites ofdecency.Aswe shall see, in themost savage of his second thoughts,Heaneywill, in ‘Station Island’,makeColumMcCartneyattack thisverypoem for itsattempttosweetendeath’sravages.ThewayHeaney’selegiacvoiceeconomicallysketchesthelivingcanbeseen

asRobertLowelliscalledup(in‘Elegy’)withafewbriefnounsandadjectives:

helmsman,netsman,retiarius.Thathand.Wardingandgrooming

andamphibious…thefish-dartofyoureyesrisking,‘I’llprayforyou.’

[FW,32]

‘Helmsman’ because of Lowell’s transatlantic passage after his thirdmarriage(‘Youwere our night ferry’); ‘netsman’ because of his words inTheDolphinabout writing (‘I’ve gladdened a lifetime / knotting, undoing a net of tarredfishrope’); ‘retiarius’ (agladiatorwhoworkedwithanet)becauseofLowell’sencounterwith‘theungovernableanddangerous’,andbecauseofhisinveteratereturns to Latinity in language; the ‘hand’ because it was always in motionforward and back as Lowell talked, a barrier and an emphasis; ‘amphibious’becauseitmovedbothinthedrylandofproseandinthesurgesofmetaphor;the‘eyes’becauseof their restlessandmyopicmotion; the ‘I’llpray foryou’–asHeaneyhasexplained–anaffectionateandmockingassertionofthefactoftheirmutual lapsed religion. It is this sort of rapid pictorial language that makesHeaney’selegiesofhisfriendsbelongvividlytolife,andthatmakesthedeath-moment, when it comes, a piercing one. In ‘Elegy’ the death-moment isconveyed by thewind off theAtlantic, and the poet’s ‘geranium tremens’. In‘Casualty’ it is conveyed by a last glimpse ofLouisO’Neill’s face – his ‘stillknowableface’–asthebombinthepubexplodes:

IseehimasheturnedInthatbombedoffendingplace,RemorsefusedwithterrorInhisstillknowableface,HiscorneredoutfacedstareBlindingintheflash.

[FW,22–3]

WhenHeaney elegizes the poet Francis Ledwidge (killed at twenty-six) hesketcheshim–inheroicquatrains–notoncebutfourtimes:onceasthebronzestatueinPortstewartwhichrepresentshimasaBritishsoldierrunningforwardtotheattack;onceasthelivingboycourtingagirlattheseasideorbicyclingintothecountryside;onceasthecorpsepaleBritishTommyatthefront;andonceasan ambivalent Irishman,writing his last letter fromYpres. There are the four

sketches:

ThebronzesoldierhitchesabronzecapeThatcrumplesstifflyinimaginedwindNomatterhowtherealwindsbuffandsweepHissuddenhunkeringrun,forevercraned

OverFlanders….

Literary,sweet-talking,countrified,YoupedalledouttheleafyroadfromSlane….

IthinkofyouinyourTommy’suniform,AhauntedCatholicface,pallidandbrave,Ghostingthetrencheswithabloomofhawthorn….

‘MysoulisbytheBoyne,cuttingnewmeadows…Mycountrywearsherconfirmationdress.’

‘TobecalledaBritishsoldierwhilemycountryHasnoplaceamongnations…’YouwererentByshrapnelsixweekslater.

[FW,59–60]

The ‘vigilant bronze’; the literary boy; the white-faced Tommy; the confusedCatholic volunteering for the British army (‘to defend the rights of smallnations’,asLedwidgewrote,quotedinHeaney’snote)–seeingthese,wemightask (adaptingYeats’swordsonMaudGonne), ‘Whichofhis formshasshownhis substance right?’ No wonder Heaney’s four sketches can lead only to hisbalkedsummarycouplet:

Inyou,ourdeadenigma,allthestrainsCriss-crossinuselessequilibrium.

[FW,60]

This is a couplet that could not have occurred in Heaney’s earlier poems,whether those of anonymity or those of archaeology. The complication of the

humansocialpersonality–thatoneandthesamepersoncanbeaCatholicandaBritishsoldier,apoetandafighter,a loverof theIrishcountrysideandawar-victim inYpres– is theenigma thatHeaney, theanthropologistofhis society,mustnowconfront.An Irishman living in Sausalito (Sean Armstrong), an American living in

Ireland (Robert Lowell), an Irish Catholic serving under the English flag(FrancisLedwidge),JohnField,theIrishcomposer‘DeadinMoscow’(asitsaysonhistombstone,accordingtoHeaney’snote),aCatholic(LouisO’Neill)dyingfrom a Catholic-set bomb – these random situations, brought together byobituarynecessity,showthatIrishnessisnotaunitarything.NotalltheIrishareinIrelandalways,andnotallthoseinhabitingIrelandwerebornthereorwilldiethere. These facts are inconvenient to the unitary view of both nationalistpropagandaandsingle-mindedmythology,buttheyaretheverystuffofculturalinterest for an ethnographer or anthropologist. The contrariness within apresumablyunitarycultureismostvisiblein‘Casualty’,whereHeaneytakesupthe case of a Northern Catholic acquaintancewho (against a curfew and bar-closingpromulgatedbytheCatholicsideonthedayofthefuneralofthethirteenvictimsof‘BloodySunday’)wentoutforhisusualnightlydrinktoadistantbarandwas blownup by a bomb set by his ownpeople.That is an inconvenientfact;butit ispartofthehistoryofwhathappens,thoughpropagandistsarenoteagertomentionit.InFieldWorkHeaneyisananthropologistnotonlyofthedead,butalsoofthe

living. If elegies takeuponehalfof thebook,domestic lifewithhiswifeandsocialoccasionswithfriendsmakeuptheotherhalf:andthoughtherehavebeenearlier poems about his wife and their marriage, Heaney’s first extendedtreatment of the couple (the smallest anthropological unit) is found in FieldWork. There was one notable marriage-poem (‘Summer Home’) inWinteringOut,achillingaccountofaquarrelfinallymended:itscentralimage–setoutinHeaney’s quick notation – was that of a foul odour in the house, finallydiscoveredtobemaggotsunderamat:

Wasitwindoffthedumpsorsomethinginheat

doggingus,thesummergonesour,afoldednestincubatingsomewhere?

WhosefaultIwondered,inquisitor

ofthepossessedair.

Torealizesuddenly,whipoffthemat

thatwaslarval,moving–andscald,scald,scald.

[WO,59]

‘High Summer’ inFieldWork brings back the maggots, this time harmlesslybought in paper bags (during a holiday in France) as bait to catch fish. Thecouple,thoughtroubledbytheteethingbaby’snight-crying,arehappyenough,andallseemsnormal.Butlikeatime-bomb,aforgottenbagofmaggotsliesinwait:

Onthelastday,whenIwasclearingup,onawarmledgeIfoundabagofmaggotsandopenedit.Ablackandthrobbingswarmcameriddlingoutlikenewsreelofapoliceforcerunamok,sunspottingfliesingauzymeatyflight,thebarristersandblackberetsoflight.

[FW,45–6]

Forall theappearanceofnormalcy, thepoet from theNorth, evenwhenawayfromhome,feelsthatatanymomentsocietycangomad,explodingintoswarmsofpolice,barristersandblackberets‘inmeatyflight’.Thisistheimagethatnowtenselyunderliesallthepoet’sdreamsofdomesticity,onefromwhicheventhesequestereddyadofthemarriedcoupleisnotexempt.In the best-known marriage-group in Field Work, the ten poems called

‘Glanmore Sonnets’ (which ring changes on both Shakespearean and Italianforms), Heaney writes a deliberately middle-voicedWordsworthian sequence,poemswhichhehopeswill ‘continue,hold,dispel,appease’.He isamusedbytheexcessofrusticityinwhichhefindshimself:

Thiseveningthecuckooandthecorncrake(Somuch,toomuch)consortedattwilight.Itwasallcrepuscularandiambic.

He even makes an explicit comparison between his and his wife Marie’s

situationinGlanmoreandWilliamandDorothyWordsworth’sinDoveCottage,onlytobehastilyinterruptedbyaprotestingwordfromhiswife:

Ihadsaidearlier,‘Iwon’trelapseFromthisstrangelonelinessI’vebroughtusto.DorothyandWilliam–’Sheinterrupts:‘You’renotgoingtocompareustwo…?’

[FW,35]

Heaney hopes, in this domestic retreat, to create a new hard-edged form ofpastoral–‘Iwillbreakthrough,’hesays,‘whatIglazedover/Withperfectmistand peaceful absences’ (FW, 38). As the sequence goes on, the atmospheredarkens:inVIIHeaneyimagines,whenhehearsweatherwarningsontheradio,afiercestorm:

Sirensofthetundra,Ofeel-road,seal-road,keel-road,whale-roadraiseTheirwind-compoundedkeenbehindthebaizeAnddrivethetrawlerstotheleeofWicklow.

[FW,39]

In VIII there is thunderlight and rain ‘lush with omen’, as the memory of amongoloidchildinsouthernFrancemixeswithsurrealfears:

Ithoughtofdewonarmourandcarrion.WhatwouldImet,blood-boltered,ontheroad?Howdeepintothewoodpilesatthetoad?Whatweltersthroughthisdarkhushonthecrops?

[FW,40]

And, in IX, the invasion of the domestic by external threat is complete, in apoemthatdeserves–foritscombinationofthedomestic,thewild,theclassical,theagricultural,themedieval,theviciousandtheterrified–tobequotedinfull.Thearspoeticathatwillbesufficienttoallsidesofthisreality–orthatcanexistwithinit–seemsunattainabletothepoet.YetheembarksonhisShakespeareansonnet-portrait of wife and husband, redefining – with a gusto that quickly

vanishesinself-doubt–thegenreofthelove-poem:

OutsidethekitchenwindowablackratSwaysonthebriarlikeinfectedfruit:‘Itlookedmethrough,itstaredmeout,I’mnotImaginingthings.Goyououttoit.’Didwecometothewildernessforthis?Wehaveourburnishedbaytreeatthegate,Classical,hungwiththereekofsilageFromthenextfarm,tart-leafedasinwit.Bloodonapitch-fork,bloodonchaffandhay,Ratsspearedinthesweatanddustofthreshing–Whatismyapologyforpoetry?TheemptybriarisswishingWhenIcomedown,andbeyond,yourfaceHauntslikeanewmoonglimpsedthroughtangledglass.

[FW,41]

The rat andhis imagined retinueofhorrorsbanished, theGlanmore sonnetsclose with a pastoral dream. No longerWordsworth andDorothy (or the realcouple they are with small children), the poet and his wife have become‘Lorenzo and Jessica in a cold climate. /Diarmuid andGrainnewaiting to befound.’Thefirst,Shakespeareanmetaphorstilllieswithinthepositivedimensionof pastoral, even if transmuted from the warmth of Venice to the chill ofWicklow; the second, Celtic one, however, comes within the aura of tragedy.Bothmetaphorsare literary,bothalmostmythical; theanthropologist suddenlyseemstowanttoleavehislevelcottageground.Butthepoetturnsthesequencebacktothedomestic,totheoccasionwhenthemarriagewassanctioned–notbyclericalceremonybutbypersonalvow,recalling

OurfirstnightyearsagointhathotelWhenyoucamewithyourdeliberatekissToraiseustowardsthelovelyandpainfulCovenantsofflesh;ourseparateness;Therespiteinourdewydreamingfaces.

[FW,42]

Idyllic though this is, and means to be, it introduces its down-to-earthanthropological note inmentioning the hotel.Thepoet ofFieldWork will notpretendtobeabovesuchdetails.Norwillhe–inothermarriagepoems,suchas‘TheSkunk’–sparecomedy.

Remindedbyhiswife’s ‘head-down, tail-uphunt inabottomdrawer /For theblackplunge-linenightdress’,of theskunk thatused tovisithimonCaliforniaeveningswhenhewaswritinglove-letterstohiswifeinIreland,heembarksonaremarkableandblasphemousdescription:

Up,black,stripedanddamaskedlikethechasubleAtafuneralmass,theskunk’stailParadedtheskunk.

[FW,48]

‘Likethechasubleatafuneralmass?–isnothingsacred?’Orsosomereadersmightreact.Buttotheanthropologisteverydetailisatradingcounter,usefulinsofarasitilluminates.Thedeadpanobservation–skunk’stail;damaskedstripedchasuble;wife’shead-down,tail-upstance;blacknightdress–mixeslevelsandusageswithanoutsider’sindifferencetothedecorumthatacultureimposesonitsmembers.AgooddealisfreedupinHeaneybyhiscapacityfordetachmentinFieldWork,hisinvestmentinthedomestic‘musicofwhathappens’(FW,56).Yet the guilt and anxiety natural to Heaney’s temperament – acutely

exacerbated in theyearsbetween1968and1972–arealways lying inwait tospoilhismiddle-voicedpastoral,notonlywhenaratbringsviciousnessintothescene, but even during a daywhich, it seems,will succeed in ‘laying down aperfectmemory’.As‘Oysters’opens,Heaneyhasdrivenwithfriendstothewestcoast, throughtheBurrensceneryof‘flowersandlimestone’; inacottagetheyareeatingoysters,which taste freshlyof thesea;andat firstall iswell,as thepoetreactsinpuresensuousdelight.(Heaney’ssensesoftentransmitthemselvesinlanguagewithanecstaticacuteness.)Yetthepoem’sfivecinquainsthatoughtto stand for perfection – five stanzasmultiplied by five lines per stanza – areinstead shaken by inner disquiet, as the tranquil stanzas one and three arecontradicted by the guilty stanzas two (concerning sexuality) and four(concerningclassprivilege). Itwill remainfor thefifthstanza to try to resolvethisinnerquarrel.Thefirststanzaofferssheerrelish,spanningthemundaneand

theseraphic:

Ourshellsclackedontheplates.Mytonguewasafillingestuary,Mypalatehungwithstarlight:AsItastedthesaltyPleiadesOriondippedhisfootintothewater.

But the second stanza counters the first, presenting the oysters as ‘alive andviolated’objects,‘rippedandshuckedandscattered’,tornfromthe‘philanderingsigh’ofocean.Thethirdstanzaattemptstorecapturetheidyll,citingthefriends’deliberate hope of a perfect day (mocked lightly by the comic rhyme of‘memory’and‘crockery’):

WehaddriventothatcoastThroughflowersandlimestoneAndtherewewere,toastingfriendship,LayingdownaperfectmemoryInthecoolofthatchandcrockery.

Butguiltrecurs,as,inthefourthstanza,thepoetplaceshimselfinthecompanyof the colonizing Romans, bringing oysters (‘packed deep in hay and snow’)overtheAlpstoRome:

IseedamppanniersdisgorgeThefrond-lipped,brine-stungGlutofprivilege.

Twomalesins–exploitingwomenandexploitingthecolonized–havesurgedupinthepoet’sconsciousness,preventinghimfrombeingcontentinthepresentwithhisfriends.‘AndIwasangry,’hesays,atbeingsohaunted:andheresolvesto throw in his lot with the senses, with poetry, with freedom,with alivenessitself:

AndwasangrythatmytrustcouldnotreposeIntheclearlight,likepoetryorfreedomLeaninginfromsea.IatethedayDeliberately,thatitstang

Mightquickenmeallintoverb,pureverb.

[FW,II]

Thisremarkableendingharksbackto‘Peninsula’andforwardto‘Postscript’,both mentioned earlier. The belief in the senses as the indispensable base onwhich poetry (and freedom) must be founded animates all three poems; butwhere ‘Peninsula’ is about stored sense-memory, and is written from ananonymoussolitudeinHeaney’s‘material’mode;andwhere‘Postscript’isaboutimmediatesense-experience,and iswritten fromthe fragilityand transienceofthe self inHeaney’s ‘metaphysical’mode; ‘Oysters’, defiantly positivistic andsocial, isaboutsharedeatingandfriendship,andiswrittenfromtheconvincedwillofthecompanionedselfinHeaney’s‘anthropological’mode.Heaney’svow– to remain in the imperfectworldofpersonswithout letting

social and human imperfection obviate all trust and friendship – gives FieldWorkitsanti-Edenicstance.Heaneyargues,inthefour-poemtitle-sequence,thatallperfectionismaculate:thevaccinationmarkonhiswife’sthighisonesymbolofthatmarringtraceontheotherwiseperfect;andeventhevaccinationmarkhastobe added to, by thepoet’s ‘priming’ the skinof hiswife’s handwith a leafpressedtoit,andthen‘anointing’withearththepartmoistenedby‘leaf-juice’,tilltheshapeoftheleafappearslikeabirthmarkonthehand.Thisself-inventedritualendswithahymn:

myumberone,youarestained,stainedtoperfection.

[FW,55]

Concessionssuchas this to theperennialHeaney reverencearecontradictedby the poems revealing the couple’s life, both in the Glanmore cottage andearlier,asonecomposedofuneventfuldetails:puttingonarecordinGlanmore,recallingthepartythenightbeforetheyfirstwenttoAmerica,when

theyliftedtheroofforusinBelfast,Hammond,GunnandMcAlooninfullcrytillthedawnchorus,insouciantandpurposeful.

[FW,43]

ThepropernamessituatetheHeaneysinsocialexchange,wherepeoplearenotbeingreverentorsublimeoraghast,butmerely‘insouciantandpurposeful’.Or angry and reproachful, as in ‘An Afterwards’, when the poet (already

intensely reading Dante and translating the passage on Ugolino) imagineshimself in the ninth circle of hell, as hiswidow comes from the upper life toindicthimandallpoets,saying:

‘IhaveclosedmywidowedearsTothesulphurousnewsofpoetsandpoetry.Whycouldyounothave,oftener,inouryears

Unclenched,andcomedownlaughingfromyourroomAndwalkedthetwilightwithmeandyourchildren–LikethatoneeveningofelderbloomAndhay,whenthewildroseswerefading?’

And(assomemakergaffsmeintheneck)‘Youweren’ttheworstYouaspiredtoakind,Indifferent,faults-on-both-sidestact.Youleftusfirst,andthenthosebooks,behind.’

[FW,134]

ThisofcourseowessomethingtoLowell’squotationsfromhiswife’slettersinTheDolphin; but one has only to reflect on how impossible it is to find suchcolloquiality in Heaney’s first two books to see how –with the help of suchpoemsas‘WhateverYouSaySayNothing’inNorth–hehaslevelledhisvoicetotheconversational,turnedhisanthropologicalgazetotheordinarywayslifeislived, and become able, as a fieldworker, to sketch psychological and culturaltransactions.There are, naturally, aspects of Field Work that look backward or forward

(‘TheHarvest Bow’ looks back toHeaney’s father and his practice of a ruralcraft,while‘ADrinkofWater’resemblesinitsclearvisualitysomeofthelater‘squarings’).Andtherearepoemsofselfhood(notably‘TheBadgers’)thatIwillreservefortheconsiderationofHeaney’salteregosinthenextchapter.ButwhatonechieflytakesawayfromFieldWorkisHeaney’sdeliberatechoicetoremain

on the human, colloquial, everyday level – to remain there even for elegies,which normally tend towards apotheosis, and even for love-poems, whichnormallytendtowardstheelevatinglyidealized.

SecondThoughtsIhavesaidthatHeaneydecidestodoun-sublimeelegies, tostationhiselegiacsubjects at the level of daily life – in a fishing boat (Louis O’Neill), in thegrasses on Church island (Colum McCartney), in a living-room (SeanArmstrong), at the keyboard (Sean O’Riada), at the Glanmore gate (RobertLowell).(TheexceptionisFrancisLedwidge,wheretheelegy,thoughitforgoesapotheosis, ends on a glimpse of buried English soldiers, and does not returnLedwidgetoSlaneorDrogheda.)ThereareconspicuouslynogodsintheseFieldWork elegies, andonecould read themall aspartof thedistinctive (andoftensuccessful) modernist effort to rewrite, in more believable terms, the heroic,sublimeandreligiousconventionsoftheclassicalelegy.Yetwhen itbecomes time toelegizehisownfather (PatrickHeaneydied in

October1968),Heaneywillrethinkhiselegiacpractice.In‘TheStoneVerdict’(appearing inTheHaw Lantern in 1987)Heaney uses the art of the personalvignette – brought to such expertise in Field Work eight years earlier – toidentifyhisfatherasanindividual,bothinphysicaloutlineandinpsychologicalcharacter. But the poet also invokes the idea of ‘the judgment place’ and ‘theultimate court’, lifting the poem to ametaphysical level that goes beyond thehumananthropologicalplane:

WhenhestandsinthejudgmentplaceWithhisstickinhishandandthebroadhatStillonhishead,maimedbyself-doubtAndanolddisdainofsweettalkandexcuses,Itwillbenojusticeifthesentenceisblabbedout.HewillexpectmorethanwordsintheultimatecourtHereliedonthroughalifetime’sspeechlessness.

Heaneymustnowimaginewhatsortofverdicthisfather–whosesilentintegritywasmistrustfulofspeech–wouldrecognizeandassentto.Thepoetisdriventomyth(onehedrew,ashehassaidinconversation,fromW.K.C.Guthrie’sTheGreeksandTheirGods):

Hermes then is an ancient god of the countryside, named by the

Greeks from theherma, also calledhermaion, whichwas a cairn orheap of stones. These cairns served as landmarks…To explain theconnexion of Hermes with the cairns, the Greeks characteristicallyinvented an aetiological myth. When Hermes killed Argos, he wasbroughttotrialbythegods.Theyacquittedhim,andindoingsoeachthrew his voting-pebble (phethos) at his feet. Thus a heap of stonesgrewuparoundhim.6

This form of voting by solid things,Heaney thinks,would be the appropriateformofjudgment-processforhisfather:

LetitbelikethejudgmentofHermes,Godofthestoneheap,wherethestoneswereverdictsCastsolidlyathisfeet,pilinguparoundhimUntilhestoodwaistdeepinthecairnOfhisapotheosis…

Butwiththemythicalanalogyestablished,Heaneyreturns–inFieldWorkmode– to theordinary, to localpilesof stones thathis fathermightwellhavestoodamong:‘maybeagate-pillar/Oratumbledwallsteadwherehogweedearthsthesilence.…’ AFieldWork poemmight have ended there, with the son – afterbeing temporarily constrained by love to seek an elegiac apotheosis throughmyth–descendingtogroundlevel.That‘TheStoneVerdict’doesnotendinan‘earthed’closureisasignofHeaney’snewinterestinthevirtualrealm,inwhichabsence,notpresence,definesaspace.(Thisinterestistheresultofthedeathsofbothhisparents,andiscreatedbythepoet’sdisbeliefinpersonalimmortality.)The silence surrounding Patrick Heaney’s death is broken as one of themourners,remarkingonhowplacesseemtobeimbuedforuswiththespiritsofthose who have lived in them, is allowed to speak for the poet: the cairn ofstonesis

maybeagate-pillarOratumbledwallsteadwherehogweedearthsthesilenceSomebodywillbreakatlasttosay,‘HereHisspiritlingers,’andwillhavesaidtoomuch.

[HL,17]

The lastsixwords imply thatPatrickHeaneywouldreject, inhis reticence(ashis son would reject, in his disbelief) such a wistful breath of nostalgicexplicitness.Yetthesoncannotforbeartoattesttohisownexperience:thattheworld looks different when it contains an absence. It is in the last sonnet of‘Clearances’,Heaney’selegiacsequenceinmemoryofhismother(whohaddiedin 1984), that themateriality of absence ismost clearly asserted.But here, in‘TheStoneVerdict’,thewould-beanthropologicalobservermustmakeroomforboththemythographerandthemetaphysicianofabsence.Theelegyforparents,whosedeathleavesapalpablegapinreality–orinwhathasbeenunderstoodasrealitysinceinfancy–requiresmorethanlife-observationandhumanememory.Theripintheveryfabricofbeingitselfmustbeenactedinthepoem.Thevirtualrealmofwhatisonlyimaginedandcannotbeobservedwillattain,after1984,apre-eminentplaceinHeaney’spoetry.ButbetweenthatmomentandFieldWorkthereliesthetestingofvocationandbeliefrepresentedbyStationIsland,abookinwhichHeaneyconfronts,intheformofrevenantsmetatLoughDerg,alltheotherwaysoflifehemighthavechosen.It tooisananthropologicalbook,butwhere Field Work remained among the living, Station Island performs ananthropologyofthedead.

4

AlteritiesandAlterEgos:FromDeathofaNaturalisttoStationIsland

Howperilousisittochoosenottolovethelifewe’reshown?‘TheBadgers’(FW,26)

SeamusHeaney’spoetryreturnsrepeatedlytoquestionsofidentityandvocation:‘Who am I?’ ‘What life have I chosen?’ I have already mentioned some ofHeaney’s early answers to these questions, both plural (‘I am a descendant ofagriculturalworkers’;‘IamIrish’)andsingular(‘Iamahusband’;‘Iamason’).InthischapterIwanttotreatHeaney’sself-definitionthroughsinglepersonsnothimself,personswhoserveasalterities(thatis,opposites)oralteregos(peoplehemight have become).My chief text for this purposewill beHeaney’s longautobiographical poem-of-alter-egos, ‘Station Island’, but I will begin withearlier,andendwithlater,poems.ForayoungpoetlikeHeaney,bornintoalife-patternheknowshemustleave,

the first imperative psychological task is to define his own selfhood. And atempting (but finally unrewarding) path to self-definition is to delineate one’sethnic and aesthetic and ethical opposites. In Seamus Heaney’s case, thisundertakingresultedinfourrelativelyearlyportraitsof‘theotherside’–oneofNorthern Ireland’s many euphemisms for the gulf between Catholics andProtestants.Twoofthesepoems–‘Docker’inDeathofaNaturalistand‘OrangeDrums,Tyrone,1966’ inNorth (neither included in theSelectedPoems) – arehard,cartoon-likerenditions‘fromtheoutside’ofProtestants.Bothwerewrittenin the sixties, whileHeaneywas in his twenties; both show the unmistakableaggressivenessofayoungmanstrugglingforhisownplaceinsociety,butalsoacuriousflickerofsympathy,evenfortheseculturallydefinedalterities.In ‘Docker’aProtestantshipyardworker (not, in fact,adocker; thedockers

were generally Catholic, and the name was a mistake on Heaney’s part) isdefined in termsappropriated fromhiswork.He is someoneaCatholicwouldnotwanttomeetatnightonadarkstreet:

There,inthecorner,staringathisdrink.Thecapjutslikeagantry’scrossbeam,Cowlingplatedforeheadandsledgeheadjaw.Speechisclampedinthelips’vice.

ThatfistwoulddropahammeronaCatholic–Ohyes,thatkindofthingcouldstartagain.

[DN,28]

Theaestheticthatdefinesthedocker–onecomposedofjuttingmachinery,steelplating,sledgehammerandfist,clampandvice– isasfarasconceivablefromthe aesthetic of receptivity and yielding that Heaney espoused from thebeginning of his work, and expressed in 1974 in ‘Feeling intoWords’: ‘Thecrucialactionispre-verbal,tobeabletoallowthefirstalertnessorcome-hither,sensedinablurredorincompleteway,todilateandapproachasathoughtorathemeoraphrase’(P,49).The second repudiatory poem sketching ‘the other side’ (‘Orange Drums,

Tyrone,1966’)concernstheJulymarchingseasoninUlster,whichcelebratestheProtestantvictoryoverJamesIIatthebattleoftheBoynein1690.InHeaney’s1966 poem ‘It is the drums preside, like giant tumours’, with their stentorianaesthetic (N, [1975] 68).Yet in eachof these two stereotypingpoemsHeaneycannotkeep entirely aloof fromhisProtestantopposites. In the first, hedrawsthe docker into another stereotype, this time a pre-Reformation unifying one:‘He sits, strong and blunt as a Celtic cross’; and in the second, the marcherbearing the Unionist drum is felt to be oppressed and wounded by it: ‘He israised up by what he buckles under. /… The pigskin’s scourged until hisknuckles bleed.’ These moments of sympathy would not appear in the usualpropagandapoem;yettheyarenotenoughtoenableHeaneytoidentifyentirelywith the worker or the drummer. The poems, because they originate instereotype,areunsatisfying,inspiteoftheirbrilliantphrases.Afarmoreconfidentvignette,treatingtheuneasinessofevencordialrelations

between the two ‘sides’, isofferedamongHeaney’spoems-in-prose thatmakeupthesequence‘Stations’(1975).In‘TrialRuns’wefindourselvesatthecloseof the SecondWorldWar; a Protestant neighbour, nowdemobilized, drops by(butdoesnotenter)theHeaneys’housewithapresentforthepoet’sfather:

In a khaki shirt and brass-buckled belt, a demobbed neighbour

leanedagainstourjamb.Myfatherjingledsilverdeepinbothpocketsandlaughedwhenthebigclickingrosarybeadswereproduced.‘Didtheymakeapapishofyouoverthere?’‘Oh, damn the fear! I stole them for you, Paddy, off the pope’s

dresserwhenhisbackwasturned.’‘Youcouldharnessadonkeywiththem.’Their laughter sailed above my head, a hoarse clamour, two big

nervousbirdsdippingandlifting,makingtrialrunsoveraterritory.[SP,45]

In this Joycean epiphany the stereotypes are still present – the half-militaryBritish dress of the neighbour, the hands-in-pockets stance of the farmer, thewornsectarianjokingexchangedbetweenthem–butsomethingelse‘dipsandlifts’inthepassage–thefactthattheProtestantneighbourhasthoughtofPatrickHeaney when he was away at war, that he has brought back as a gift notsomethinghehimselfwouldlike,butsomethinghethoughttherecipientwouldlike–a rosary,andagenerouslybigone.The twomenwillnotbeable togofarther intoamiability than theirawkward joking;but thesonhails itnone thelessasthemarkingoutofanintermediateterritorywhereCatholicandProtestantmightfeelneighbourlygoodwillforeachotherratherthanenmity.Comparable‘territory’ofrapprochement iscanvassed in‘TheOtherSide’,a

1972three-partsequenceinwhicheachpoemclustersroundaremarkmadebytheHeaneys’white-hairedand‘patriarchal’Protestantneighbour.InthefirstparthecriticizestheHeaneys’land:‘It’spoorasLazarus,thatground.’Inthesecond,hecriticizestheirreligion:‘Yoursideofthehouse,Ibelieve,/hardlyrulebythebookatall.’Butinthethird,hecannothelphimselffrombeingdrawnintotheHeaney hearthside: at evening he courteously (and embarrassedly) lingersoutsidethehousetilltheyhavefinishedthefamilyprayers,andthenknocks:

‘Aright-lookingnight,’hemightsay,‘IwasdanderingbyandsaysI,Imightaswellcall.’

Undersuchdifferent(andconfusing)aspects,theyoungpoet-to-beperceivesthelocalincarnationof‘theotherside’.Theneighbourappearssometimes,asinpartI, a forbidding superior, with ‘his fabulous, biblical dismissal’ of the Heaneyacres; sometimes, as in part II, a figure ofmockery among theHeaneys (‘Fordayswewould rehearse / eachpatriarchaldictum’); and sometimes, as inpart

III,merelya fellow-creature feelingestranged in themurmurof theunfamiliarrosaryhehearsbeing recitedbehind theHeaneydoor. In theeveningvignette,whichweseeasonastagedividedintwobythecottagedoor,theHeaneysprayinsidethelightedroomattheleftwhiletheneighbourlingersinthedarkattheright. The adult poet is now, at the close of the poem, the silent presencemonitoringhisownresponsetothisallegoricaltableauoftheseparationbetweenone’sownsideand‘theotherside’:

ButnowIstandbehindhiminthedarkyard,inthemoanofprayers.Heputsahandinapocket

ortapsalittletunewiththeblackthornshyly,asifhewerepartytolovemakingorastranger’sweeping.

ShouldIslipaway,Iwonder,orgoupandtouchhisshoulderandtalkabouttheweather

orthepriceofgrass-seed?

[WO,36]

Thesilentproximityinthedark,thewaveringquery,theimpulsetotouch,aregesturesthattheyoungerpoetwouldnothavebeencapableofinthepoemsofthedockerorthedrummer.TorealizehowstrangeCatholicprayerswouldsoundto a Protestant (‘the rosary was dragging / mournfully on in the kitchen’); tounderstandtheembarrassmentintheneighbour’spauseinthedarkoftheyard;to regret the stringently circumscribed form that talk between the two ‘sides’must take (weather, crops) – all of this arises from Heaney’s enlarged adultcapacity for empathy.Themere complexityof theneighbour–which requiresthethreequotations,thethree-partpoem,inordertoberepresentedintheround– suggests a marked advance in representational fidelity over the morestereotypicalportraitsofdockeranddrummer.Afaceted,many-sidedportrait–of the sort Heaney would later undertake in representing his mother in‘Clearances’–isheregrantedtosomeoneoutsidethepoet’sethnicgroup.Andthe poet’s final question is one that Protestants of good will, it is intimated,

might equally be posing to themselves:Are even superficial and conventionalinteractions (such as talk about ‘the weather / or the price of grass-seed’)preferabletoafrozenandexcludingculturalsilence?Sinceconnectionholdstheclimacticposition inHeaney’spoem, it is intimated that thepoetwould rathertouch(albeitbriefly)andconverse(albeitinthemostritualizedway),than‘slipaway’withoutmakingcontact.Heaney’swish todrawProtestant alterity into the scopeofhisportraiture is

visible in twofurtherpoemsofWinteringOut.Thefirst (‘TheWoolTrade’) isconstructed on alterity, contrasting the phrase ‘thewool trade’, as it resonatesrichly in the mouth of Heaney’s English interlocutor, with Heaney’s ownresistant senseofProtestant oppression– even to bloodshed–ofCatholics: ‘Imusttalkoftweed,/Astiffclothwithfleckslikeblood.’Thissimpleoppositionallies the poem to ‘Docker’ and ‘Orange Drums’; but tucked within theseopening and closing brackets we find Heaney’s nostalgia for ‘a language ofwaterwheels,/Alostsyntaxofloomsandspindles’,bringingProtestantartisanryinthewooltradeintotheorbitofallthelostskillsofwhichthepoetistheelegist(WO, 37). The other, more accomplished poem of ‘the other side’ (‘LinenTown’) contemplates Belfast in 1786, twelve years before the hanging of theProtestant rebel Henry Joy McCracken, leader of the United Irishmen in theUlster insurrection of 1798.The narration zigzags back and forth between thepristine anduntroubledBelfast seen in a1786print of itsHighStreet and thedividedBelfastwhere, twelveyears later,‘theyhangedyoungMcCracken’.Asthepoet, in imagination,enters thesereneatmosphereof theprint,he foretellswhatwilldestroyit:

Thislowneckedbelleandtricornedfop

StillflourishundisturbedBytheswingingtongueofhisbody.

Atthecloseofthepoem,thepoetwisheswithallhisheartthatin1798thingshad taken a different turn, that ‘reasonable light’ had prevailed over politicalsavagery:

It’stwentytofourOnoneofthelastafternoonsOfreasonablelight.

SmellthetidalLagan:TakealastturnInthetangofpossibility.

[WO,38]

Thediscretionandreserveofitscloseplacethispoemwithinthetraditionofthe‘pen and ink,water tint’ of the eighteenth-century print, paying homage to its‘reasonable’ formal poise. Only the ‘swinging tongue’ of McCracken’s bodyleansinfromthefuturetoshadowtheEnlightenmenteleganceofthescene.Yetthepoemsuggeststhatjustasthis‘civicprint’waschangedinone(disastrous)direction, so perhaps a reverse ‘unfreezing’ of the present murderous scenemightbeaccomplished,and‘reasonable light’mightonceagainbe the light inwhichdailylifeislived.Afterall,the‘tangofpossibility’isalwaysavailable.As Heaney grows older he no longer seesmoral usefulness in focusing on

alterityassuch(thoughhereturns to thekindnessofaProtestantneighbour in‘AnUlsterTwilight’ inStationIsland).Rather, themurderedvictims–ascivilrightsmarches and police reactions decline into undercover terrorism on bothsides–haunthimmoreprofoundlythanpoliticaloppositionorsectarianculture.The victims become increasingly a collective set of spectres (see Heaney’s‘secondthoughts’in‘Damson’(1996),treatedattheendofthischapter).Moralenquirynolongerseemspursuablethroughinvestigationof‘theotherside’:itismoreprofitabletolooktoone’sowncharacterandsympathies,andtestthoseforadequacyandbreadth.Consequently,itispersonswhoresemblehimselfinsomeway,alteregoswhoareleadingliveshemighthaveled,orencounteringafatehemighthaveencountered,whonowbegintoserveHeaneybetterasfiguresofself-definition.FromthebeginningHeaneyhadlookedtosympatheticalteregosinorderto

explaintohimselfhisownpositionandfunction.Atfirstthesealteregos,aswehaveseen,wereusuallyagriculturallytimelessones,collectiveworkersorsingleartisans: the seed-cutters, the thatcher, the blacksmith, the digger. ButHeaneyalsosoughtout,inotherpoems,specificallyhistoricizedalteregos,suchastheCroppies who, not forsaking their militant principles, became in deathunconsciousbearersof resurrectivenourishment.Then, inWinteringOut, withincreasing sociological awareness, Heaney focuses, through the old servant‘boy’,ontheinferiorsocialstatusofCatholicsintheNorth:

Oldwork-whore,slave-blood,

whosteppedfair-hillsundereachbidder’seye

andkeptyourpatienceandyourcounsel,howyoudrawmeintoyourtrail.

[WO,17]

InthesamevolumeHeaney,feelingtheimpotenceofthepoetinmodernsociety,assumesthegarbof‘thelastmummer’ignoredbyafamilywatchingtelevision,‘theluminousscreeninthecorner’(WO,18).Heaneyappearstoaccept,inthemarginalization of thatcher and blacksmith, servant ‘boy’ and mummer, theincreasingsocialobsolescenceof thepoet’sartandservice.Thesealteregos–thoughusefultotheyoungHeaney–representadeadend,anddonotproposeanyalternativemodernroleforthepoet.Heaney’s alter ego inNorth, aswe have seen,was that of the comparative

archaeologist,diggingbackpasttheearlymodernperiodtoprehistorictimesinorder to propose an explanation for contemporary violence. From this remoteperspectiveHeaneygained(asheimpliedretrospectivelyin1980whenspeakingof John Synge) an imaginative purchase comparable to thatwhich Synge haddiscoveredinhisAranexperience:

He had found a power-point, hewas grafted to a tree that had rootstouchingtherockbottom,hehadputonthearmourofauthenticpre-Christian vision which was a salvation from the fallen world ofUnionismandNationalism,CatholicismandProtestantism,AngloandIrish, Celtic and Saxon – all those bedevilling abstractions andcircumstances.7

Syngediedbeforehehadtoinventacounter-mythtoAran;butHeaney,afterhismove to theRepublic, couldnotcontinue (asFieldWork amplydemonstrates)withNorth’smetaphorofself-as-archaeologist.Assquarelyashehaseverfacedany change, Heaney examined – in the poem ‘Exposure’ on the last page ofNorth–hisnewposition,onewhichremovedhimfromtheUlsterTroublesnotintime(ashisarchaeologicalalteregohaddone)butinspace,consigninghimtoastillunspecifiedroleasobserveroftheNorthfromtheRepublic.

In‘Exposure’HeaneyoncemorerecallswordsofEdmundSpenser’s–FromAView of the Present State of Ireland (1596) –which he himself had quotedearlierin‘BogOak’andinhisprosepiece‘Belfast’(bothpublishedin1972).InCorkSpenserhadseenstarvingwood-kernes(IrishsoldiersdriventothehillsbytheEnglisharmy)comeoutofhidinginsearchoffood:‘Outofeverycornerofthewoods andglens they camecreeping forthupon their hands, for their legscould not carry them. They looked like anatomies of death, they spake likeghosts crying out of their graves.’8 In order to define himself adequately in‘Exposure’,Heaneyborrowsfromseveralavailablemodels.FromtheIrishpasthetakestheroleofsequesteredwood-kerne;fromtheclassicalpastthefigureofthe exiled Ovid writing his Black Sea Tristia; and from the recent past the(Russian) roleof ‘innerémigré’.At thesame timeherejects twoother roles–that of internee (as a political activist) and that of informer (as spy or doubleagent).Suchasetofself-delineatingfigurestestifiesstronglytoHeaney’sneed,asheleavestheNorth,forre-inventedmetaphorsofhisownposition.Nooneoftheseanalogiesisentirelycomprehensive:andthenakedquestionsanddoubtsof‘Exposure’–intensifiedbythe‘dropsandlet-downs’ofthefeminineendingsofsomanyofitslines–cannotberesolved.Thepoetfearsthathehaselectedthewrong life-role, and inconsequencewillhavemissed (in the strongmasculinerhymeoftheend)‘thecomet’spulsingrose’:

HowdidIenduplikethis?Ioftenthinkofmyfriends’BeautifulprismaticcounsellingAndtheanvilbrainsofsomewhohateme

AsIsitweighingandweighingMyresponsibletristia.Forwhat?Fortheear?Forthepeople?Forwhatissaidbehind-backs?…Iamneitherinterneenorinformer;Aninnerémigré,grownlong-hairedAndthoughtful;awood-kerne

Escapedfromthemassacre,TakingprotectivecolouringFromboleandbark,feeling

Everywindthatblows;

Who,blowingupthesesparksFortheirmeagreheat,havemissedTheonce-in-a-lifetimeportent,Thecomet’spulsingrose.

[N,72–3]

These lines, justly ranked amongHeaney’smost powerful, gain their strengthfrom their multiple self-images, the rapid sorting of self against almost anyavailable ‘other’– the friendswhooffer somanydifferent ‘colours’ofadvice,theenemieswhohammerwithhatred,thegossipscommentingmaliciously,eventhefar-focusedKeatsiancomet.EarlierHeaneyhadlookedtomythforanalterego–tothestoryofHercules

and Antaeus. The 1966 poem ‘Antaeus’, which, though printed in North,properly belongs inDoor into the Dark, is sympathetic to Antaeus, who wasrefreshed in strength whenever he touched the earth. Only at the end of thisyouthful poemdoesAntaeus envisage adestroyerwhomight ‘plan, liftingmeofftheearth,/Myelevation,myfall’(N,12).InacausticexampleofHeaney’s‘second thoughts’, thepoem ‘Hercules andAntaeus’–written in the seventiesafter the renewed outbreak of political conflict – transforms the defeatedAntaeus into ‘a sleepinggiant’whomay (sopopular legendhas it)oncemoreawaken and triumph. ‘Pap for the dispossessed,’ comments Heaney bitterly,thinkingofthewaytheoppressedbattenonmythsofultimatevictory:

HerculesliftshisarmsinaremorselessV,histriumphunassailedbythepowershehasshaken

andliftsandbanksAntaeushighasaprofiledridge,asleepinggiant,papforthedispossessed.

[N,53]

ToadoptthedefeatedAntaeusasanalterego–asHeaneyhaddonein1966–istocondemnoneselftoalifetimeofnostalgiaforavanishedheroicpast,livingin‘a dream of loss and origins’. In 1975, conceding the victory to Hercules,HeaneyresolutelysaysgoodbyetoAntaeus:

Thecradlingdark,theriver-veins,thesecretgulliesofhisstrength,thehatchinggrounds

ofcaveandsouterrain,hehasbequeatheditalltoelegists.BalorwilldieandByrthnothandSittingBull.

[N,52–3]

By bidding farewell to the chthonic elegiac myth of Antaeus, by findingsomething to praise in the ‘spur of light’ in ‘the challenger’s intelligence’,Heaneyopenedhimself to themoreauthentic– ifmoredubiousandshifting–figuresanimating ‘Exposure’– figuresofexile,of flight,of sequestrationand,above all, of second thoughts, ‘weighing and weighing’, as he says, ‘myresponsibletristia’.InFieldWorkHeaney had essayed yet another form of alter ego – one not

human but animal. This resulted in one of his most successful poems in thatbook, the numinous presence-poem ‘The Badgers’. The poet, addressinghimself,imaginestheinvisiblebutsensedbadgerasarevenantcompoundedofthemurderedandthemurderer:

Whenthebadgerglimmeredawayintoanothergardenyoustood,half-litwithwhiskey,sensingyouhaddisturbedsomesoftreturning.Themurdereddead,youthought.Butcoulditnothavebeensomeviolentshatteredboy

nosingoutwhatgotmislaidbetweenthecradleandtheexplosion,eveningswhenwindowsstoodopenandthecompostsmokeddownthebacks?

[FW,25]

‘Whatgotmislaid’was theviolentboy’s soul, stuntedanddistorted in the lifethatledhimtobecomeaterroristblownupinhisownexplosion.Thatlifehadbegun on a farm not unlike Heaney’s own, in a cottage with a compost pile‘downthebacks’.Neitherthepoetnorhisalterego,the‘violentshatteredboy’,chose to follow the rural life to which they had been bred: and the poet’scomparisonofhimselfwiththeyoungterroristleadstothegreatquestionwhich,with its image of that animal alter ego, the badger, closes the poem on aninsistentrhyme:

Howperilousisittochoosenottolovethelifewe’reshown?Hissturdydirtybodyandinterlopinggrovel.Theintelligenceinhisbone.Theunquestionablehouseboy’sshouldersthatcouldhavebeenmyown.

[FW,26]

The liberation afforded by using an animal as an alter ego is one that recurswhen Heaney reinvents himself as a bird, the King Sweeney ofMiddle Irishlegend.It is from Heaney’s metaphors of flight and exile that this bird-self of

Sweeney–oneofHeaney’smostsuccessfulalteregos–willarise.Sweeney,thekingwhowentmadatthebattleofMoira(AD637)and,cursedbyStRonan,wastransformed into a bird, is the hero of themedieval Irish poemBuileSuibhne(‘TheMadness of Sweeney’), whichHeaney had begun to translate just aftermovingtoWick-low.HeeventuallypublishedthetranslationasSweeneyAstrayin1983(betweenFieldWorkin1979andStationIslandin1984).Thepoem–athird-personprosenarrative interspersedwithpoems inSweeney’s first-personvoice – is, in Heaney’s words of introduction, ‘a primer of lyric genres –

laments,dialogues,litanies,rhapsodies,curses’(SA,unpagedfrontmatter),andforthatreasonalone,appealedtoHeaney;butitstruestvalueforhimappearedin what the translation stimulated – a suite of twenty original poems called‘SweeneyRedivivus’,printedinStationIsland.Many of these poems are only tenuously connected to actual events in the

MiddleIrishnarrative,butthefictionaffordsHeaneyastrikinglynewandhard-edgedvoice.Iwillcometothiswinged,exiledand‘mad’symbolicalterego–andtoitsterseandironicpoems–attheendofthischapter,butwilllookfirstatthemanyrealistalteregosvisible inHeaney’s longautobiographicalnarrative,‘Station Island’, inwhichhe revisits,no longerasabeliever, a famous siteofpilgrimagesincetheMiddleAges,theislandinLoughDerginDonegaltowhichhe had come as a pilgrim in his youth (andwhere hundreds of people yearlyarrivetofast,prayandundertakepenitentialexercises).IntheDantesquefictionof thepoem theghostsofHeaney’spastcomecrowding thickand fastaroundhim in twelveepisodes,whichHeaneycomposes in formsvarying fromblankversetohisclosingterzarimainhomagetoDante.Therearemanyways toapproach ‘Station Island’–apoemfullofpersons,

incidents and reflections. It has not been read as a collectionof lives thepoetmighthaveled,butIhavealwaysseenitsdramatispersonaeasaseriesofalteregos–menwhoselivesthepoet,underothercircumstances,mighthavefoundhimselfliving.WithinHeaney’sfamilyculturethreechoicesoflifemighthaveseemed plausible ones for the eldest son: to inherit andmaintain the farm; tobecomeapriest; or tobecomea schoolmaster.Heaneybeginsby rejecting thefirst(see‘Digging’)and(ifweassumetheusualCatholicsuggestionstotalentedstudents)thesecond.Hedecidesatfirsttotrainasateacher.Yettheliveschosenby – or forced on – other men and writers of (especially Northern) Irelandremainasparallelexistencesinthepoet’sconsciousness.LiketheglossyyoungpriestofIVorthemonkofXI,Heaneycouldhavefoundhimselfinreligiouslife– at themissions or inEurope.LikeSimonSweeney (the tinker of childhoodmemorywhoeruptsintosectionI),thepoetisa‘Sabbath-breaker’,butheturnsaway from Catholic observance out of intellectual conviction rather thanoutlawry.Though, likethenineteenth-centurywriterWilliamCarletonofII,heleavesCatholicism,unlikeCarletonhedoesnotbecomeaProtestant.Like thechemistWilliamStrathearn(rememberedbythepoetasamemberofhisfootballteam), killed by gunmen pretending to seek medicine for a sick child (VII),Heaney could have been caught in a sectarian ambush; like his archaeologistfriendwhodiedat thirty-twoofheartdisease(VIII),hemight,givenbadluck,

have died early; like his cousinColumMcCartney (VIII),Heaney could havebeen thevictimof an arbitrary sectariankilling.Like thehit-man andhunger-strikerofIX(basedonFrancisHughesofBellaghy,whosefamilyhadknowntheHeaneys),thepoetcouldhave–hadhebeenbroughtupdifferently–joinedthemany young men of his neighbourhood who became members of the IRA.Finally,hebothdoesanddoesnotchoose‘exile’:likeJoyce(XII),heleaveshisbirthplace,butunlikeJoyce,heremainsinIreland.I should add that although female presences inHeaney’s life appear in two

sections of ‘Station Island’ (his Aunt Agnes who died young in III, and theyoung girl with whom the poet ‘played houses’ in VI), these figures do notspeak, do not become interlocutors of the poet as do the male figures in thepoem.Thefemalepresenceswere–accordingtothepoetinconversation–lateradditions to what first presented itself as an all-male poem. In the Ireland ofHeaney’syouthayoungman’seyesweretrained,inthesearchforhisfuture,onmalemodels; and in spite of the two interpolations of the feminine (and theirrespectivesymbolizingofthedolorousandtheerotic),thepoembothimplicitlyandexplicitlyasks,againandagain, thequestionofmalevocation.‘Ifyoudidnotfollowmypath’(theyoungpriestmightask),‘whynot?’‘Ifyouarelikeme’(awritersuchasJoycemightsay),‘whyareyoustill inIreland?’‘Ifyouwritepoetry’(avictimmightcry),‘whatgoodisittome?’In the comprehensive range of characterization and narration in ‘Station

Island’ Heaney’s dramatic powers (reflecting the moral choices offered him)displayasteadystrength.Carleton’sbiteandangerandself-contempt–

hard-mouthedRibbonmenandOrangebigotsmademeintotheoldfork-tonguedturncoatwhomuckedthebyreoftheirpolitics–

[SI,65]

aremade to seemnormal in the aura of corpses and bigotry.Andwhile theremightseemtobebalmintheobsequioussocialapprovalofferedanewpriest–‘“Father” pronouncedwith a fawning relish, / the sunlit tears of parents beingblessed’(SI,69)–thepoem,inthemutuallycriticalcolloquybetweenpriestandpoet,harrowinglyturnstothepriest’sownhorroratlifeintheforeignmissions:

‘Therainforest,’hesaid,‘you’veneverseenthelikeofit.Ilasted

onlyacoupleofyears.Bare-breastedwomenandrat-ribbedmen.Everythingwasted.Irottedlikeapear.Isweatedmasses…’

[SI,69]

Ifthepriestisrepelledbyhispostinginthetropics,thepoetisrepelledbytheearlierparishwelcometotheseminarian:

aclericalstudenthomeforthesummerdoomedtothedecentthing.Visitingneighbours.Drinkingteaandpraisinghome-madebread.

Somethinginthemwouldberatifiedwhentheysawyouatthedoorinyourblacksuit,arrivinglikesomesortofholymascot.

[SI,70]

The young priest, in return, making the implicit comparison between thevocationsofpriestandpoet(bothofthemseekingsomeviablesanctionforlife),retortsaccusingly:

‘Andyou,’hefaltered,‘whatareyoudoingherebutthesamething?Whatpossessedyou?Iatleastwasyoungandunaware

thatwhatIthoughtwaschosenwasconvention.Butallthisyouwereclearofyouwalkedintooveragain.Andthegodhas,astheysay,withdrawn.’

[SI,70]

After repeated explicit and implicit testings of the poet’s own choices andfortunescomparedwiththatofpredecessors,mentors,friendsandacquaintances,thequestionofthepurposeofHeaney’sluck–stilltobealive,stilltobeabletoexercisethevocationofpoetry–isposedinitsmosthostileformbythepoet’sambushedcousin,whoreproveshimforthewaythepoetreactedtohismurder,bothinlifeandintheelegiaccompunctionof‘TheStrandatLoughBeg’(Field

Work):

‘Youweretherewithpoetswhenyougotthewordandstayedtherewiththem,whileyourownfleshandbloodwascartedtoBellaghyfromtheFews.Theyshowedmoreagitationatthenewsthanyoudid….

Youconfusedevasionandartistictact.TheProtestantwhoshotmethroughtheheadIaccusedirectly,butindirectly,you…forthewayyouwhitewasheduglinessanddrewthelovelyblindsofthePurgatorioandsaccharinedmydeathwithmorningdew.’

[SI,82–3]

This – though placed in themouth of his cousin – is themost vindictive andguilty of Heaney’s ‘second thoughts’ about his own writing, as it indicts thegenre of elegy itself – with its historical commitment to consolation andapotheosis – if it ‘whitewashes’ the brute fact ofmurder and ‘saccharines’ thetotalannihilationofdeath.AllbutoneofthealteregosmetbythepoetinhisDantesqueencountersare

from Northern Ireland. The single exception to the rule is James Joyce –summoned up in XII because neither of the Northern writers – Carleton andKavanagh–cangiveHeaneytheadvicehenowneedstohear,Joyceanadviceof‘silence, exile, and cunning’. In IX the poet had burst out in an unnaturallyexplicit and explosive passage of disgust, repudiating his identity and origins,anddespairingevenofhispowertorevolt:

‘IhatehowquickIwastoknowmyplace.IhatewhereIwasborn,hateeverythingThatmademebiddableandunforthcoming.’…Asifthecairnstonecoulddefythecairn.Asiftheeddycouldreformthepool.

[SI,85–6]

Onemight have expected that Heaney, as a poet, would here have looked toYeats as an example to hearten him. But the cultural problems faced by theAnglo-IrishYeatsdonotcloselyresemblethoseencounteredbyHeaney,andthepoetturnsinsteadtothewriterwhoseexperiencemorenearlyapproximatedhisown.Inthelastvocationalcolloquyof‘StationIsland’Joyce,themostpotentofthesealteregos,mordantlysetsdiepoet free fromhisnationalistanxietiesandhisfamilialinhibitions:

TheEnglishlanguagebelongstous.Youarerakingatdeadfires,

awasteoftimeforsomebodyyourage.Thatsubjectpeoplestuffisacod’sgame,infantile,likeyourpeasantpilgrimage.

Youlosemoreofyourselfthanyouredeemdoingthedecentthing.Keepatatangent.Whentheymakethecirclewide,it’stimetoswimoutonyourownandfilltheelementwithsignaturesonyourownfrequency,echosoundings,searches,probes,allurements,

elver-gleamsinthedarkofthewholesea.’

[SI,93–4]

Though Joyce speaks in a language (‘echo soundings… allurements, / elver-gleams’)moreHeaney’sthanhisown,Joyce’srelationtohisIrishsubjectmatter–oneof intimacypairedwithdetachment,ofaffectionmodulatedbyscorn,ofabsorbedtraditionstimulatingradicalinvention–offersmoretoHeaneythantheexampleofanyotherIrishalterego.‘StationIsland’,initstestingofthepoet’svocationagainstthatofotheractual

lived lives, brought Heaney firmly into the domain of the demotic. Thespellboundtranceofisolatedchild-contemplation,theoraculardarkofthesilentIron Age bodies, and the domestic sequestration of Glanmore have all beenbanished by the crowding and voluble personages of Heaney’s past. It is as

though, by means of the voices of victims and writers in ‘Station Island’,Heaney’s vocation has become clarified. He cannot neglect these presentvisitants who haunt his mind: he cannot retire into fantasies of being amarginalized servant or mummer. He must actively regard the present crisis,mustletthecontemporaryvictims‘speakforthemselves’inordinarycolloquialEnglish through his (often abashed)mediation, yet must retain an intellectualandmoralindependence–symbolizedbytheworkofJoyce–whichresiststhedeflectionanddeformationofartbyeitherpoliticsorpity.Theobligation tobe faithful tohistoricalcircumstance (of real lives,of real

deaths)freightsthepoemwithdetail,forbidsit(exceptinthetranslationofJohnof theCross found inXI) the ‘short swallow-flightsof song’ (Tennyson)mostcongenialtothelyric.ItmusthavecomeasarealrelieftoHeaney,afterthelongsustainedworkof‘StationIsland’,tocomposethebrief,alertandbarbedpoemsof ‘Sweeney Redivivus’ – to take up a new alter ego, the vigilant and tartSweeney,whose bird’s-eye view inspires lyric poems as satiric and acerbic asanyHeaneyhaseverwritten,whilealsoprovidingnewformsoflyricsolace.From ‘Sweeney Redivivus’ I have already quoted ‘The First Kingdom’,

Heaney’ssecondlookathisfamilyhistory,and‘IntheBeech’,hissecondlookathistree-house,aswellasthepoemthatclosesthesequence–theeloquent‘OntheRoad’,whichfindsitsrestincontemplatingthedeer-carvinginthecaveofLascaux.IntheSweeneypoemsweareallowedtoseeHeaneycomingawaketoa second life in the IrishRepublic,determined togobackagain to re-scanhispast.InaYeatsianimageheunwindsthewindingpathofthatballoftwine,hisconsciousness,followingitsclueuntilheisbackinthecottageofhisboyhood,listeningtohisparents’‘sex-prunedandunfurtherable/moss-talk’–talkwhichhe will have to unlearn so as to devise his own proper and poetic language.Heaney (as Sweeney)makes his first flight away from those in his homelandwho come to stun him with stones, who pronounce him ‘a feeder offbattlefields’;herecallsinanotherpoemhowtheawakeningtosex(‘thebarkofthevixeninheat’)‘broketheiceofdemure/andexamplarystars’,andliberatedhim imaginatively from his ‘old clandestine / pre-Copernican night’. AsChristianity begins to thrive in archaic Ireland, paganism (in the form ofSweeney)ismarginalized,untilRonanfinally,bycursingSweeney,changeshimintoabird.ButSweeneyfindsinthemetamorphosisanunexpectedprofit:

Historythatplanteditsstandardsonhisgablesandspires

oustedmetothemarchesofskulkingandwhingeing.OrdidIdesert?Givehimhisdue,intheend

heopenedmypathtoakingdomofsuchscopeandneuterallegiancemyemptinessreignsatitswhim.

[SI,107–8]

Whatis‘neuter’,however,atfirstfeels‘empty’toSweeneytheformerking,used as he is to the heavy tethers of place and role. The investigation of‘emptiness’and‘neutrality’willbecomeofincreasingimportancetoHeaneyinfuturebooks:fornow,it isenoughtonoticethenewlanguage–scope,neuter,emptiness,whim–provokedbyhismovesouth.FromhiseyrieSweeney, inafine flight of medievalism, rails in ‘The Scribes’ against the narcissism andbackbitingofthewritersofhiskingdom:

Ineverwarmedtothem.Iftheywereexcellenttheywerepetulantandjaggyasthehollytreetheyrendereddownforink.AndifIneverbelongedamongthem,Theycouldneverdenymemyplace.

Undertherumpsofletteringtheyherdedmyopicangers.Resentmentseededintheuncurlingfernheadsoftheircapitals.

ItisunusualforHeaneytoletloosesuchanger,evenwhenjustified;hedoesitheremoreindefenceofliteraturethanindefenceofhimself.Hecloseswiththisdéfi to the scribes justifiably uttered by Sweeney (the composer of all thebeautifullyricsofBuileSuibhne):‘Letthemrememberthisnotinconsiderable/contributiontotheirjealousart’(SI,III).Theattractionof‘TheScribes’–besidesitsfirmness,itssatireanditsirony–

lies in its confident reproof of the scribes in their own linguistic and pictorial

languages.Onecanhear the scrapeofAnglo-Saxon in ‘jaggy’ and ‘holly’ and‘rumps’ and ‘herded’ and ‘angers’; one can see the hint of Irish pictorialconvention in ‘theuncurling / fernheads’;onesenses theLatinityof ‘lettering’and‘resentment’and‘capitals’.Sweeney’sclosingboastisdeliberatelymadeinscribalorotundity:theyarenottoignore‘thisnotinconsiderable/contributiontotheir jealous art’. Con-siderable (cum plus sidus, ‘constellation’) implies theassemblage of elements into a constellated whole, as in Buile Suibhne; con-tribution (cum plus tribuere, ‘to grant’, from tribus, ‘tribe’) asserts, bysummoning Sweeney’s blood-linkwith the scribes, that they cannot repudiatehimorhisadditiontotheirtriballiterature;jealous(zelosus,fromzelos, ‘zeal’)hints that what was once zeal in them has turned into its bad etymologicaldescendant, jealousy. Heaney’s etymological tuning-fork always rings true insuchmoments.Justas,amongtheshorterpoemsofStationIsland,Heaney’schosenexample

is the Chekhov who is able both to savour cognac and to ‘shadow a convictguide through Sakhalin’ (SI, 18–19), so the mentor-figure of ‘SweeneyRedivivus’ is Cézanne (‘An Artist’), whose spare art – with its modernistresistance to both the luxurious chiaroscuro of Renaissance painting and theopulenttrompe-l’oeilofconventionalstill-life–stands,inHeaney’seyes,asanideal. Through Cézanne, Heaneywarns himself away not only from aestheticlapsesintosentimentorexcessivedecorativenessbutalsofromthemorallapseofattentiontotheopinionofothers.Cézannelicensesthejustifiedangeroftheartistagainstwhateverwouldcorruptart:

Ilovethethoughtofhisanger.Hisobstinacyagainsttherock,hiscoercionofthesubstancefromgreenapples…

thevulgarityofexpectingevergratitudeoradmiration,whichwouldmeanastealingfromhim.

[SI,116]

Inspiteofthebracingqualityofthenewideals–scope,neutrality,emptiness,whim, anger, obstinacy, coercion, fortitude – which Heaney by means of‘SweeneyRedivivus’callstohisownattention,theoldidealsofhisupbringinghoverwithanobstinacyoftheirown,andrefusetobejettisonedentirely.Inthe

most clipped, dry and impeccable of all the Sweeney poems, the poetcontemplatesacollectionofpictureshecannotbeartothrowaway,callingthemby the exalted name of ‘The Old Icons’. There are three of them. One is anetching of a patriot in jail, condemned to be executed, his ‘sentenced face’illuminated;one is anoleographofaclandestineoutdoormass inpenal times,the congregation soon to be undone by the arrival ofBritish soldiers; and thethirdisadrawingofa1798revolutionarycommitteesoontobebetrayedbyoneofitsmembers,‘neat-cuffs,thirdfromleft,atrear’.Itistheinformerwhomthepoetfinds‘morecompellingthantherestofthem’:heistheonewhochose‘notto love the life [hewas] shown’ (‘TheBadgers’),bringinghimself to rackandothers to ruin. Though treachery, like murder, will out, its results, diffusedthroughhistory,remainforeverincalculable,‘inestimable’:

TheOldIcons

Why,whenitwasallover,didIholdontothem?

Apatriotwithfoldedarmsinashaftoflight:thebarredcellwindowandhissentencedfacearetheonlybrightspotsinthelittleetching.

Anoleographofsnowyhills,theoutlawedpriest’sredvestments,withtheredcoatstoilingcloserandthelookoutcominglikeafoxacrossthegaps.

Andtheoldcommitteeofthesedition-mongers,sowellturnedoutintheirclaspedbroguesandwaistcoats,thelegendoftheirnamesaninformer’slist

preparedbyneat-cuffs,thirdfromleft,atrear,morecompellingthantherestofthem,pivotinganactionthatwashisrack

andothers’ruin,theveryrhythmofhisnamearegisterofdear-boughttreacheriesgrowntransparentnow,andinestimable.

[SI,117]

Themeans of ‘TheOld Icons’ are concision, variation and understatement.Eachofthepowerful‘oldicons’isdescribedinafewlines;andeachisaclearpicture; yet the namelessness of the figures depicted – emphasized by thecontrastwiththe‘names’onthe‘informer’slist’–suggeststhatintheNorthernIrishscenetherehasalwaysbeenapatriot;alwaysahuddledCatholicminority;alwaysatraitor.Thepoetcannotthrowtheoldiconsawaybecausetheyarenotoutdated:everythinghasalteredbutnothinghaschanged.Heaneyhereforsakesgroupanonymitiesnot forarchetypes,as in thecaseof thebogpeople,but foravatars; yesterday Robert Emmet, today Bobby Sands; yesterday the huddledcrowd at mass, today the huddled crowd at the civil rights march; yesterday‘neat-cuffs’ (according to Heaney, one Leonard McNally of the UnitedIrishmen),today–who?Heaney’s visual focus has never been sharper. In the second stanza ‘light’,

‘window’and‘bright’putashaftofilluminationintoeachline,whileinthethirdstanza, the two antithetical spots of red – the priest’s red vestments and theredcoats – point up the ideological contrast as the menacing present tense ofvisualartkeeps the soldiers toilingcloserand the lookoutperpetuallycoming.Thefourthstanzabegins in thesamevisualcrispness,withthegenericclaspedbroguesandwaistcoats, andwith ‘neat-cuffs’himselfgeometrically situated inthegridofthegroup.Butasecondmovementinthepoem–onethatconcernsitselfwiththeinvisible–nowbeginstoreplacethevisualone.Thisnewmotifisatfirstunobtrusivelyinsertedbetweenthewaistcoatsand‘neat-cuffs,thirdfromleft,at rear’.The first invisibleobjectweareprivy to is thesecret ‘informer’slist’. The first invisible action we become aware of is neat-cuffs’s already-accomplished ‘prepar[ing]’ of that list, his ‘dear-bought treacheries’. The nextinvisibleeventhiddenintheiconisthefuture‘ruin’oftheothermembersofthecommittee.And the next is the verdict of history, as the traitor’s list becomes‘legend’, as ‘the very rhythm of his name’ becomes synonymous with theregisterofbetrayals.All these ‘invisibles’ are of course now ‘transparent’. That is the usual

outcome of the historical record. But how to judge consequences? The verydiffusenessofcausepassing intoeffect– thespreading rippleofcatastrophe–vexesjudgement.Thepoemendswiththetropeofineffability,thegesturewhichsays, ‘Words here fail.’ And on the pivoting double ‘now’ – backward to‘transparent’andforwardto‘inestimable’–thepoembalances.

This passage from the visibilia of history to its invisibilia – from facts toconsequences–isnowwhatismostimportanttoHeaney.Eachoftheoldiconsresonates with cultural consequence (though the moral is drawn only withrespect to the third). Representation shades into aura, as fact subservesmeditation.Heaney’spoetryhasneverbeenmoreconfidentthaninthisinstance,in which it hovers between the visual iconic (pictured but nameless), thehistorical(namedandregistered,butnoticonic)andthe‘auratic’–thefelt,thelegendary,theinestimable.Alloftheseareimportanttothepoet;andhispoetryismost fulfilledwhen, as here, they find away to coexist with presence andpower.ThealteregoofSweeneygaveHeaney thescopeandfreedomtowritesucheloquentandconvincingpoems.And,intheirabstractionfromthepersonaltestimonies of ‘Station Island’, they form a bridge to Heaney’s allegoricalventuresinTheHawLantern.

SecondThoughtsThe continual carnage in Northern Ireland (visible in all the victims andterrorists of Station Island), together with his own removal to the Republic,compelled Heaney to gather representative alter egos – mythical, historical,contemporary,evenanimal–againstwhomandthroughwhomtodefinehisownbeing and function.As I said above, ‘sides’ become less important toHeaneythanthesheermountingbody-countofhismurderedfellowseverywhereintheworld,andthedefinitiveimageofthatcrowdofvictimsfinallyappearsinmass-forminthepoem‘Damson’,publishedinTheSpiritLevel(1996).‘Damson’beginsasthechild-Heaneyfirstseesableedingwound:hehasbeen

watching,withadmiration,abricklayerconstructingawall,withhissharp-edgedtrowel dipping and gleaming. Next to the bricklayer is his lunchbag, and thechildnoticesa‘damsonstain/Thatseepedthroughhispackedlunch’fromthebruised fruit inside. Suddenly, the man makes a false move and scrapes hisknuckles;heholdshisrighthand,exudingblood,aloft,and thewatchingchildtakesfromthebloodashockthepoet’smemorynowresuscitates:the

Woundthat[he]sawInglutinouscolourfiftyyearsago…Isweepingwiththeheld-at-arm’slengthdeadFromeverywhereandnowhere,hereandnow.

[SL,15]

At thismemory, the throngingdead, always just at the edgeof consciousness,emerge from their invisibility, summoned by the libation of the bricklayer’sblood. They threaten to overwhelm the poet and his alter ego, the wounded‘trowel-wielder’:

GhostswiththeirtonguesoutforalickofbloodArecrowdinguptheladder,allunhealed,Andsomeofthemstillriggedinbloodygear.

The insurgent bloody ghosts threaten to usurp the poet’s imagination to theexclusionofeverythingelse.Heaney’sunderstandablefirstreaction,rememberingOdysseus(whowiththe

libation of blood from the throat of a sacrificed lamb called shades from thedead), is toask thebricklayer tohelphim todrive theghostsback toHades–that is, back to the conjectured blood-smeared place of theirmurder, the luridregionofthepoet’simaginationwhencetheycame:

DrivethembacktothedoorsteportheroadWheretheylayintheirownbloodonce,inthehotNauseaandlastgaspofdearlife.Trowel-wielder,woundie,drivethemoffLikeOdysseusinHadeslashingoutWithhisswordthatdugthetrenchandcutthethroatOfthesacrificiallamb.

Thisisanyone’sinitialresponsetohorrorsrisingupinnightmareorrecollection:a forcible repression.ButHeaney’s second thought–whichends thepoembyrecalling theworkmanbeforehebecameemblematicalofblood,whenhewasmerelyamanwieldinghistrowelandwaitingtoeatthedamsonshehadbroughtfromhome–enablesthepoettorepatriatetheghostsnottotheinstantoftheirmurder(whichis,afterall,onlytheclosinginstantoftheirhistory)butrathertothebetter,earlierandmorehumandaysoftheirlifeathome.DonotfollowtheexampleofOdysseusinyourdealingswiththeghosts,saysthepoet(tohimselfasmuchastothebricklayer):

Butnotlikehim–Builder,notsacker,yourshieldthemortarboard–Drivethembacktothewine-darktasteofhome,

Thesmellofdamsonssimmeringinapot,Jamladledthickandstreamingdownthesunlight.

[SL,16]

In lieuofexorcism,orofmaintaining theghosts in their statusasvictims, thepoet chooses to reinstall the ghosts into ordinariness – as his brothers, nothaunters. The sunlit kitchen scene of ‘Damson’ recalls Heaney’s luminousmemories in ‘Sunlight’ofhisAuntMaryHeaneybakingbread in thepeacefulkitchen atMossbawn.Heaneyhad set ‘Sunlight’ and ‘TheSeedCutters’ (withwhichIbegan thisbook)as thededicatorypoems toNorth inorder tocountertheblood-violencethere:thetwodedicatorypoemsshowpeoplelivingordinarylivesinpeacefulandcoherentways.‘TheSeedCutters’wasagroupportrait;but‘Sunlight’–anincomparablepoemoftheidyllicwithinthestraitened–conveysachild’ssilenthappinessinspiredbyadultlove:

Therewasasunlitabsence.Thehelmetedpumpintheyardheateditsiron,waterhoneyed

intheslungbucketandthesunstoodlikeagriddlecoolingagainstthewall

ofeachlongafternoon.So,herhandsscuffledoverthebakeboard,diereddeningstove

sentitsplaqueofheatagainstherwhereshestoodinaflouryapronbythewindow.

Nowsheduststheboardwithagoose’swing,

nowsits,broad-lappedwithwhitenednails

andmeaslingshins:hereisaspaceagain,thesconerisingtothetickoftwoclocks.

Andhereislovelikeatinsmith’sscoopsunkpastitsgleaminthemeal-bin.

[N,8–9]

This exquisite genre-piece – in which the Vermeer-like glimpses of theanonymouswomanwhostandsoverherbakeboardatthewindoworsitswaitingfortheoventoheatareframedinfrontby‘asunlitabsence’andinbackby‘aspace again’while the scone rises in the empty kitchen – explains, in the laststanza,itsdeeplypeacefulbalancebythealmostinvisiblegleamoflovewhichisthesourceofthehoneyedsunlitwarmthofthepoem.Itiswithapangthatonere-reads‘Sunlight’afterthemuchlater‘Damson’,fornow,intotheDutchlightof idyll, there has come the streaming red of adult blood. The lurid red istransformed,itistrue,intothe‘wine-darktasteofhome’bythealchemyofthedamsonjam-making:evenredcanbere-sanctifiedintotheharmlessactivityofhumanbeings absorbed in the dailiness of home.But that the red should everhave had to enter the sunlit sanctuary of the childhood kitchen, even if to bealchemized,isthescartheimaginationcannothelpbutbear.AndalthoughHeaney’ssurrogate‘trowel-wielder,woundie’harksbacktothe

earlierartisanalalteregosof thepoet’schildhood, theartisanalsceneitselfhasnowbecome(intheopeninglinesof‘Damson’)‘Gulesandcementdust.Amattetackyblood/Onthebricklayer’sknuckles’.Thenewheraldrymustcontainnotonlythethatcher‘couchant’onhiscompletedroofbutalsothebricklayerdonein Keatsian ‘gules’ – another stylization of blood. It is by such means thatHeaney’s imaginationre-thinksitself.Hissuccessivelayering–in thiscase,ofexperience(jam-making)onearlierexperience(breadmaking);ofart(‘Damson’)onexperience(bricklaying);andofart (‘Damson’)onart (‘Sunlight’)–makeseach of his poems resonate with others that both precede and follow it. In

adjuringhisbricklayeralteregoagainstconfiningboththevictimsandhimselfin the atmosphere of blood and victimage,Heaney iswarning himself againstbeingseducedintothepornographyofviolence(aseductiontoooftenvisibleincontemporary‘poetryofwitness’,especiallythatwrittenbybystanderswhoarenotthemselvessubjecttotheviolenceofwhichtheywrite).

5

Allegories:TheHawLantern

aspaceUtterlyempty,utterlyasource.‘Clearances’,8(HL,32)

Between the composition of Station Island (1984) and the appearance of TheHawLantern in1987SeamusHeaney’sparents,both in theirseventies,died–Margaret Kathleen (McCann) Heaney in 1984 and Patrick Heaney in 1986.ThesedeathscausedatearinthefabricofHeaney’sverse,reflectingthewayinwhichan inalterableemptinesshadreplaced thereality thathadbeenhissincebirth.Thesonnet-sequence‘Clearances’,writteninmemoryofhismother,endswithanobituary:heretheworldisdefinednotbythepresencesmovingwithinit, butby the etchedabsencesof the realia thatused tobe there.Toopen thisobituarypoemHeaneyborrowslinesfrom‘StationIsland’III,whereherecalledtheearlydeathofhisAuntAgnes.Her‘seasidetrinket,…atoygrotto’,wrappedin tissue paper after her death and laid aside in the ‘big oak sideboard’, wassometimes‘foragedafter’bythepoetasafearfulchild.Whereasthelittlegrottousedtocallup,tothechild,thememoryofitsvanishedowner,totheadultandagnosticpoetof‘StationIsland’itsummonsthedesolateandobsceneimageofthedecayedcorpseofthefamilydog,discoveredinaclearing:

Ithoughtofwalkingroundandroundaspaceutterlyempty,utterlyasource,liketheideaofsound;

likeanabsencestationedintheswamp-fedairabovearingofwalked-downgrassandrusheswhereweoncefoundthebadcarcassandscragsofhairofourdogthathaddisappearedweeksbefore.

[SI,68]

In view of the poet’s disbelief in a Christian afterlife, in view of diedissolutionofthebody,whatcanthepoetsayinresponsetohismother’sdeath?Heaney borrows, from this death-passage in ‘Station Island’, two lines whichnow,openinghismother’sobituary,leadinadifferentdirection:nottowardsthemortalcorpsebuttowardstheson’smemoryinwhichthemotherlivesonas‘abright nowhere’, ‘a soul ramifying’ like a tree constantly putting forth newbranches.Heaney finds the analogyhehasbeen seeking:whenhewasborn achestnuttreewasplantedinthehedgebeforethehouse;buthistwin,theflower-decked tree,has longsincebeencutdown.None the less, thepoetcan‘see’ itstill:

IthoughtofwalkingroundandroundaspaceUtterlyempty,utterlyasourceWherethedeckedchestnuttreehadlostitsplaceInourfronthedgeabovethewallflowers.Thewhitechipsjumpedandjumpedandskitedhigh.Iheardthehatchet’sdifferentiatedAccuratecut,thecrack,thesighAndcollapseofwhatluxuriatedThroughtheshockedtipsandwreckageofitall.Deepplantedandlonggone,mycoevalChestnutfromajamjarinahole,Itsheftandhushbecomeabrightnowhere,AsoulramifyingandforeverSilent,beyondsilencelistenedfor.

[HL,32]

Theparadoxofa livingabsenceanimates thesonnetThesensual tactilityof‘heftandhush’,theirradiatingforce(afterthosesoftnesses)ofthevividvowelin‘bright’,theinfiniteparticipialextensionof‘ramifying’,andtheintenseinteriorupward yearning in ‘beyond silence listened for’ are all ‘alive’. But thelivingnessofallthosemomentshastobesetagainstthesadnessandconcessioninthefallofthefemininerhymesclosingthelastthreelines,andtheemptinessof‘nowhere…forever…silent…silence’.Thesedifficultco-existencessumuptheparadoxthatthepoemexiststoexemplify.Thewholepoemoperatesonthisgivingandtakingaway:assoonasweseethechestnuttreeflower-decked,ithas ‘lost its place’, yet against the burial baldness of ‘hole’we find the ‘utter

source’oftheramifying‘soul’.Itisnottoomuchtosay,infact,thatTheHawLanternisHeaney’sfirstbook

ofthevirtual,arealmthatthepoetwillcontinuetoexploreinSeeingThingsandinTheSpiritLevel.Thegreatestre-orientationthatcanbedemandedofawritersuchasHeaney,soimmediatelyresponsivetothetactileandthepalpable,istodirect his view towards the invisible, the virtual, to admit into representationthose ‘clearances’ representing things that have been felled. In the seventhsonnetof‘Clearances’,theoneinwhichthepoet’smotherdies,herhusbandandchildren, standingby thebed,becomeacquaintedwith thedeathof thatwhichbound them together. This is the passage – one of ultimate bareness ofexpressioncorrespondingtotheemptiedspace–thatgivestheelegiacsequenceitstide,‘Clearances’(awordwithpowerfulhistoricreverberationinIreland):

Thenshewasdead,ThesearchingforapulsebeatwasabandonedAndweallknewonethingbybeingthere.ThespacewestoodaroundhadbeenemptiedIntoustokeep,itpenetratedClearancesthatsuddenlystoodopen.Highcrieswerefelledandapurechangehappened.

[HL,31]

FromthebeginningHeaney’simaginationhadofcoursedealtintheinvisible,but originally that crystalline realm of consciousness had been rooted in asensualsecurityalmostequaltothatoftherealthingsthatunderpinnedit.Intheaftermathofchurningandbuttermaking,forinstance,thematerialodourinthehouse is matched interiorly by immaterial after-images, after-sounds, after-smells,after-touches,imagingthemselvesinthemind:

Thehousewouldstinklongafterchurningday…Andinthehousewemovedwithgravidease,ourbrainsturnedcrystalsfullofcleandealchurns,theplashandgurgleofthesour-breathedmilk,thepatandslapofsmallspadesonwetlumps.

[DN,10]

BeforeTheHaw Lantern, a central aim of Heaney’s art had been to turn thematerialworldinthisfashionintoacrystallineone,evenasthecrystallineworldbecameforhimincreasinglyburdenedbybiographies,bodiesandblood.But the deaths of his parents – natural deaths, not deaths of violence –

introduceanewstrain intoHeaney’sart.Anabsence,onemight say,becomesrealer than presence. Heaney reverses himself: his aim is now to turn thecrystalline,orvirtual, absent realm intoamaterialone– tomake it visible bymetaphors so ordinary as to be indubitable. The outline of the chestnut treebeforeitwasfelledisallthemoreineradicableforbeinginvisible;andoncethemidpoint in life has passed, one is as likely, in the surrounding landscape, to‘see’thevanishedastheverifiable.TheHawLantern’sinsistenceontheequalityofpresencebetweenthematerial

andtheimmaterialisbroughttogeometricaldemonstrationinthefamouspoem‘From theFrontier ofWriting’. Its four opening tercets – inwhich thepoet isstopped by a police road-block – are exactly matched by four appended andalmost identical tercets, in which the poet is self-halted, while writing, at thefrontier of conscience. We understand our invisible inner motions, Heaneyimplies, only by analogy with our experience in the material world. Like theobituary for Heaney’smother, ‘From the Frontier ofWriting’ opens around a‘space’ utterly empty and stilled, but this time the space is one of minatory‘nilness’.ItsmaterialhellishnessanditsspiritualpurgationareemphasizedbyitsrenditioninaversionofDantesqueterzarima:

FromtheFrontierofWriting

Thetightnessandthenilnessroundthatspacewhenthecarstopsintheroad,thetroopsinspectitsmakeandnumber,and,asonebendshisface

towardsyourwindow,youcatchsightofmoreonahillbeyond,eyeingwithintentdowncradledgunsthatholdyouundercover

andeverythingispureinterrogationuntilariflemotionsandyoumovewithguardedunconcernedacceleration,alittleemptier,alittlespentasalwaysbythatquiverintheself,

subjugated,yet,andobedient.

This iswhat happens inmaterial existence.And in the inner life?Though theonlysignificantwordthatisexactlyrepeatedinthesecond,‘invisible’halfofthepoem is guns, the inner scene of self-doubt is made to duplicate the sceneoutside:thefrontier,thesoldiers,theguns,theinterrogation.Whenpermissiontopassisgiven,intheformofaninnerliberationintowriting,suddenlyeverythingflowsintoacurrent,andthesurfaceofthingscanonceagainbereflectedinthe‘polishedwindscreen’ofinscription:

Soyoudriveontothefrontierofwritingwhereithappensagain.Thegunsontripods;thesergeantwithhison-offmikerepeating

dataaboutyou,waitingforthesquawkofclearance;themarksmantrainingdownoutofthesunuponyoulikeahawk.

Andsuddenlyyou’rethrough,arraignedyetfreed,asifyou’dpassedfrombehindawaterfallontheblackcurrentofatarmacroad

pastarmour-platedvehicles,outbetweenthepostedsoldiersflowingandrecedingliketreeshadowsintothepolishedwindscreen.

[HL,6]

The final freedom here is not yet that of Dante coming into upper air: thesoldiers are still shadowing the mental windscreen, but they are graduallymetamorphosing,almostintotheorganicformoftrees.Didthe(real)road-blockturnupasametaphorforacreativeblock,ordidthe

subjugation of the writer at a real road-block make him aware of an innerequivalentwhenwriting?Inthepoemthetwopossibilitiesbalanceeachother,asmaterial and immaterial tercets weigh equally on the scale-pans of the poem.What iscertain is that forHeaney’s Irish readers, road-blocksareahated (andintenselyremembered)factoflife,andtobemadetopassthroughonetwiceineightstanzasensuresapowerfulvisceralreaction,conferringsolidrealityonthe

invisible‘frontierofwriting’.Heaneywritesmanysuchparables inTheHawLantern, andhisdebt to the

allegoricalandparabolicpoetry(inventedinparttodefyCommunistcensorship)by Eastern European writers such as Vasko Popa, CzeslawMilosz, ZbigniewHerbert and Miroslav Holub has been frequently mentioned. Yet Heaney’sallegories are not written to escape the censor; they are written to escape thetopicalityofpoliticaljournalism,ontheonehand,andtodefinetherealmoftheinvisible, on the other. The invisible, in Heaney’s upbringing, was theprerogative of either nationalist politics or theCatholic religion.Heaney takeson, in The Haw Lantern, the job of exploring the use, to a secular mind, ofmetaphysical,ethicalandspiritualcategoriesofreference.Sointhewintrytidepoemofthevolumethethorntree’sred‘haw…burning

outofseason’istransmutedbythepoetintoanethicalobject:thelanterncarriedbyDiogenes as he seeks one justman. The small haw, in a trick of focus, ismadetogrowanddiminishaccordingtoitsfunctioninthepoem.Atfirstitisitsnatural vegetative self, wanting no more than to be ‘a small light for smallpeople, /…nothavingtoblindthemwithillumination’,admonishingthepoetagainstthegrandiose,theoracularandtheprophetic.Thispartofthepoemtakesup a modest five lines, an almost-sestet to introduce the more consequentialoctavethatfollows,inwhichthehaw,asDiogenes’lantern,swellsmomentarilyintomythical importance before resuming its ‘eye-level’ realistic smallness atthementionofthethorn-treetwig:

ButsometimeswhenyourbreathplumesinthefrostittakestheroamingshapeofDiogeneswithhislantern,seekingonejustman;soyouendupscrutinizedfrombehindthehawheholdsupateye-levelonitstwig.

Theparaboliclanternrestssosolidlyonitsmaterialthorn-twigthat(aswiththeroad-block)onecanhardlytelltheactualfromthemetaphorical.Inthelastthreelines the poem moves almost too fast for comprehension. The poet flinchesbeforethehaw’ssubstantial integrity, itsdiagnosticneedle-prick, itsexemplarypreservation of ripeness in spite of wounds, and its laser-scan of morality.Diogenes completes, in a swiftly passing moment, his scrutiny of you, hisjudgementofyou.‘Heholdsup[thehaw]ateye-level’:

andyouflinchbeforeitsbondedpithandstone,

itsblood-prickthatyouwishwouldtestandclearyou,itspecked-atripenessthatscansyou,thenmoveson.

Bytheendyouhavefailedthetest;thehaw-lanternhasmovedon,andtheonejustmanisstillunfound.Thefeaturethatmakesthepoemendsorapidlyandconfusingly–beforeone

even has a chance to ask Diogenes to wait, to repeat his scan – is the non-alignmentofitsapparentparallelism.Eachitemisslightlyoutofkilterwithitsfellows:Youflinchbefore:

a)itsbondedpithandstone–aqualityinnertothehaw;

b)itsblood-prick–anactionpotentialtothehaw,directedatyou;c)itspecked-atripeness–anattribute(adjectivalscarringfrompeckings)outertothehaw,bondedtotheabstractgrowth-point(ripeness)reachedbytheinnerhaw;

Youwishthat:Itsblood-prickwould

a)testyou(first)

b)clearyou(subsequently)ButItsripeness

a)scansyou(transitive)

b)moveson(intransitive)

This is to schematize what takes place fluidly and inconspicuously: butHeaney’sincreasingdeftnessofsyntacticmovementisoneofthemarkersofhis‘virtual’world,asevidenthereasintheflowingandrecedingthatclose‘Fromthe Frontier of Writing’. In The Haw Lantern, whether things are variouslydisappearing (‘The Disappearing Island’), ‘assumed into fluorescence’ (‘TheMilk Factory’), travelling ‘out of all knowing’ (‘In Memoriam: RobertFitzgerald’), or written on the sand (‘A Shooting Script’), they are almostinvisible,orsoontobe.Theinevitablefilialdepressioninthewakeofparentaldeathismostvisiblein

the exquisite poem ‘The Riddle’, which changes the Hades-myth of thedaughtersofNiobe,whocarriedwaterinasieve,intothepoet’spunishment–to

carrywaterinthenever-endingriddleofvalue.Iftheethicalcategoryofjusticeis interrogated in ‘TheHawLantern’, it is themetaphysical category of valuethat is explored in ‘TheRiddle’.Here the poet describes the largemesh sieveused (beforehis time) for sifting,with somethingorother retained, somethingelse falling through.Whichwas the valuable stuff –whatwas kept inside thesieveorwhatdroppeddown?Whocanrecall?

YouneversawitusedbutstillcanhearThesiftandfallofstuffhoppedonthemesh,

Clodsandbudsinalittledust-up,Thedribbledpileaccruingunderit.

Whichwouldbebetter,whatsticksorwhatfallsthrough?Ordoesthechoiceitselfcreatethevalue?

Onecan feel, reading this, the interior strain thatHeaneyexperiencesat theconjunctionof his past inclination to the sensuous (stuff, hopped,mesh, clods,buds, dust, dribbles) and his present inclination to abstraction (whatwouldbebetter, choice, create, value). It is a shock to come to the sixth line – likesomethingoutofanexaminationpaperinphilosophy–afterthebarn-dustinessof the first four lines, and after the colloquiality of the fifth. This shock ofcompetingdiscoursesgives thepoem itsmomentum,andpresses the reader toreadon.Inricochet,thepoetpitcheshisimaginationbacktothesieve,butthistimeit

isavirtualsieve,notarealone.Heinscribeshimselfinadumb-show,amental‘mime’of sifting: ‘Legs apart, deft-handed, start amime /To sift the senseofthingsfromwhat’simagined’.Butissuchasiftingpossible?Isnotthesenseofthingsthestartingpointfor‘what’simagined’?Anddoesnotwhatisimaginedconfersomethingon‘thesenseofthings’?ItisaveryStevensianquestion,butHeaneywillnotgiveaStevensiananswer.Insteadhereaches,insuccession,fortwophrasesfromhisCatholicpast.Thefirst is‘culpableignorance’,thesinofonetowhomthetruthhasbeenoffered,butwhodeterminestoremainignorantofit.Itisthesinofthosetowhomthegospelhasbeenpreachedbutwhoprovideonlythestonygroundonwhichtheseedcannottakeroot.Heaneyfearsthathemay,inhispresentdisbelief,avoidthequestionoffaithandvalueentirely.Butthenthepoetremembersthesecondofhistag-phrases,thecompellingnotionofthevianegativa.In‘negativetheology’onecanknowGodonlybythe‘negative

way’ of saying what He is not: He cannot die, He cannot suffer, He cannotchange,Hecannotdoevil,andsoon.In thisdefinitionoffaithoneadheres topietybyrejectingthefalseratherthanbyascertainingthetrue.The‘dropsandlet-downs’provokedbydeath;theconsequenterosionofone’ssenseofwhatlifeisorcanbe;thedepressionofuncertain‘sifting’–alltheseareelementsofthemetaphysical‘riddle’:

Legsapart,deft-handed,startamimeTosiftthesenseofthingsfromwhat’simagined

AndworkoutwhatwashappeninginthatstoryOfthemanwhocarriedwaterinariddle.

Wasitculpableignorance,orwasitratherAvianegativathroughdropsandlet-downs?

[HL,51]

Heaneyenactshis‘dropsandlet-downs’notonlythroughthefallingline-ends– ‘imagined’, ‘story’, ‘riddle’, ‘rather’, ‘let-downs’ – but also by ending hisriddle-poeminaquestion(itistheonlypoeminTheHawLanternthatendsthisway). To employ the sieve-mesh and via negativa of poetic text (instead of‘takingastand’,asHeaneywasoftenurgedtodo)istoseemtobringlesswaterfor a thirsting populace. A hortatory one-sided poem seems to solace humandisquietmorethananequivocalsetofriddlingreflectionswhichtrytosort‘thesenseof things fromwhat’s imagined’.Yetbybeing true tohisdropsand let-downsthepoetmayultimatelybeofmoreusetohisfellow-menthanhewouldbyrallyingthemtoosanguinelytosingly-conceivedcauses.TheHawLanternisanintellectualvolume:itponders;itvalues;itchooses;it

judges.Itexaminesthepoet’stendencyto‘secondthoughts’,which,likethevianegativa,precludeawholeheartedembraceofanypre-formedideology.Itsgreatapologiaisitspoemofsecondthoughts,‘Terminus’–whichparadoxically(andnodoubtdeliberately)hasthreeparts.(Stevens:‘Iwasofthreeminds,/Likeatree / In which there are three blackbirds.’) The border god Terminus lookedboth ways; so must the reflective poet. Heaney explains his compulsion tosecond thoughtsbymeansofhisupbringingona farm in the industrialNorth,where he could as easily confront an iron bolt as an acorn, a factory as amountain,atrainasahorse,anAesopianfableasaChristianproverb,aflowing

streamasacontainingstream-bank.Thefirst twopartsof thepoempresent itscounter-pressuresinresolutelyleft-rightfashion,organizingthembythe‘if’and‘when’ of habitual action. But part III focuses not somuch on those counter-pressuresasontheboywhohadtomaintainhisbalancebetweenthem:

Twobucketswereeasiercarriedthanone.;Igrewupinbetween.

MylefthandplacedthestandardironweightMyrighttiltedalastgraininthebalance.Baronies,parishesmetwhereIwasborn.WhenIstoodonthecentralsteppingstone

IwasthelastearlonhorsebackinmidstreamStillparleying,inearshotofhispeers.

[HL,5]

NopassagemorestronglyrevealsthepullinHeaneybetweentheplainstyleand the elaborated style. The first two couplets above are written in a stylesuitabletotheparticularjudgement,whenone’ssoulisbeingweighedbyGod.But as soon as the Norman vocabulary enters the poem in the chime of‘baronies, parishes … parleying … peers’, something imagined, gilded andheraldic displaces the parabolic yoke and scale-pans of plainness. FromEverymantoEarl;fromgospeltoromance–howcouldthepoetnothavesecondthoughts when discourse itself offers second thoughts with every etymology?The ‘Flight of the Earls’ in 1607, as the last Gaelic chieftains (O’Neill andO’Donnell) went into exile on the continent, ended the possibility of co-existence between the indigenous Irish and the English invaders.Characteristically,hereasin‘LinenTown’,Heaneystopsatthelastmomentofopenness before some irrevocable new step decisively changes the politicalscene. To parley is to negotiate through speech (parler): it is still the poet’sfunction to stand at the border, in midstream, like Terminus, and try to keepspeechalivebetweencontendingparties.SomeofHeaney’smetaphysicalparables inTheHawLantern arewritten in

theplainlanguageofaBunyanesquenarrative;othersrangeoverawidedisplayof discourses. Among these, the most autobiographical, ‘From the Canton ofExpectation’, sets a plaintive elder generation – resignedly carrying out ritual

nationalistpracticesoforatory,danceandsong–againstayoungergeneration(Heaney’sown)–university-educated,activist,marchinginthestreetsforcivilrights, demanding change. YetHeaney does not permit his own generation tocarry theday.Thepoemisspokenbyoneof theelders, fullyconsciousof theweariness of the worn expectancies of nationalism, yet repelled by the hard-headedphalanxesoftheyoung.Thespokespersonfortheoldbegins,

Weliveddeepinalandofoptativemoods,underhigh,bankedcloudsofresignation.ArustleoflossinthephraseNotinourlifetime,thebrokennervewhenweprayedVouchsafeorDeign,werecreditable,sufficienttotheday.

The italicized phrases carry within themselves the suspirations of Catholicpatience,which has lost all intention of action.With the first, lamenting stylewell established,Heaney turns to the elder generation’s viewof the imperiousand impervious discourse of the educated young (who had benefited from the1947 Education Act of the United Kingdom, giving them access to highereducation):

Andnextthing,suddenly,thischangeofmood.Booksopeninthenewly-wiredkitchens.Youngheadsthatmighthavedozedalifeawayagainsttheflanksofmilkingcowswerebusypavingandpencillingtheirfirstcausewaysacrosstheprescribedtexts.Thepavingstonesofquadranglescamenextandagrammarofimperatives,thenewageofdemands.

[HL,46]

TheRomanhardnessof‘pavingandpencilling’,‘prescribedtexts’,‘thepavingstones of quadrangles’ matches the discourse of demands: these young‘intelligences/brightenedandunmannerlyascrowbars’havediscardedthesoftlightofthedozingpastfortheirelectricalimperatives.Asthepoemcontinuesitsplay on grammar the speaker, realizing theweakness of the old optatives, yetdislikingthenewimperativesthat‘wouldbanishtheconditionalforever’,standsanticipating theDeluge, yearning foroneperson, anewNoah, ‘who stoodhis

ground in the indicative, / whose boat will lift when the cloudburst happens’(HL,47).Althoughtheorganizationofthepoemisperhapsover-schematizedbyits grammatical armature, its three parts – nationalist exhausted optatives,youthfulimperativesandtheyearningforanindicative–sketchthestateoftheNorthern Catholic population, and its competing discourses, without evermentioningitbyname.AlthoughIhavebeendrawingtheallegoricalbacktothetopical,itistimefor

me to return these poems to their intended genre. Generational conflict is, as‘FromtheCantonofExpectation’demonstrates,centrallyamatterofconflictingstyles; and the samecanbe saidof cultural conflict (inwhich even ahabit ofreticenceandahabitofgarrulity–asHeaneytellsusin‘FromtheLandoftheUnspoken’–cancauseacrucialdivision).Turningthematerialworldofpoliticsinto the immaterial world of cultural habit is one of the strategies of thesepoems;butanequalstrategy,as Ihavesaid, isHeaney’sdiscoveryofmaterialequivalents for his virtual realms – the electric light of the unmannerlyintelligence,thewoodenarkofindicativeintegrity.In‘ParableIsland’,apoemdealingwiththemetaphysicsofnaming,thepoet

has taken up his habitation in a place where all appellation is contested: thenativeshaveonenameforamountain, theoccupiersanother; tooneschoolofarchaeologists‘thestonecirclesarepuresymbol’,toanother,theyare‘assemblyspotsorhutfoundations’.Therearenoreliabledirectionsinthisisland:

Tofindoutwherehestandsthetravellerhastokeeplistening–sincethereisnomapwhichdrawsthelineheknowshemusthavecrossed.

[HL,10]

ThoughHeaneyheretakesonagaintheroleof‘listener’,heisnolongerinthewillowtreeas‘thelobeandlarynx/oftheleafyplaces’,noreven‘inthebeech’wherehecouldseeandhearthearmybuthimselfremainunseen.Nowhemustlisten at ground-level, be among those to whom he listens. The rights ofdiscourse seem, alarmingly, to have passed to the untrustworthy: it is ‘thesubversives and collaborators’ who are ‘always vying with a fiercepossessiveness / for the right to set “the island story” straight’ (HL, 11). Theimportanceofthesepoemsofcompetingdiscoursesliesinthepoet’sconvictionthatthepersonwhoownsthelanguageownsthestory,andthathewhowishestochangethestorymustfirstchangethelanguage.

Heaney’smovetotheethicalandmetaphysicaldiscourseofparableisamovecomparable to his earlier recourse to the discourse of archaeology; bothdiscourses afford an overview, remove him from the immediately journalistic,andgivehimanalternateimaginativeplaneoflanguageonwhichtomove.Butwhereasthearchaeologicaldiscoursewasdeeplysingular–theTollundMan,theGrauballeMan,thebogqueen–theparabolicdiscourseisincorrigiblyplural–thesubjectsare‘we’or‘they’.Thecollectiveisthemostdifficultofdiscoursesfor a modern poet, precisely because of the modern conflict between theindividualandthecommunal.WhenHeaneyappropriatestheoptativesofelderCatholics,orusescollectivenounssuchas ‘natives’and ‘occupiers’,he forceshisownethnicgrouptoheartheirownlinguisticusages.Thesatiricaledgethatkeeps showing itself in these parabolic poems suggests that all group dictionbecomes self-parodic over time. This is as useful a spanner to throw into theworksofpetrifiedwritingandoratoryasanyother.It is not always by means of allegory that Heaney pursues his ethical and

metaphysicalquestionsinTheHawLantern.Oneofthemostsuccessfulpoemsin thevolume,called ‘WolfeTone’andspoken inhisvoice,departs fromboththeparabolicmodeofabstractionandthepersonallyricmodeadoptedbysuchpoemsas‘Alphabets’(whichIwilltakeupshortly)and‘GrotusandCoventina’(a love poem to Heaney’s wife). In ‘Wolfe Tone’ Heaney adopts a historicalpersona, that of theProtestantnationalist (1763–98)whose attempts to fomentinsurrection with naval aid from France failed both in 1796 (through stormsdisruptingthearmada)and1798(whentheFrenchshipswereinterceptedoffthewest coast, and Tonewas captured). Sentenced to execution, Tone committedsuicideinjail.ThoughTone’saristocraticstyle–sosaysHeaney’spoem–waseverything an eighteenth-century reader could commend – ‘light as a skiff’,‘manoeuvrable’, ‘well-bred and impervious’ – he came to naught as arevolutionary.WolfeToneought tohave floated likea skiffon thecurrentsofhistory.Insteadheendedbyslittinghisownthroat.If we attempt to connect ‘Wolfe Tone’ with its fellow-poems in The Haw

Lantern we might find in its initial lightness of touch the key to the entirevolume. Wolfe Tone, as we first hear him speak, sounds nothing like thedeliquescing bog queen or the heavy bloodsoaked corpses of ‘Station Island’.Instead, he speaks in clipped and ‘well-bred’ lines that owe a good deal toLowell’s‘LifeStudies’:

Lightasaskiff,manoeuvrable

yetoutmanoeuvred,

Iaffectedepaulettesandacockade,wroteastylewell-bredandimpervioustothesolidarityIangledfor,andplayedtheancientRomanwitharazor.

That is Tone’s first self-account. The second ‘movement’ of this three-movement self-elegy reflects on the ultimate collapse of the revolutionaryattempt.Thisisthemomentofparableinthepoem,asToneinventsametaphorforhimself–thatofa‘shoulderedoar’:

Iwastheshoulderedoarthatendedupfarfromthebrineandwhiffofventure,

likeascratching-postoracrossroadsflagpole,outofmyelementamongsmallfarmers[.]

ItisatthisparabolicmomentthatthepersonaofWolfeToneandthepersonofSeamus Heaney converge: we feel in the lines a glimmer of Heaney in theRepublicafter1972, ‘far fromthebrineandwhiffofventure, /…outof [his]element among small farmers’. The anxieties of ‘Exposure’ once more showtheirhead.How to end such a poem? We have seen the impervious United Ireland

aristocrat;wehave seen the abandonedoar.With a great surprisingmove, thepoem’s thirdmovement(again,withadebt toLowell, this timetohis ‘QuakerGraveyard’) plunges us into the 1796 gale that drove the sea into the Frenchshipsandsentthemrunning,bare-masted,beforethewind:

Iwhooncewakenedtotheshoutsofmenrisingfromthebottomofthesea,

menintheirshirtsmountingthroughdeepwaterwhentheAtlanticstoveourcabin’sdeadlightsinandthebigfleetsplitandIrelanddwindledasweranbeforethegaleunderbarepoles.

[HL,44]

The excitements of this passage – shouts and shirts, rising and mounting,splittingsanddwindlings,theburstingofwindows–climaxwiththeflashofthe‘bare poles’ of the fleeing ships set against the ‘crossroads flagpole’ of therusticatedlife.Thepreterite‘I…wakened’oftherecollectedstormisassertedagainst both the imperfect tenses of habit (‘I affected … I was’) and thematchingsuicidalpreterite(‘[I]playedtheancientRoman’).ThetwopreteritesmarkthetwosignificantaccomplishmentsofTone’slife–hisactivesea-ventureandhis‘Roman’suicide.OfTone’sthreesuccessiveself-portraits–theinitialcrispaccountofhispre-

revolutionary life and his post-revolutionary suicide; the morose middlemetaphorofhis inter-revolutionary inactivity;and thewild rousingmomentofhis first sea-attack– thedefiningone remains the third.Herehe abandons thealoofhauteurofhisfirstnarrationandthesecond’smoodyself-distancingasadisplacedoar;hemovesinsteadintoamomentofsheeraliveness,ofterrorandexaltation combined. There the fundamental nature of the revolutionarytemperamentannounces itself–asonewhich lovesaction,perhaps,more thaneithercauseornation.Apoemsuchas‘WolfeTone’,thoughreachingbacktoahistoricalpersonage

and to thecomplexhistoricaleventsof the Irish1790s, refinesbothpersonageandeventsintoafewboldstrokes,outofwhichitmakesatellingtriptych.Ontheleft,weseethecockadeandtherazor,likeasaint’sattributes;inthemiddle,weareshowntheoar,asymbol;andtotheright,wefacethegale.Consideredinthislight,‘WolfeTone’resemblesaparablelike‘FromtheFrontierofWriting’,wherewesawtheperfectdiptych:ontheleft,thepoliticalfrontier;ontheright,the frontier of writing. And we can see a resemblance to both in ‘From theCantonofExpectation’,againatriptych:ontheleft, thepiousoptatives;inthemiddle,thedefiantimperatives;ontheright,thesturdyindicative.I do not mean to take anything away from these accomplished poems by

reducingthemtotheirarmaturesasdiptychsortriptychs.(Itakewarrantforthepictorial analogy from Heaney’s ‘Triptych’ in Field Work.) I simply want toshowhowHeaney’sclarityofstructure,asitisschematizedintosuchgeometricforms, allies itself well with the poet’s attention to the invisible realms ofconscience,consciousnessandlanguage.It is languagethatunderpins‘Alphabets’, thetouchingopeningpoemofThe

Haw Lantern, which narrates (in sixteen third-person heroic quatrains) thegrowth of the poet’s mind and sensibility as he internalizes successivelanguages:English,Latin,IrishandGreek.Thecharmofthenarrationliesinthe

protagonist’s passage from naive child-language to the self-conscious but alsoexpansivebuoyancyofadultexpression.InpartI(theshortest)thechildlearnstowritenumbersandletters,andfeelsthefirststirringsofthemetaphorical:

Aswan’sneckandswan’sbackMakethe2hecanseenowaswellassay…

ThereisarightWaytoholdthepenandawrongway…

AglobeinthewindowtiltslikeacolouredO.

In Part II the boy learns Latin; to this is added Irish with its uncial script(awakeningboth theMuse and the sexual instinct in her ‘tenebrous thickets’).Theyouthfulpoetisalsoschooledinasceticreligion:

BookOneofElementaLatina,Marbledandminatory,roseupinhim…

HelefttheLatinforumfortheshade

Ofnewcalligraphythatfeltlikehome…Thelinesofscriptlikebriarscoiledinditches.

Hereinhersnoodedgarmentandbarefeet,Allringletedinassonanceandwoodnotes,Thepoet’sdreamstoleoverhimlikesunlightAndpassedintothetenebrousthickets…

Christ’ssicklehasbeenintheundergrowth.ThescriptgrowsbareandMerovingian.

InpartIIIwelearnthattheboy’schildhoodschoolhasbeenbulldozedfornewdevelopment,andwith thesaleofhis family’s farm theGreekdeltasofpotatodrills,thelambdasofstooksatharvestandtheomegasofgood-luckhorseshoeshavedisappeared.Theboyhimself,nowadult,hascometotheothersideoftheglobeandisauniversitylecturer,hasenteredthespherewheretheextensionsofknowledge are infinite. Yet, spurred by the example of a Renaissancenecromancer(MarsilioFicino)whowantedtokeepthewholeuniverseinmind,

and‘notjustsinglethings’,thepoetaimsatawiderunderstanding:

Theglobehasspun.HestandsinawoodenO.HealludestoShakespeare.HealludestoGraves.Timehasbulldozedtheschoolandtheschoolwindow,BalersdropbaleslikeprintoutswherestookedsheavesMadelambdasonthestubbleonceatharvest…

Yetshape-notelanguage,absoluteonair…Canstillcommandhim;orthenecromancer

WhowouldhangfromthedomedceilingofhishouseAfigureoftheworldwithcoloursinitSothatthefigureoftheuniverseAnd‘notjustsinglethings’wouldmeethissight

Whenhewalkedabroad.

Finally, thepoetdesires thematchlesslycomprehensivevisionof theastronautbeholding ‘The risen, aqueous, singular, lucentO’–and (coming full circle tothe original child, but now in the first person) compares that grandextraterrestrial view to his own astonished realization of the miraculous fitbetweenlettersandmeanings,recalling

Myownwidepre-reflectivestareAllagogattheplastereronhisladderSkimmingourgableandwritingournamethereWithhistrowelpoint,letterbystrangeletter.

[HL,1–3]

Though ‘Alphabets’ (which was composed as a Phi Beta Kappa poem forHarvard)isspecificinsummoningupmanymaterialfactsofHeaney’slife–arural origin, Catholic secondary schooling, the profession of teacher and anecromancer encountered in his reading –Heaney nowhere says ‘Mossbawn’,‘St Columb’s’, ‘Harvard’ or ‘Ficino’. (The mention that it was the EmperorConstantine who saw a ‘sky-lettered IN HOC SIGNO’ is the exception to theanonymity of reference, since the naming of the Emperor is necessary to fix

Heaney’shistoricalallusiontotheapotheosisofwritingbyGodhimself.)Justastheastronaut‘seesallhehassprungfrom’asa‘singular,lucentO’,sothepoetwillseehisworldwithoutpropernamesorlimitinggeographicalidentification.To this extent, ‘Alphabets’ cooperates in the abstracting motive of The HawLantern.Thevolume’spointofviewisjustfarenoughremovedfromidentifyingthesoldiersattheroad-block,ortheexactnationalistritualsin‘FromtheCantonofExpectation’,ortheschoolhousein‘Alphabets’tomakeit‘impossible’(asitwouldbe for the ‘astronaut’) tosay justwhereonearth this road-blockor thisritual or this ‘wooden O’ is located. They are everywhere – so the volumeimplies–andhere.Adiffuseandyetspecificmodeofdescription,consequentupon a removed ‘astronaut’s’ view, is Heaney’s principal strategy in thisparabolicmode, inwhich the concepts of ‘emptiness’, ‘neutrality’ and ‘space’takeoncentralimaginativeimportance.

SecondThoughtsWhathappens–afterTheHawLantern– to theemptyspace, therealmof thevirtual, the geometric structures and the genre of parable?One answer is thattheygenerateHeaney’s‘squarings’–poemsoffourpentametertercetsinSeeingThings–whichwilloccupythenextchapter.Anotheranswercanbefoundintheenigmatic, teasing poem ‘The Thimble’ in The Spirit Level. ‘The Thimble’ isparabolic,but inhistoricalclose-up.Itarguesthateveryobject is(aswemightsaytoday)an‘absentcentre’aroundwhicheverycultureweavesadifferenttextofmeaning. So theway to ‘read’ universally,Heaney nowproposes, is not totake thefar-removedextraterrestrialviewwhichmakeseverycountryhave thesamegeneralizedroad-blockorthesameelegiacrituals;rather,oneshould‘read’universallyby seeinghowone specificobject isdifferentlyelaborated throughtimesandcultures.Whatiskeptconstantisnolonger(asinparabolicform)theemptyortheuniversalized;theconstantistheconcreteobject,meanderingfromoneadaptation toanother.Heaney’schosenobject, the thimble–whichbegins(1)inPompeiiasacontainerforapainter’s‘specialred’,goodformakingeroticbite-marksonhiscarnalfrescoes–migratesthenceinto(2)amonasticrelicofStAdaman: although it was once a bell – according to the credulous medievallegend–itwasbyamiracleshrunkinto‘Adaman’sThimble’.Itpassesbriefly(3) through the child-poet’s mind as an evocative word, as Heaney invokes‘mention’ – the first sign of linguistic consciousness – rather than functional‘use’:

Wasthisthemeasureofthesweetestpromise,Thedippedthirst-brush,thedewofparadiseThatwouldfleemytonguewhentheysaid‘Athimbleful’?

Andnow?Incurrentpunkculture,whatdoesthethimblebecome?

4NowateenagerWithshavedheadAndtranslucentshouldersWearsitforanipple-cap.

Whatnext?Thepoetcan’tguess,butiscertainthatthepost-millenniumculturewillfindsomethinginterestingtodowiththethimble,too:

5

Andsoon.

[SL,42–3]

This jeu d’esprit suggests that what would scandalize the pious monks(Pompeii’sHouseofCarnalMurals)mightberightintunewiththepostmodernteenager;andwhatthepoetsighsforimaginatively(‘thedewofparadise’)maynotbefarfromthemedievalmonk’scredulity;andthe‘dewofparadise’ itselfmaynotberemotefromthe teenager’s‘translucent’shoulders.Throughall therevolutionsofculture,thethimblehascomeinhandy;andwillforever.Theloveoftheclose-upwasboundtoreassertitselfinHeaneyafterhisengagementwiththe distant view; and it does so, with an almost flirtatious revenge, in ‘TheThimble’.

6

Airiness:SeeingThings

Focusedanddrawninbywhatbarredtheway.‘FieldofVision’[ST,22]

Iftheimaginativeimportanceofanon-phenomenalplace‘utterlyempty,utterlyasource’(‘StationIsland’III;‘Clearances’8)wasHeaney’spointoforiginforTheHawLantern,thenastrangenewreturntothephenomenalworld–butfromanalmostposthumousperspective–isthepointoforiginforSeeingThings. Inthetheory-poemofthevolume(whichretellsastorytakenfromtheIrishannals)the transcendent and the real become defined as the obverse and reverse of asingleperception.Justasanangel’sworldwouldseemmiraculoustous,soourworld would seem miraculous to a heavenly person – it would, for him,representthewhollyother,theimagined,thehitherto-inconceivable.Canwe,ashumanbeings,begintothinkofourphenomenalsurroundingsinthisway–asacontinuingrevelationofthemiraculous?Thisistoreversethereligiouspracticeof ‘lifting up’ one’s eyes to an idealized and transcendent space; it is to findultimatevalueinwhatwecanherebehold.Thepoem‘Theannalssay’isnumberviiiofHeaney’s forty-eight-poemsequencecalled ‘Squarings’ (poems ‘square’inshape,fivebeatswideandtwelveslineslong):

Theannalssay:whenthemonksofClonmacnoiseWereallatprayersinsidetheoratoryAshipappearedabovethemintheair.

TheanchordraggedalongbehindsodeepIthookeditselfintothealtarrailsAndthen,asthebighullrockedtoastandstill,

AcrewmanshinnedandgrappleddowntheropeAndstruggledtoreleaseit.Butinvain.‘Thismancan’tbearourlifehereandwilldrown,’

Theabbotsaid,‘unlesswehelphim.’SoTheydid,thefreedshipsailed,andthemanclimbedbackOutofthemarvellousashehadknownit.

[ST,62]

Thepoem’stworealmsrepresent(accordingtoHeaneyinhisessay‘FrontiersofWriting’) ‘twoorders of knowledgewhichwemight call thepractical and thepoetic;… the frontier between them is there for the crossing’ (RP, 203). Thepoemimpliesthatjustasitwouldbedeathforthemanfromheaventoremaininthethickerairofearth,soitwouldbeequallyfataltohumanbeingstoattempttobreathe for any length of time the rarefied air of the transcendent. We mayascendtoitforashortglimpseofthemarvellous,butwemustthenreturntothephenomenalworld.ThesamepointismadebyHeaney’sepigraphandepilogueto Seeing Things: the first is his translation of The Aeneid’s passage on thegoldenbough–whichallowsonetopassintotheUnderworldandthenreturn–andthesecondishistranslationofCharon’srefusal,inTheInferno, totakethelivingDanteintohisshipofdeath.Not even the vacancy of death can destroy for Heaney the beauty of

uninhabitednature.Hiseyeandearandpalaterespondasardentlyasevertoitssightsandsoundsandtastes.ThatisthefirstimportofthetitleSeeingThings–re-inspectingthephenomenalworldintheaftermathofdeath–butthesecondisa quasi-visionary insight, or numinous frisson, ‘seeing things’ withWordsworthian imagination. Because landscape is for Heaney a powerfulrepositoryofmemory,many‘Squarings’representreturnsasaconsciousadulttosomescenefromyouth:

Re-enterthisastheadultofsolitude,Thesilence-forderandthedefinitePresenceyousensedwithdrawingfirsttimeround.

[ST,69]

The ghostliness of the writer himself in these return-poems marks them asdifferent fromhisearlier representationsofchildhood, ‘When thewholeworldwas a farm that eked and crowed’ (ST, 32). Now, the self-consciousness ofwritingandthepresenceofdeathcannotbeevadedoroverlooked.Itisforthis

reasonthatthelandscapesandhome-scapesof‘Squarings’are‘airy’ratherthan‘laden’, static rather than dynamic, ‘distanced’ rather than proximate,made toresemblestillsratherthanmovingpictures.Earlyin‘Squarings’HeaneyrecallshowHardy, ‘at parties in renowned old age’, sometimes ‘imagined himself aghost/Andcirculatedwiththatnewperspective’(ST,61).TheairinessofSeeingThingsoccursbecauseHeaneyiscontemplating thephysical throughthescrimofextinction.That is the given of the book:What does the phenomenal world look like

contemplated through eyes made intensely perceptive by unignorableannihilation?Suchagivenentailsanalterationofstyle:nottherichsensualityofDeathofaNaturalist,not thehistoricized thicknessof thebogpoems,not theepic-derivedVikingsparenessesofNorth,not theparabolicfolk-qualityofTheHawLantern,butratheranalmostShakersimplicityoftheactual.Itis,however,an actual that cannot be touched: the scrim prevents touching. Nor can it betasted,liketheoystersofFieldWork.Itcannotbesexual.Itdependschieflyonwhatused tobecalled the‘higher’or ‘theoretical’sensesofsightandhearing,thosewhichmakecontactwiththeirobjectswithouttouchingthem.Heaney is concerned here with our immaterial extrapolations from the

material – the physical arc of a pitchfork extended in imagination, pretendedboundariesmarkedonlyby‘fourjacketsforfourgoalposts’,or

theimaginarylinestraightdownAfieldofgrazing,tobeploughedopenFromtherodstuckinoneheadrigtotherodStuckintheother.

[ST,9]

These imaginedgridsand linesare the latitudeand longitude lines (asStevensspokeofthemin‘TheIdeaofOrderatKeyWest’)bywhichmentalityorderstheworld.Theybecomemorevisibletothepoetasghostlyreturnerthantheyweretohimasfirst-timeencounterer.Ofcoursesuchaself-awarebookmustalsocontainanostalgiaforfirst-order

experience.Thisismostacutelyfeltin‘ThePulse’(part2of‘ThreeDrawings’).‘Thepulseofthecast line/enteringwater’isevokedasthefleetestversionofthetactile(‘smallerinyourhand/ thantherememberedheartbeat/ofabird’),andthentotouchevanescentisaddedtouchresistant:

Then,afterallofthatrunawaygive,youwereglad

whenyoureeledinandfoundyourselfstrung,heel-tiptorod-tip,intotheriver’ssteadypurchaseandthrum.

[ST,11]

Butnow,bythetimeofSeeingThings,therecanbenoprospectofone’sresumptionintotheunthinkingthrumofthelivingcurrent.ItisasthoughaportcullishaddroppedbetweenHeaneyandmateriality:heseestheworld,he

relishesit,herespondstoit–but

Hefeltatonewithspace

unroofedandobvious–surprisedinhisemptyarms.

[ST,12]

‘Unroofed’isinfactthewordwhichgeneratesthefirstofthe‘Squarings’,asthepoetbrilliantlyabstracts–intheimageofthemanyderelictrooflesscottagesfoundinIreland–what it is tofindoneselfaloneinthefamilyhouseafter thedeaths of one’s parents.Though at first the poem’s shivering beggar-surrogateleadsHeaneytosummonuptheChristianfictionofthe‘particularjudgement’–whenoneisjudged,alone,exposedtothegazeofGod,afterdeath–hediscardsthatfictionforthetruth:‘thereisnonext-time-round’.Whatoneisfacedwithintheruinedfamilyhouse,saysHeaney’s final line, is ‘Unroofedscope’ (‘scope’being a word of emptiness remembered from ‘The Cleric’ in SweeneyRedivivus):

Shiftingbrilliancies.ThenwinterlightInadoorway,andonthestonedoorstepAbeggarshiveringinsilhouette.

Sotheparticularjudgementmightbeset:Barewallsteadandacoldhearthrainedinto–

Brightpuddlewherethesoul-freecloud-liferoams.

Andafterthecommandedjourney,what?Nothingmagnificent,nothingunknown.Agazingoutfromfaraway,alone.

Anditisnotparticularatall,Justoldtruthdawning:thereisnonext-time-round.Unroofedscope.Knowledge-fresheningwind.

[ST,55]

Disturbingly antithetical terms – brilliancies, beggar; light, silhouette; bare,bright–preparethereaderforthecentralimageofchillyreflection,whichisnolonger the family hearth with the warmth of first-order fire, but rather theinhuman but beautiful cloud-life reflected in the second-order puddle ofreflection.Onecannotdenythebeautyofthefreedriftof theunsouledclouds,but the puddle refuses to be transparent to the spiritual. A flood of resignednegations follows –Nothing, nothing, not, no next-time – but is checked by‘scope’and‘wind’.‘Leventselève;ilfauttenterdevivre,’saysValéryin‘LeCimetièreMarin’,inaparallelrefusalofthedeath-temptation.If,earlier,Heaney’saimwastopulllanguageascloseaspossibletothething

itself–sothatabogpoemsoundedboggyoraViking-shippoemsoundedlithe–henowcontemplatesanaesthetic inwhich themediumwouldbe far from thething represented. The theoretical formulation of this aesthetic appears in histitle-poem‘SeeingThings’, inwhichhedescribesamedievalbaptismofJesuscarved instoneon the façadeofaEuropeancathedral.Nothingcouldbemoreunlike realwater than the ‘hardand thinand sinuous’ lines that symbolize theriverinwhichJesusstands:

Claritas.Thedry-eyedLatinwordIsperfectforthecarvedstoneofthewaterWhereJesusstandsuptohisunwetkneesAndJohntheBaptistpoursoutmorewaterOverhishead:allthisinbrightsunlightOnthefaçadeofacathedral.LinesHardandthinandsinuousrepresentTheflowingriver.Downbetweenthelines

Littleanticfishareallgo.Nothingelse.

Isthere,thepoemasks,amodeofrepresentationwhichwouldbenotliteralbuthieroglyphic,asthecarvedlinesinstonearesymbolicof,ratherthanmimeticof,liquid?Ifso–ifthemerestindicescansummonupinthebeholder’smindallthepropertiesofwater–thenperhapsallthechiaroscuroofmimeticrepresentationcanbemade tooccurwithina ‘stony’art: for see, this iswhathappensaswelookatthestone:

AndyetinthatuttervisibilityThestone’salivewithwhat’sinvisible:Waterweed,stirredsand-grainshurryingoff,Theshadowy,unshadowedstreamitself.

Thepoeturgeshimselftotrustthecomparable‘uttervisibility’oflanguage–in‘lineshardandthinandsinuous’–andtobelievethathisreadercansupplytheimplications. He concludes by averring that there can be – in poetry as inEgyptianwriting–asymbolic‘hieroglyphforlifeitself’,faithfultothe‘zig-zag’complexityofitsobject.

Allafternoon,heatwaveredonthestepsAndtheairwestooduptooureyesinwaveredLikethezig-zaghieroglyphforlifeitself.

[ST,17]

SeeingThings is, then, a bookof symbolic and indicativehieroglyphs– thèunroofedwallstead,thecarvedriver–ratherthanarepresentationalbooksuchasStationIsland.Yetitdrawsitshieroglyphsfromthematerialworld,anddoesnotinsertthemintoparablesinthemannerofTheHawLantern.Itisinterestedinamode of vision focused by – but not on – damage: its exemplary figure istherefore Heaney’s Aunt Mary in her wheelchair, who can look only on theunchangingsceneoutsidethehouse,seeingalways‘Thesamesmallcalveswiththeirbacks towindandrain, /Thesameacreof ragwort, thesamemountain’.Her uncomplaining steadfastness makes vision itself compelling, like a viewfocusedbybeingbarredbyagate:

youcouldsee

DeeperintothecountrythanyouexpectedAnddiscoveredthatthefieldbehindthehedgeGrewmoredistinctlystrangeasyoukeptstandingFocusedanddrawninbywhatbarredtheway.

[ST,22]

All of Seeing Things is ‘focused and drawn in by what barred the way’: thehollow of absence brings out presence, in the plainest and most explicitlanguage.Onceagainweencounter‘thingsfoundedcleanontheirownshapes’,but theyareno longer shapesofprimary sense experience, noryet of second-orderretrievalsofmemory,asin‘ThePeninsula’(DD,21),butrathershapesofthird-ordersymbolicabstraction–as ifonlyabstractionwerestrongenough toactasacountertotheannihilatingforceofdeaththaterasessensesandmemoryalike.Ishouldpausetosaythatthebacklashfromhisventureintoabstractionsends

Heaney spinning into the primary materiality of dirt and sex, yet even thesecannot resist the abstracting impulse.Dirt ismademagical by ‘WheelswithinWheels’,wherethechildwhowillgrowuptobethepoetmoveshisbicycletoamud-hole;upsidedown,with itssaddleandhandlebarssubmerged, it sendsupbyitsturningwheelsashowerofsilt:

Theworld-refreshingandimmersedbackwheelSpunlaceanddirt-sudstherebeforemyeyesAndshoweredmeinmyownregenerateclays.ForweeksImadeanimbusofoldglit.Thenthehubjammed,rimsrusted,thechainsnapped.

[ST,47]

With the terminal snapping of the chain here, and the disappearance of the‘nimbus’,Heaneybidsfarewelltohismostambitiouswish–tojointhedomainofmudwith the domain of vision. Earlier, inTheHaw Lantern, the parable-poem ‘The Mud Vision’ had projected such a conjunction, in which thereappeared

Ourmudvision,asifarosewindowofmudHadinventeditselfoutoftheglitterydamp,

Agossamerwheel,concentricwithitsownhubOfnebulousdirt,sulliedyetlucent.

[HL,48]

AlthoughtheHamlet-word‘sullied’andthetranscendentword‘lucent’striveforabalancebothcomplementaryandadversative,thespectatorswerenotequaltothevision,andsoitdisappeared.Butby the timeofSeeingThingsmudhas hardened from its nimbus-gaiety

intoaquarriedcliff-faceloomingoverwater–Heaney’snewhieroglyphoftheworldgovernedbytheintractablelawsofphysicalnecessity.Thequestionnowis not how to reconcile the sullied flesh with the lucent soul, but how – in‘Squarings’×–toreconcilethewaterofthediaphanousvirtualwiththerockofthemassivematerial:

Ultimate

Fathomableness,ultimateStonyup-againstness:couldyoureconcileWhatwasdiaphanoustherewithwhatwasmassive?

[ST,64]

Theimaginationmustworktosetmobilityofmindagainsttheimmobilityoftheinhuman.Ifmud cannot prevail against death, then perhaps sex can? The potent and

Pan-likefigureof‘theropeman’,demonstratinghiswaresatthefair,appears(in‘Squarings’ xviii) to challenge, with his virility, the tamer lives of the localfarmers:intheend,theydonottakeuphischallenge,andhemustdismantlehismagic.Sunsetfallsonthefair-dayandtherope-manconcedeshisownending;thefreeswaggererofsexis,whenlastseen,emptiedofhisaura.Thepoemthatbeganwith the ‘foul-mouthed god of hemp come down to rut’ endswith ‘hispowerlessness once the fair-hill emptied’ (ST, 74). The mud-vision, the rut-vision–bothseemreprievesfromdespair,buttheycannotbemadepermanent.In Seeing Things almost every hieroglyph inscribes within itself its own

annihilation: ‘The places I go back to have not failed /Butwill not last’ (ST,101).TheviolenceoftheSecondWorldWarisdissolvedinto‘newsreelbomb-hits,asharmlessasdust-puffs’(ST,76).Eventhesturdyparentalhouse,afterthe

poet’s father dies of cancer, becomes anX-ray of itself, as it too takes on thequalityofabstractionintoparadigm:

Thehousethathehadplanned‘Plain,big,straight,ordinary,youknow,’Aparadigmofrigourandcorrection,

Rebuketofancinessandshrinetolimit,StoodfirmerthaneverforitsownideaLikeaprintedX-rayfortheX-rayedbody.

[ST,91]

Inthelightofsuchapassage,wecanseethateachhieroglyphisto‘standforitsown idea’, and that abstraction itself, in these hieroglyphs, is a ‘rebuke tofanciness and shrine to limit’. One could say that the hieroglyphic poems, intheirplainnessofdiction(notnecessarilyaccompaniedbyplainnessofstructureorofimagination),representanaestheticofwhichPatrickHeaneymightnotbeashamed.Heaneyaimsat‘anartthatknowsitsmind’,‘unfussyandbelievable’(ST,97).BecauseSeeingThingsisabooksopervadedbyextinction,itshieroglyphsof

what remains – recreating moments of fullness of feeling – are particularlystriking.Thelastofthesereturnsto‘waterandgroundintheirextremity’(asin‘The Peninsula’ inDoor into the Dark) and foreshadows ‘Postscript’ in TheSpiritLevel,where‘thewind/Andthelightareworkingoffeachother’.Ittoorecordsaglitteringepiphany:

WhenlightbreaksovermeThewayitdidontheroadbeyondColeraine

Wherewindgotsaltier,theskymorehurried

AndsilverlaméshiveredontheBannOutinmid-channelbetweenthepointedpoles,ThatdayI’llbeinstepwithwhatescapedme.

[ST,108]

That elusive river light (chillier than Wordsworth’s) is one that is hoped for

ratherthanattained.Itsshiverisecstaticbutwintry.Bycontrast,‘Squaring’xxiv,Heaney’shymn tonatural sufficiency, records the ever-presentpotential of thesensesforafullerhappiness.Althoughthis‘Squaring’isthesinglemosttranquilpointinSeeingThings,itbegins,significantly,withtheword‘Deserted’,makingtheseasidelandscapenon-social.Thesolitaryviewoffersnothingbutitself,anequilibrium of air and ocean. Here, the minatory ‘rock’ of the quarry-face(‘Squarings’ x) has miniaturized itself into a little litter of hard materialsubstances–cockles,bottle-glass, shell-debris, abitof sandstone. InHeaney’swishforemblematicstillnessthereisalmostnosound,andnosuddenflashingoflight.Instead,thehieroglyphicworldsimplyis:

Desertedharbourstillness.EverystoneClarifiedanddormantunderwater,Theharbourwallamasonryofsilence.

Fullness.Shimmer.LadenhighAtlanticThemooringsbarelystirredin,veryslightCluckingoftheswellagainstboatboards.

Perfectedvision:cockleminaretsConsigneddowntherewithgreen-slickedbottleglass,Shell-debrisandareddenedbudofsandstone.AirandoceanknownasantecedentsOfeachother.InappositionwithOmnipresence,equilibrium,brim.

[ST,80]

The sign of happiness here isHeaney’s return to the fanciful in the ‘cockleminarets’ and ‘reddened bud of sandstone’. There is an elated elaboration ofgrammaraswell,asthepoetsuspendshisperceptionsonavisiblestringofpastparticiples –deserted, clarified, perfected, consigned, known – and an equallyvisible string of concrete and abstract nouns: stone, wall, masonry, silence,fullness, shimmer,Atlantic,moorings,clucking, swell,boards,vision,minarets,glass,debris,bud,sandstone,air,ocean,antecedents,apposition,omnipresence,equilibrium, brim. No one could fail to notice the see-saw between the mostmaterial nouns (stone, boards, glass) and themost evanescent ones (shimmer,equilibrium). Even the adjectives, in this poem of stillness, are mostly solid

nouns pressed into adjectival service:harbour, boat, cockle, bottle, shell. Onefeelsoneselftobefullyinthepresenceofthematerialharbourscene–masonry,boat, stone – and equally in the presence of its felt aura – one of fullness,shimmer, equilibrium. All the elements of language, too, are in balance, theLatinate ‘clarified and dormant’ weighing against the Anglo-Saxon ‘swellagainstboatboards’.Inthefinalswayofimmaterialairagainstmaterialwater,eachbecomes‘antecedent’totheother,andneithertakespriority.AirandoceanarethenplacedinafurtherLatinate‘apposition’withthreeextraordinarynouns–‘Omnipresence,equilibrium,brim’–thefirsttheological,thesecondscientific,the third emotional. The first and second are Latinate, as befits their learnedderivation,thethirdAnglo-Saxon,asbefitsitsprimacyofemotion:andtheeasy‘slippage’bywhich–‘-brium’dropsoffitsLatinate‘u’andbecomestheMiddle-Englishsensual‘brim’isthesignofecstaticsufficiencyinthepresent.But – it should be said once more – this ecstatic sufficiency happens less

withinthefleshthanwithinthemind:withinastillanddesertedmomentvisionis ‘perfected’,andairandoceanare ‘known’ in their reciprocity.Thedynamiclifeoffleshwouldbreakthisperfection–andsothispoemofthanksgivingtoois,likeall‘perfected’things,ahieroglyphofdeath.TheanguishoftheknowledgeofdeathinSeeingThingsisusuallyexpressed

indeliberatelymutedways.But it canbe seenexplicitly in two ‘bookends’of‘Squarings’, one of which (xii) represents the good thief – whose death isimminent–andtheother(xxxiv)asoldierboundforVietnam–whosepotentialdeathmakeshimseemlikearevenant.ThoughtheexcruciatingsufferingofthethiefstandstobealleviatedthroughChrist’spromise–‘ThisdaythoushaltbewithmeinParadise’–itisthesufferingthatdominatesHeaney’salmostsurrealdescription of the good thief’s death-agony, as he scans ‘empty space’ whereheavenshouldbe:

painthimonChrist’srighthand,onapromontoryScanningemptyspace,sobody-rackedheseemsUntranslatableintothebliss

Achedforatthemoon-rimofhisforehead,Bynail-cratersonthedarksideofhisbrain.

[ST,66]

Ifthecrucifiedthiefstandsfortheintolerableknowledgeofthephysicalpainof

dying, then the bleached face of the soldier stands forwhat one learns on theothersideofdeath, itsemptyingofhumanexperience.HeaneysawthesoldierontheairportbusinCalifornia:

ThefaceIseethatallfallsshortofsince

Passesdownanaisle:IsharethebusFromSanFranciscoAirportintoBerkeleyWithoneotherpassenger,who’sdropped

AttheTreasureIslandmilitarybaseHalf-wayacrossBayBridge.Vietnam-bound,Hecouldhavebeenoneofthenewlydeadcomeback,

Unsurprisablebutstilldisappointed,Havingtobearhisfarmboyselfagain,Hisshavingcuts,hisotherworldlybrow.

[ST,92]

So too must Heaney return to ‘bear his farmboy self again’, with only his‘otherworldlybrow’tomarkthepassagehehasundergonethroughhisparents’deaths. Everything is so ‘normal’ – the airport, the bus, the passenger beingdropped off. Yet once the dead are admitted into consciousness, the‘otherworldly brow’ is the result, borne like an uninterpretable sign –comparabletoHawthorne’sminister’sblackveil–amongone’sfellows.It was a great surprise to many of Heaney’s readers – fresh from the

archaeologicalritesofNorth, theactual Irishpersonsandcontemporaryeventsof‘StationIsland’andthepoliticalparablesofTheHawLantern–tocomeuponthe abstract, unmythologized and mostly unpolitical hieroglyphs of SeeingThings.Thevolumeprovesthedegreetowhich,forapoet,anewsenseoflifemustgenerateanewstyle.In‘atimemarkedbyassentandbyhiatus’(ST,70)–the suspended time of recognition rather than action – the poet makes aninventoryofwhatwillbearholdingonto.‘Roofitagain.Battendown.Digin.’Instead of the first-order quiver of sensation, or the elegiac replay of second-order memory, he will enunciate the third-order clarity of adultacknowledgementinlanguage:

Sinkeveryimpulselikeabolt.SecureThebastionofsensation.DonotwaverIntolanguage.Donotwaverinit.

[ST,56]

Suchapassagehasthesternnessofavow.YetHeaneycanre-dotheairinessofthethird-ordersymbolicinanironiccomicmodeaswell:

Youarefreeasthelookout,

Thatfar-seeingjokerpostedhighoverthefog,WhodeclaredbythetimethathehadgothimselfdownTheactualshiphadbeenstolenawayfrombeneathhim.

[ST,29]

Thesymbolicstyle–bycontrasttothefirst-ordermimeticstyle,orthesecond-ordermemorialstyle–acknowledgesineverymomentthattheactualship(andeven the remembered ship) has been stolen away by time. If the ship has notbeenliftedupontoasymbolicplane–thatis,madeintoart–itwilldiewiththedeathofthosewhorememberit.Re-imagined,however,itmaylastsometime.The powerful effort of re-imagining everything – not representing it

mimerically as it happened; not representing it embalmed by memory; butrepresenting itonanabstractandsymbolicplane thatpresents itself as such–this is the strenuousness that underlies the hieroglyphs of Seeing Things. Thevirtueofsuchwritingisthatitrecordswhatispreciouswithouttetheringittoalimitedpersonalplaceandabriefhumanlifetime.Thepoetsacrificeshimself–asautobiographicalpersona,asnarratorofhisownera,asapersonrepresentinghisclassorethnicgroup–inordertoseethingsinthemostbasictermsofall,lifesymbolizedandverbalizedinthefullknowledgeofannihilation.Almosteveryhumanbeingseeshisparentspredeceasehim;alladultchildren

feelthe‘unroofed’qualityofthatpang.Ratherthandwellonviolentdeath(asinNorth or ‘Station Island’), let me, the poet says, see purely the co-presencealwaysandeverywhereoflifeanddeath‘knownasantecedents/Ofeachother’.If the stasis,hiatusandstillnessof thisknowledgepermeateSeeingThings, astheydo;ifspiritisintheascendancyovermatter;ifspeculationsupervenesover

certainty; then Heaney has honoured the shock and rupture of death as itdeserves tobehonoured.Hehaswrittenanewchapter in thehistoryofelegy,forgoing (for themost part) both themournful conventions of lament and thetranscendentconventionsofapotheosis. Insteadhestops time, lookingfor,andhoping to find, ‘the portent / In each setting’ (ST, 75). Yes, the poems areincidentally Irish–referring toLoughNeaghorClonmacnoiseorColeraineorYeats – but they are not either politically or ethnically ‘Irish’. As almostposthumouspoems,theyrejectsuchtransientcategories,whichfallbelow(orlieabove) the plane of present urgency, where the only thing that matters is theunderlyinglawofrelationbetweenlifeandacknowledgeddeath.AstheAeneasof the epigraph comes back fromHades, as theDante of the epilogue comesbackfromHell,soHeaneywillcomeback–butnotunchanged–inTheSpiritLevel.

SecondThoughtsAndhowdoesonewriteofprimaryexperienceagainafterhavingsurvivedthechill of internalized extinction? One cannot forever bear one’s ‘otherworldly’brow;butoriginalverdancyisnotresumable.In‘TheWalk’Heaneyreexaminesmarriage as it appears under the sign of the charred. In the past there wereexcursions intopastoral paradises: ‘Glamoured the road, theday, andhimandher’, with the river-bed ‘Gravelly, shallowy, summerywith pools’. But in thepresent of primary experience the picture is ‘a negative this time, in dazzle-dark’:

Smudgeandpallorwherewemakeoutyouandme,Theselveswestruggledwithandstruggledoutof,Twoshadeswhohaveconsumedeachother’sfire,Twoflamesinsunlightthatcansearandsinge.

Yetthoughhusbandandwifearestillalive,andcapableofangrilysearingandsingeing,theyarealsostrangelyghostlike.ResemblingtheshadesthatspeaktoDante, they ‘seem like wisps of enervated air, / After-waves, feathery ether-shifts’.Itisnot,however,theirdestinytoremainstaticinthisdisembodiedstate:theyare,totheirownsurprise,

aptstilltorekindlesuddenlyIfwefindalongthewaycharredgrassandsticksAndanoldfire-fragrancelingeringon,

Eroticwoodsmoke,witchery,intrigue…

Theinexplicableresurgenceofprimaryfirst-orderdesireamidtheexacerbationsofdeath’s third-order reflections is tooprimal tobeanalysed: itcanmerelybetestifiedto.Itleavesthecouple‘nonethewiser,justbetterprimed/Tospeedtheplough again and feed the flame’ (SL, 63–4). Yet the diction of the sexual –‘fragrance… /Eroticwoodsmoke,witchery, intrigue’ – has regenerated itself,oneaspectof thatdirectly sensual ‘Hosannah ex infernis’ (SL, 3) thatHeaneycannothelputtering.

7

AnAfterwards:TheSpiritLevel

theladderofthefutureandthepast,besiegerandbesieged,thetreadmillofassault.

‘MycenaeLookout’(SL,37)

Amoment of political hope occurred inNorthern Ireland in September 1994,whentheIRAProvisionalsandtheUlsterparamilitariesagreedtoatruce.AtthatmomentSeamusandMarieHeaneywerevisitingTollundinDenmark,thesiteofthediscoveryof theTollundMan, the firstof thebogbodieswrittenabout (in1972)byHeaney.After‘aquarter-centuryoflifewasteandspiritwaste’(CP,24)theweightofmurder in theNorthseemedsuddenlyabout tobe lifted,and thepoetwrote‘Tollund’.Heandhiswifecouldbe,hethought,

footloose,athomebeyondthetribe,

Morescoutsthanstrangers,ghostswho’dwalkedabroadUnfazedbylight,tomakeanewbeginningAndmakeagoofit,aliveandsinning,Ourselvesagain,free-willedagain,notbad.

[SL,69]

Releasedbackinto light,freedintoautonomy,sinnersbutwithout thestrainofcivilstrife,theycanonceagainbedomesticandprivate.‘Tollund’canstandforapoemofAfterwards,marking–asdosomanyofthepoemsinTheSpiritLevel–one’sresponseinapost-catastrophicmoment.Responsescanbejoyous(asin‘Tollund’), mordant (as in the post-ceasefire sequence ‘Mycenae Lookout’),courageouslyquotidian(asinthepoeminpraiseofHeaney’sbrother,‘KeepingGoing’), unevenly life-giving (as in the marriage-poem, ‘The Walk’) or

potentiallyagonizing(asin‘StKevinandtheBlackbird’).Somethinghugehashappened;butafter thatevent lifemustbesustained.TheSpiritLevelenquiresintothatsustainingoflifeinanAfterwards.‘Tollund’s’dreamofpeacewasshatteredby the resumptionofviolenceand

the uncertainty of the ceasefire; but during the time when it seemed thathostilitiesmight finally beover,Heaney,whohadbeen translatingSophocles’Philoctetes for the Field Day Theatre, turned to another Greek drama –Aeschylus’Agamemnon – as the basis for a tragic sequence called ‘MycenaeLookout’. The sequence takes a summary look, through the aftermath of theTrojan War, at the aftermath of Northern Ireland’s quarter-century of civilconflict. The Mycenae lookout, Heaney’s surrogate, is the Watchman inAgamemnon’s palace.Consciousof the initiating sacrifice of Iphigenia byherfather,privytotheadulteryofClytemnestraandAegisthusduringAgamemnon’sabsence at Troy, theWatchman is the helpless bystander at themurder of thereturnedAgamemnon,andtheequallyhelplesswitnesstothepropheciesoftherapedCassandra.HeendsbyforeseeingthemurderousrivalryofRomulusandRemus which will give the next empire an equally bloody history. ‘MycenaeLookout’standsastheemotionalcentrepieceofTheSpiritLevel.Itspeaksfromthe impotent position of the ordinary citizen caught in the crossfire of civilatrocity,anditpredictstheendemieresurgenceofviolenceinculture,aswellasrepresenting culture’s reiterated attempts to cleanse itself of that violence. ForthisreasonIthinkof‘MycenaeLookout’–whichactsasasummaryoftroublesconcluded – as representing an Afterwards. (The sporadic breakdowns of theceasefiredonotinvalidatethepoliticalclosureitsymbolized.)TheotherpoemsofTheSpiritLevelchieflyconcern‘keepinggoing’,astoic

Afterwards. This can mean the resuming of ordinary activity after socialcatastrophe, or merely enduring what Hopkins called, speaking of his ownmiddle age, ‘the jading and jar of the cart, / Time’s tasking’. It is with theseusually stoic, but sometimes even joyful pieces that Iwant tobegin.They aregroundedinthedoingsofeveryday:thepoetasachildandhissiblingsplaying‘train’onasofaintheHeaneyfarmhouse;aDutchpottermakinghervesselsofclay;Heaney’s brotherHugh tending his cows – ‘keeping going’ even duringoccasionalepileptic‘turns’thatgivehimvertigo:StKevinstandingmotionlessuntilthenestinhishandcanhatchitseggs;Caedmonspendingmostofhistimeas a hardworking yardman; Heaney’s mother ‘steeping her swollen feet’; theblind neighbour Rosie Keenan and her hours of playing the piano; MarieHeaney’s father, after the death of his wife, becoming more and more

adventurousashe

tookthepowermowerinhisstride.Flirtedandvaunted…Learnedtomicrowave.

[SL,60–1]

Aboveall,thereisthepoet’sancestor,ajourneymantailorwhogoesfromhousetohouse, stitchingand rippingashe sits crosslegged, ‘unopen,unmendacious,unillumined’:

Doesheeverquestionwhatitallamountsto

Oreverwill?Orcarewherehelayshishead?MyLordBuddhaofBanagher,thewayIsopenerforyourbeinginit.

[SL,67–8]

Thisisthepoetryofsittingatone’swork,standingforgetfulofselfinaparentalprotectiveness,goingaboutperennialmotions,bearingone’sblindnessorone’swidowerhoodwithoutlettingthemsapone’svitality,andsinging,likeCaedmon,intheintervalsbetweenone’sduties.Stoicismisbydefinitionundramatic;itisthevirtueofmiddleage,whenone’s

progress is at best horizontal, and the future can hold only a decline. It is amatter of living with and within the choices one has made (like the marriedcouplein‘AWalk’).Andtheformalbeautypropertostoicism–oneofsolidity,monumentality, simplification – has seldom been celebrated (and even moreseldomenacted)inlyric.Inpart thishasbeenamatterofchance:manyofourbestpoetsdiedrelativelyyoung.OnecanfindthepoetryofstoicisminWallaceStevens,but there it is thewintrypoetryof the snowman,beholding ‘nothingthatisnotthereandthenothingthatis’.Heaney’stemperamentismoresanguinethanStevens’s,moresocial,moreweddedto thepossibilitiesofhopeand trustandmutualhelp.ForHeaneyasayouth,thestoicpersonexistedassolaceandexample:ashe

saysoftheblindRosieKeenan,

BeingwithherWasintimateandhelpful,likeacureYoudidn’tnoticehappening.

[SL,66]

Characteristically,thepoetdoesnotsaywhy,asayoungperson,heneededthehelpand‘cure’insensiblyconveyedbyRosieKeenan’spresence,butsomegriefinhimwaslightenedbyherserenityandhermusic.(Hepayshischildhooddebttohermuchlaterwhenhereadstoherapoemhewrote‘withKeenan’swellinit’.Shesays,‘Icanseetheskyatthebottomofitnow.’Itisimpliedthathergifttohimwasananalogousone:sherevealedtothechildthemoralclearskyatthebottomofadarkplace.)InwritingRosieKeenanintoasonnet–thatformparexcellence of passion, impetuousness, youth and ‘high sentence’ – Heaneyexpandsthegenre.Ithasnot,historically,beenaformawareofthehandicappedortheimpaired.RosieKeenanisthefirstsonnetheroinetoappearthisway:‘Herhandswereactiveandhereyeswerefull/Ofopendarknessandawateryshine’(ST, 65).BecauseRosieKeenan is also a ‘sweet-voiced,withdrawnmusician’herstoicismcanbeassimilatedintothewithdrawnnessofallartistsintotheirart,and to the stoicism of marital fidelity; she is paired, in the poem ‘At theWellhead’,with thepoet’swifesingingwithclosedeyes(‘asyoualwaysdo’):‘Dearshut-eyedone,dearfar-voicedveteran’(ST,65).Thename‘veteran’isoneproper to the stoic: though its Latin root means ‘old’, it has acquired theconnotationofonewhohashadalongrecordofhonourableserviceinanyfield.Therearereallyfewanteriormodelsforawayinwhichveteranstatusorstoic

endurance can be formally enacted (as distinguished from semanticallyrecounted)inpoetry.Howcanone‘say’stoicisminform?Onewayistomimicthe continuing steadfastness of the stoic stance, and this is the path Heaneychoosesinhisbeautifuldouble-poemofimmobilityinservice,‘StKevinandtheBlackbird’. It consists of two twelve-line ‘squarings’. The first ‘squaring’ isnarratedfromtheoutside;duringthewholeofitthesaintremainsunmovinginhis cell, with his arms stretched out. Since he occupies the entire descriptivespace, he resembles, in his monumentality, a figure such as Cézanne’s singlemalebather,whooccupiesthewholecanvas.AroundthemotionlessfigureofStKevinthenarratorofthelegendconstructshiscolloquialtale.Theimpressionofsimplicityisachievednotonlybyplainnessofdictionbutalsobytherepetitionof ‘and’ and of items in series. Another feature contributing to the poem’s

simplicityisthemaintenancethroughoutofthepresentindicativeuntilthe‘musthold’ofmodalobligation(line10)replacesit:

AndthentherewasStKevinandtheblackbird.Thesaintiskneeling,armsstretchedout,insideHiscell,butthecellisnarrow,so

Oneturned-uppalmisoutthewindow,stiffAsacrossbeam,whenablackbirdlandsAndlaysinitandsettlesdowntonest.

Kevinfeelsthewarmeggs,thesmallbreast,thetuckedNeatheadandclawsand,findinghimselflinkedIntothenetworkofeternallife,

Ismovedtopity:nowhemustholdhishandLikeabranchoutinthesunandrainforweeksUntiltheyoungarehatchedandfledgedandflown.

[SL,20]

Thepoemisstrungonseven‘and’s’: theopeningonelinksthisfolktale toallpreceding ones; the next two link the blackbird to the saint; the fourth linkssensation to reflection; the fifth linksbeneficent andmalignweathers; and thesixth and seventh link the stages in the young birds’ growth. There is nosubordination of one item to another: they lie before us in the flat plane ofmedieval illustration. ‘And here’s another legend: St Kevin and the blackbirdlandingandlayingandnesting;andthesaint’ssubmissiontohisplight;andsunandrainsupervening;andthehatchingandfledgingandflyingoffoftheyoung.’The‘and’narrative–whichifitcontainedonlyitspresent-tenseverbs,wouldbeastoryratherthananexemplum–ismademoralbyKevin’spityobligatinghimtostoicism:‘nowhemust’remaininhisexcruciatingpositionforweeks.Heaney’suseofseriesprolongseachmomentofthenarrativeintosomething

repetitive, thereby formally enacting the prolongation of pain entailed byKevin’sstoicism:

Thesaintis a)doingwhat? kneeling,b)how? armsstretchedout,c)inwhatplace? insidehiscell,

Hispalmis a)where? outthewindow,

b)inwhatposture? stiffasacrossbeam,Ablackbird a)lands andthen?

b)lays andthen?c)settlesdowntonest.

Kevinfeels a)thewarmeggs, andwhatelse?

b)thesmallbreast, andwhatelse?c)thetuckedneathead andwhatelse?d)andclaws

and,findinghimselflinkedintothenetworkofeternallife,ismovedtopity.

Nowhemustholdhishanda)how? likeabranchb)where?b1) outinthesunb2) andrainc)howlong? forweeksd)untilwhen? theyoungared1) hatchedand?d2) andfledgedand?d3) andflown.

Ofcoursesucharrangementscometothepoetinstinctively(sincehehasmanytemplatesofstylisticequivalenceinhisrepertoire),butwhenwelooktoseehowthe endurance of Kevin is enacted and therebymade believable, it is in suchformsthatwefindouranswer.In the second ‘squaring’ of the Kevin poem the speaker, in a prolonged

interrogation,seekstoknowKevin’sinteriordispositionduringhislongordeal.How would stoicism enact itself inside a saint? Does he feel the agony of‘keeping going’ or does he, so to speak, forget himself to marble? In this‘squaring’itisatfirsttherepetitionofthequestionsandtheserialenumerationofthebodilypartsofthesaint(inanasceticreversalofthe‘blazon’ofbeauty)thatmakefortheeffectofunchangingstoicendurance:

Andsincethewholething’simaginedanyhow,

ImaginebeingKevin.Whichishe?Self-forgetfulorinagonyallthetime

Fromtheneckonoutdownthroughhishurtingforearms?Arehisfingerssleeping?Doeshestillfeelhisknees?Orhastheshut-eyedblankofunderearth

Creptupthroughhim?Istheredistanceinhishead?

If we graph these questions, we can see that they arrange themselves in twocolumns forming an abba chiasmus in which agony is placed betweenspeculationsofself-forgetfulness:

SELF-FORGETFULNESSAGONY

Whichishe?

Self-forgetful?

orinagonyallthetimefromneckthroughforearms?Arehisfingerssleeping?Doeshestillfeelhisknees?or

Hastheblankcreptup?Istheredistanceinhishead?

Thecloseofthepoemchoosestheleft-handalternative,inwhichstoicismturnsinto something almost indistinguishable from lyric death. Kevin in his self-abnegationlosesidentity;henolongerrememberstheobjectofhispity,andheforgets even language: he cannot recall the name of the river where love hasplacedhimandinwhichheisnowreflected:

Aloneandmirroredclearinlove’sdeepriver,‘Tolabourandnottoseekreward,’heprays,

AprayerhisbodymakesentirelyForhehasforgottenself,forgottenbirdAndontheriverbankforgottentheriver’sname.

[SL,20–21]

In his Nobel lecture Heaney calls Kevin someone who is ‘true to life if

subversive of common sense, at the intersection of natural process and theglimpsed ideal’ (CP, 32). The entire altruism of Kevin in his fatherlyprotectivenessofthefledglingsmustperhapsremainonlya‘glimpsedideal’foranyartist;butHeaney’spersuasivepowersaresuchthatthereader,havingbeenconducted phase by phase through the stages of Kevin’s suffering and self-forgetfulness, endsbyadmiring the saint’sdevotion.The last enacting form inthepoemisthethreefoldstoicseriesoftwo‘pray’/‘prayer’s’,three‘river’sandthree ‘forgotten’s. It is as though the saint’s stoic metabolism, withoutintervention by conscious will, keeps producing these serial heartbeats andbreaths:river/prays/prayer/forgotten/forgotten/riverbank/forgotten/river.If one way of rendering stoic endurance visible is to monumentalize and

simplifyit,andprolongitintoseriesandrepetitions,anotherwayistoplaceitinapolyptychwith itscontrastiveopposites. In‘KeepingGoing’wefindapoemwhichfoldstogethersixorientingmoments,allsubtendedbythepoet’sbrother’spresentstamina.InsteadofleavingUlsterfortheRepublic,asthepoetdid,hisbrotherHugh has stayed in theNorth tomaintain the family farm, remainingequable through the horrors of the Troubles, and living in peace with hisneighbours.Thepoemisinpartaninvestigationofthequalitiesthatgotomakeupthatsortofemotionalstamina,inpartanoverviewoftheatrociousconditionswhichmakethestoicresponseanheroicone.Thepoet’ssummarizingaddressintheclosingsectionofthepoemsays,

Mydearbrother,youhavegoodstamina.Youstayonwhereithappens.YourbigtractorPullsupattheDiamond,youwaveatpeople,Youshoutandlaughabouttherevs,youkeepOldroadsopenbydrivingonthenewones.

Andall this isbothpraiseworthyandcharacteristicofHugh,asweknowfromscene1(representinghis irrepressiblegoodhumour inyouth)ashepretends–withanupside-downchairforpipesandawhitewashbrushforasporran–tobeapiper,leadinghisyoungsiblingsonamarch:

Yourpop-eyesandbigcheeksnearlyburstingWithlaughter,butkeepingthedronegoingonInterminably,betweencatchesofbreath.

ItisnotonlyjoyousnessthatlivesoninHugh,butalsohissteadydevotiontothe

workhehasbeendoingsincehisyouth,asweseeinscene2,inwhichheandtheyoungpoet-to-beare,inthepast,puttingthewhitewashbrush/sporrantoitsproperuse,freshlywhitewashingthefamilycottage:

…theslopoftheactualjobOfbrushingwalls,thewaterygreyBeinglashedoninbroadswatches,thendryingoutWhiterandwhiter,allthatworkedlikemagic.

Intheworldofthepoet’syouth,whateverbecomesdingycanberenewedbythemagicofthere-whiteningbrush.In scene3of thepoem the atmospheredarkens, as thepoet recalls thepre-

Christian superstitions of childhood: the belief that the dead congregate afterdarkatthegable,thefactthatHughbrokehisarmwhenthethorntree(thoughttohave‘fairy’power)wascutdown;‘thedread/Whenastrangebirdperchedfor days on the byre roof’. In scene 4 moral evil (rather than the simplesuperstitionsof scene3)penetrates the innocenceof the cottage:Macbeth andthewitchesand theirapparitionshover in thebackgroundas thepoet’smotherwarns her son against ‘bad boys’ at secondary school. Then, in scene 5, asectarian murder – fulfilling all the previous pagan and Shakespeareanintimationsofnightmareandslaughter–occursintown,leavingawhitewashedwallsmearedwith‘greymatterlikegruelfleckedwithblood’fromtheheadofthemanshottodeath,whohadbeenleaningagainstthewallwhenhisassassin’scar, after crossing ‘the Diamond’, drove by. The victim’s spilled blood isrepresentedbythepoetasaVirgilianlibationwhichwill‘feed’othermurderedghosts:

…henevermoved,justpushedwithallhismightAgainsthimself,thenfellpastthetarredstrip,Feedingthegutterwithhiscopiousblood.

It is that very spot of murder, ‘the Diamond’, that Hugh re-consecrates toordinary use by pulling up to it in his tractor, with cheerful gestures ofneighbourliness(scene6).Heaney’suseofthepresenttenseofhabitrestorestheeveryday, the continued, the usual. It shows the overcoming – by simplenaturalness–oftheunnaturalnessofviolence:

Youstayonwhereithappens.YourbigtractorPullsupattheDiamond,youwaveatpeople,Youshoutandlaugh…

A great deal of weight in favour of Hugh’s choice of life is exerted by thishabitualpresentofdecency,exuberanceandhardwork:onefeelsHeaney’sdeepadmirationforhisbrother’srestorationofequanimitytoeverydayexistence.Yetthepoetalsofeelsthisresiliencehaslimitstoitspower:

Youcalledthepiper’ssporranswhitewashbrushesAndthendressedupandmarchedusthroughthekitchen,Butyoucannotmakethedeadwalkorrightwrong.

Thecitywall,smearedwithblood,cannotbewhitewashedasthecottagewallscouldbe.And the poet then adds a different picture of Hugh, suffering an epileptic

‘turn’asthecowsarebeingmilked:

Iseeyouattheendofyourtethersometimes,Inthemilkingparlour,holdingyourselfupBetweentwocowsuntilyourturngoespast,ThencomingtointhesmellofdungagainAndwondering,isthisall?AsitwasInthebeginning,isnowandshallbe?

Theseare thequestionsHeaneyalsoput tohis journeyman-ancestor: ‘Doesheeverquestionwhatitallamountsto?’Theindividuallifecanmattersolittleintheschemeof things, that to lookat it infar-focus(‘as itwasinthebeginning…’)cangivenomoralsatisfaction.Instead,thepoetallowsHughtoresumehishabitual actions, but now (following the grammatical lead of the passage ofvertigo)inthepresentparticipleofinfiniteextension:

Andwondering,isthisall?…ThenrubbingyoureyesandseeingouroldbrushUponthebyredoor,andkeepinggoing.

[SL,10–12]

Bythecomplexityofitssixscenes–rangingfromShakespeareanblood-murderspurred on by superstition, to the persistence of similar archaic superstition inIrishfolklife, tothenonethelesscheerfulordinarinessresilientlyaliveinthatsame Irish life, to sectarian assassination, to themomentary faltering of evensuchastoicasHugh–‘KeepingGoing’insertsthevirtueofthestoicAfterwardsintomultiple contemporary and past contexts. Heaney here stretches the lyricintounwontednarrativeextension, toshowthatstoicismisnotcontextless likeStKevin’sexceptwhenit isfoundinparableorexemplum.IndailylifeintheNorth itcontendswithamultitudeofcounter-forces,pastandpresent,culturalandinternal.ThereisahappiersidetoendurancethroughtimeinTheSpiritLevel,buteven

insuchacelebratorypoemas‘“Poet’sChair”’(namedafterabronzechairbythesculptorCarolynMulholland)thehalf-organicchair–‘itsstraightbacksproutstwobronzeandleafysaplings’–which,initsurbansetting,isoccupiedatsomepoint by almost everyone in Dublin is imagined, in the middle scene of thepoem,aspartofthesettingforadeath-ritual:

NextthingIseethechairinawhiteprisonWithSocratessittingonit…NotearsAndnonenowasthepoisondoesitswork.

[SL,46–47]

Though the third scene restores ordinary continuity, normalcy and hope (thethought ‘ofbeinghere forgood inevery sense’) theundeniablecentrepieceof‘“Poet’sChair”’isSocrates’exemplaryandstoicaldeath.Heaney’simaginationmustnowsomehowfindroom,inalmosteverypoem,forathree-phasescenarioshowing,inturn,ordinarylife,itsviolationbysomeeventanditsrestorationby‘keepinggoing’afterwards.While many poems in The Spirit Level represent these phases within the

conventionofpresent-dayrealism,Heaney’sconvictionthattheyarenotlimitedtohisownhistoricalmomentleadshimtosummonupmythicequivalents,suchas themurder of Socrates or the events surrounding theTrojanWar. I believethat Heaney allowed himself the unexampled linguistic violence in ‘MycenaeLookout’onlybecause it seemed thepolitical troublesmight beover, andonecouldwrite finis –witha summary sequence– to thewhole incomprehensibleslaughter. ‘Neighbourly murder’ (‘Funeral Rites’) has always been

incomprehensible to Heaney: though he might have been able (as he says in‘Punishment’) to ‘connive in civilized outrage’ yet understand the ‘exact andintimate’revengeoftheCatholicswhoshavedtheheadsofgirlswhofraternizedwithBritish soldiers,he isunable tounderstand,or empathizewith, theactofmurder.Hecanatmost,asin‘MycenaeLookout’,recognizeitsinexplicable,butapparentlyunstoppablerecurrenceinhumanaffairs.Thefivepartsof‘MycenaeLookout’areallspokenbytheWatchman,whose

imagination – as he waits for Agamemnon’s return from Troy – has beenpollutedbythebloodthirstinessoftheTrojanwar:

I’ddreamofbloodinbrightwebsinaford,OfbodiesrainingdownliketatteredmeatOntopofmeasleep.

[SL,29]

(Heaneyhas spokenof a comparabledream, inwhichhe sawabloodiedmanfalling towards him.) Bywriting theWatchman’s first narrative in the run-onpentameter couplets we associate with Keats’s hopeful pastorals (‘Sleep andPoetry’, ‘Endymion’),Heaneymakesasardonic ‘blackmirror’ (SL,30)outofwhatwasoriginallyamildEnglishnarrativeform.AndbywritinghisportraitofCassandra in the shortestpossible lines (monometer,dimeter), cuttingoffeachlinealmostbeforeithasbegun,hemakesitsavagelyintunewiththeabductionandabuseoftherapedgirlwhomAgamemnonhasbroughtbackfromTroy.‘Nosuchthing,’saystheWatchman,‘asinnocentbystanding’:

Nosuchthingasinnocentbystanding.

Hersoiledvest,herlittlebreasts,herclipped,devastated,

scabbedpunkhead,thechar-eyed

faminegawk–shelookedcamp-fucked

andsimple.

Heaneyhasneverbeforepermittedhimselfsuchbrutalstrokes indelineatingavictim.Cassandrahasnotbeendistancedbyarchaism(asthebogbodieswere,bronzed and stylized by quasi-petrifaction); she stands before us, through theWatchman’s eyes, as she might have been, defensive and defenceless.Agamemnon,killerofhisowndaughter, isequallyviolentlysketcheduponhisreturn,aterroristcarelessoftheresultsofhiswill:

OldKingCock-of-the-Walkwasback,

King-Kill-the-Child-and-TakeWhat-Comes,KingAgamemnon’sdrum-

balled,oldbuck’sstridewasback.

Cassandra’sprophecy–her‘bleatofclair-x/voyantdread’–merelyawakesinthenon-innocent‘bystanders’awishtorapeheragain:

Andaresultantshockdesireinbystanderstodoittoher

thereandthen.Littlerentcuntoftheirguilt.

The whole bloody crisis of the king’s return, as Clytemnestra and AegisthusthrowanetoverAgamemnoninthebathandstabbothhimandCassandra,takesonthelanguageofcartoon:

Littlerentcuntoftheirguilt:

inshewenttotheknife,tothekillerwife,

tothenetoverherandherslaver,theTroyreaver.

BorrowingfromAeschylus,HeaneygivesCassandrathelast,truncatedwordofthismercilesspoem,andsheuses it topronounce the irrationalityofhistoricalevent.Unpredictably,someepochsaresuffusedwithlight,otherswithdarkness;what is certain is that each is erased, after its fated time, by ‘Awipe / of thesponge’:

inshewent…saying,‘Awipeofthesponge,that’sit.

Theshadow-hingeswingsunpredictablyandthelight’s

blankedout.’

[SL,30–33]

Thedarkness,aschaosfallsonanepoch,issignifiedbythetwomissinglinesofCassandra’slasttercet.Ifelt,’saystheWatchmaninhisdawn-vision,‘thebeatingofthehugetime-

wound/Welivedinside.’Andthoughhebendstotouchtheflowerswiththeir

‘pre-dawn gossamers’, his soul ‘wept in [his] hand’, contaminating even themostinnocentactionwiththestainoftragedy.Hisdawn-visionreachesforwardto Romulus and Remus, to the erotic excitement of conflict, as he sees thefratricide

ahilly,ominousplace,

SmallcrowdsofpeoplewatchingasamanJumpedafreshearth-wallandanotherranAmorously,itseemed,tostrikehimdown.

[SL,34]

Heaney’s rhyming triplets in this section of ‘Mycenae Lookout’ suggest thatoncesomethinghasbegun(‘aman’),aconsequencefollowsasifbyconsonance(‘anotherran’);andthatachimingresult(‘tostrikehimdown’)isequally,andfatedly, impelled by the momentum of the first two. It is this irresistiblemomentum that drives the Watchman – confidant of both Clytemnestra andAgamemnon, witness of child-murder, criminal sexuality, brutal battle andregicide–toacoarsenessoflanguagethatfitshistale:

Thewarputallmenmad,horned,horsedorroof-posted,theboastingandthebested.

[SL,36]

Finally, in his concluding ‘reverie of water’, theWatchman is both doom-ladenandhopeful,asthoughHeaneycannotridhimselfofthetragicconvictionthateachhiatusfromviolenceisonlythat–ahiatus;andyetat thesametimecannotresistatrustthatblood-sheddingcanfindwaterforitspurification.Thetragicreverieshowshumanitycaughton

theladderofthefutureandthepast,besiegerandbesieged,thetreadmillofassault.

By contrast, the sequence ends on the sinking of a newwell-shaft bymen atpeace,

likedischargedsoldierstestingthesafeground,

finders,keepers,seersoffreshwaterinthebountifulroundmouthsofironpumpsandgushingtaps.

[SL,37]

Heaney-the-Watchman has returned to the pump at Mossbawn, described inPreoccupationsasthecentre,theomphalos,ofthechild’sworld:

There the pump stands, a slender, iron idol, snouted, helmeted… Iremember…mencomingtosinktheshaftofthepump…Thatpumpmarked an original descent into earth, sand, gravel,water. It centredandstakedtheimagination,madeitsfoundationthefoundationoftheomphalositself.

[P,17,20]

Ifwater,insteadofbloodgushingfroma‘time-wound’,canonceagainbemadethe symbol of Ireland, then, hope can return. Heaney’s wish for a benignAfterwards, and his Lark-inesque praise of water, outstrips, perhaps, anyhistoricalfoundation:butthealternativetothewishisadespairwhichhefindsithismoralobligationtoresist.

SecondThoughtsThepoetdoesallowdespairtocloseonepoem:‘ADogWasCryingTonightinWicklowAlso’(writteninmemoryofaNigerianfriend,DonatusNwoga).IntheAfricanfableretoldbythepoemthegodChukwuisliedtobyatoad,whotellshim that ‘Human beingswant death to last forever’;Chukwu so ordains. Thepoem ends with Heaney’s bleakest Afterwards, a tableau of annihilation andelegy:

GreatchiefsandgreatlovesInobliteratedlight,thetoadinmud,Thedogcryingoutallnightbehindthecorpsehouse.

[SL,56]

It is becauseHeaney knows both sides of the contest ofmatter and spirit –annihilation countered by stoicism, the virtual extinguished by the physical –that his poems have increasingly needed to be sequences, long enough andvarious enough – like ‘Mycenae Lookout’ or ‘Keeping Going’ or the six-part‘TheFlightPath’–toembracehissenseoftheundeniablycontradictoryaspectsofexperience.Hissteadyincorporationofhispast intohispresent,andoffirstthoughts into second thoughts, makes the task of truth-telling harder, and thefindingof languagemorearduous,witheachdecade.Heaneyhasbeen forced,bytheplaceandtimeintowhichhewasborn,totakeon,withintheessentiallyprivategenretowhichhewascalled,therepresentationofanunignorablesocialdimension.It shouldbe remembered that theonly thing towhich thegenreof the lyric

obliges its poet is to represent his own situation and his responses to it inadequateimaginativelanguage.Sinceevenhismoststrenuouscriticsneverseemto doubt thatHeaney has shown them how he sees his situation and how hisfeelings respond to it, they– even in arguing againstwhat they take tobehisviews–arethebestwitnessestohisimaginativesuccess.Theirdemandthatheseepredicamentsofpoliticsorgenderastheywould,orhavethesamefeelingsaboutthemastheydois,ofcourse,unanswerable;thatisnotademandonecanmakeofart.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A.WorksbySeamusHeaney

All,unlessnotedotherwise,werepublishedinLondonbyFaber&Faber(intheyearnoted)andinNewYorkbyFarrar,StrausandGiroux.Forthemostrecentbibliographyofuncollectedarticles,interviewsandradiobroadcastsbyHeaney,and of criticism on Heaney and on Irish poetry, seeMichael Parker, SeamusHeaney:TheMakingofthePoet(Macmillan,1993).AcompletebibliographyofHeaney’sworkisinpreparationbyRandyBrandesofLenoir-RhyneUniversityintheUnitedStates.

1.POETRY

DeathofaNaturalist(1966)DoorintotheDark(1969)WinteringOut(1972)North(1975)FieldWork(1979)AndOpenLetter(Deny:FieldDayTheatreCompany,1983)StationIsland(1984)SweeneyAstray(1984)TheHawLantern(1987)SelectedPoems1966–1987(1990)SeeingThings(1991)TheSpiritLevel(1996)

2.CRITICISM

Preoccupations:SelectedProse1968–1978(1980)TheGovernmentoftheTongue(1988)ThePlaceofWriting(Atlanta:ScholarsPress,1989)TheRedressofPoetry(1995)

CreditingPoetry(theNobelLecture)(1996)

3.PLAYS

TheCureatTroy:AVersionofSophocles’Philoctetes(1990)

4.DISCOGRAPHY

TheNorthernMuse–withJohnMontague(CladdaghRecords,1968;outofprint)

SeamusHeaney(HarvardUniversity,1987)SteppingStones:SelectedPoems(PenguinAudioBooks,1995)TheSpiritLevel(PenguinAudioBooks,1996)StationIsland(PenguinAudioBooks,1997)

B.SelectedbooksandeditedcollectionsonSeamusHeaney

Agenda:SeamusHeaneyBirthdayIssue,ed.WilliamCooksonandPeterDale(London:AgendaandEditionsCharitableTrust,1989)

Allen,Michael,ed.,SeamusHeaney:NewCasebookSeries(London:Macmillan,1997)

Andrews,Elmer,ThePoetryofSeamusHeaney:AlltheRealmsofWhisper(London:Macmillan,1988)

Andrews,Elmer,ed.,SeamusHeaney:ACollectionofCriticalEssays(London:Macmillan,1992)

Bloom,Harold,ed.,SeamusHeaney:ModernCriticalViews(NewYork:ChelseaHouse,1986)

Burns,Sidney,ThePoetryofResistance:SeamusHeaneyandthePastoralTradition(Athens,GA:OhioUniversityPress,1990)

Buttel,Robert,SeamusHeaney(Lewisburg:BucknellUniversityPress,1975)Corcoran,Neil,SeamusHeaney(London:Faber,1986)Curtis,Tony,ed.,TheArtofSeamusHeaney,revisededn.(Bridgend:Poetry

WalesPress,1994)Foster,JohnWilson,TheAchievementofSeamusHeaney(Dublin:TheLilliput

Press,1995)

Foster,ThomasC.,SeamusHeaney(Dublin:TheO’BrienPress,1989)Hart,Henry,SeamusHeaney:PoetofContraryProgressions(NewYork:

SyracuseUniversityPress,1992)Haviaras,Stratis,ed.,SeamusHeaney:ACelebration.AHarvardReview

Monograph(Cambridge,Mass.:ThePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege,1996)

Morrison,Blake,SeamusHeaney(London:Methuen,1982)Murphy,Andrew,SeamusHeaney(Plymouth:NorthcoteHouse,1996)O’Donoghue,Bernard,SeamusHeaneyandtheLanguageofPoetry(New

York:HarvesterWheatsheaf,1994)Parker,Michael,SeamusHeaney:TheMakingofthePoet(Dublin:Gill&

Macmillan,1993)Tamplin,Ronald,SeamusHeaney(MiltonKeynes:OpenUniversityPress,

1989)

INDEX

Thepaginationofthiselectroniceditiondoesnotmatchtheeditionfromwhichitwascreated.Tolocateaspecificpassage,pleaseusethesearchfeatureofyoure-bookreader’ssearchtools.

A

Aeschylus,156,171AnahorishSchool,xiArmstrong,Sean,60,64,74

B

Belfastriots(1969),8,39‘BloodySunday’(1972),xiii,1,18,39,65BuileSuibhne,xiv,4,92,101Bunyan,John,123

C

Caedmon,157,158Carleton,William,93,94,96Carson,Ciaran,4,5CarysfortTeacherTrainingCollege,xiiiCelan,Paul,1,9Cézanne,Paul,101,160Chekhov,Anton,101Clarke,Austin,13CommonwealthAward,xvCorcoran,Neil,21

D

Dante,4,73,92,96,116,137,153Deane,Seamus,xi,4Derryriots(1969),8,39Diogenes,117–18DuffCooperAward,xiii

E

Eliot,T.S.,8Emmet,Robert,104

F

Ficino,Marsilio,131Field,John,64FieldDay,xivFieldDayTheatreCompany,xvFriel,Brian,xivFrost,Robert,4

G

Glob,P.V.,34,39,41,43–4Gonne,Maud,64Goya,51GreekAnthology,5Guthrie,W.K.C.,75

H

Hardy,Thomas,138

HarvardUniversity,xiv,xvHeaney,CatherineAnne(daughter),xiii,59Heaney,Christopher(brother),xiHeaney,Christopher(son),xii,59Heaney,Hugh(brother),157,164–7Heaney,MargaretKathleen(mother),xi,xv,76,77,83,111,114Heaney,Marie(Devlin),xii,59,67,155,157Heaney,Mary(aunt),108,143Heaney,Michael(son),xii,59Heaney,Patrick(father),xi,xv,75–7,80–1,111,114HEANEYSEAMUS,works:CreditingPoetry(NobelLecture),1,5,6TheCureatTroy,xv,6DeathofaNaturalist,xii,14,18,79,

HEANEYSEAMUS,works:–138–9DoorintotheDark,xii,14,18,38,39,89,146FieldWork,xiv,58,59–60,65,66,69–70,72,74–7,87,90,92,96,139TheGovernmentoftheTongue,xv,6,11TheHawLantern,xv,2,75,105,111,113–33,136,139,143,144,150North,xiii,2,3,38,40,45,48,50,.55,.56,74,.86,87,89,108,139,150,152

ThePlaceofWriting,xv,6Poems1965–1975,xiv,Preoccupations,xiv,5,17TheRedressofPoetry,xv,6,17–18SeeingThings,xv,113,133,137–8,140,143,145,146–9,150–2SelectedPoems1966–1987,xv,28,79TheSpiritLevel,xv,xvi,23,25,105,113,133,146,152,156–7,168StationIsland,xv,2,35,.55,.77,.85,92,101,105,111SweeneyAstray,xiv,92WinteringOut,xiii,31,33,37,.39,.40,.58,65,83,86‘FeelingintoWords’(essay),3,41,79‘FrontiersofWriting’(essay),137

poems:‘AnAfterwards’,73‘Alphabets’,15,127,130–3‘Anahorish’,18,28

‘Antaeus’,89‘AtaPotatoDigging’,21‘AttheWellhead’,159‘TheBackwardLook’,58‘TheBadgers’,74,78,90–1,102‘Belfast’,87‘BloodySunday’,xiii‘BogOak’,87‘BogQueen’,44,45–8,50‘Bogland’,38–9‘Bye-Child’,32,33‘Casualty”,60,62,64–5‘ChurningDay’,35‘Clearances’,xv,77,83,111,113–14‘TheCleric’,140‘Damson’,85,105–7,109–10‘DeathofaNaturalist’,28,29–30‘Digging’,28–9,93‘TheDisappearingIsland’,119‘Docker’,79,83‘ADogWasCryingTonightinWicklowAlso’,174‘ADrinkofWater’,74‘Elegy’,61–2‘Exposure’,87–9,128‘FieldofVision’,136‘TheFirstKingdom’,35–6,37,99‘TheFlightPath’,175‘Follower’,20–1‘TheForge’,19‘FromtheCantonofExpectation’,123,125,130‘FromtheFrontierofWriting’,115–17,119,129–30‘FromtheLandoftheUnspoken’,125‘FuneralRites’,38,52–3‘GlanmoreSonnets’,66–9‘TheGrauballeMan’,44–5,50,126‘GrotusandCoventina’,127‘TheHarvestBow’,74

‘TheHawLantern’,19–20‘HerculesandAntaeus’,89–90‘HighSummer’,66‘IntheBeech’,36,37,99‘InMemoriam:RobertFitzgerald’,119‘KeepingGoing’,156,164,175‘Limbo’,23,31–3‘LinenTown’,84–5,123‘ALoughNeaghSequence’,20‘MaighdeanMara’,23‘Midas’,19‘Mid-TermBreak’,xi,28,30–1‘TheMilkFactory’,119‘Mossbawn’,15‘Mother’,23,37‘TheMudVision’,144–5‘MycenaeLookout’,9,155,156–7,168–74,175‘TheOldIcons’,102–5OntheRoad’,56,99‘Oracle’,15,28,29‘OrangeDrums,Tyrone1966’,79,80,83‘TheOtherSide’,28,35,81–3‘Oysters’,70–2‘ParableIsland’,123‘ThePeninsula’,23–5,26,71–2,144,146‘PersonalHelicon’,28,29‘APillowedHead’,xiii‘Poet’sChair’,168‘Postscript’,25,26,71–2,146‘ThePulse’,139‘Punishment’,44,48–50‘RelicofMemory’,28‘RequiemfortheCroppies’,11–2,85’TheRiddle’,119–21‘RiteofSpring’,20‘StFrancisandtheBirds’,23‘StKevinandtheBlackbird’,156,159–64

‘TheScribes’,100–1‘TheSeedCutters’,13,19,108‘SeeingThings’,142‘AShootingScript’,119‘ShootingsoftheThirdofMay’,51‘ShoreWoman’,23‘SingingSchool’,xii,9,16,51‘TheSkunk’,69‘ASlumberDidMySpiritSeal’,7‘Squarings’,136–9,140,145,147,149‘StationIsland’,xi,xiv,61,78,92–9,105,111–12,127,152‘Stations’,27,80‘TheStoneVerdict’,xv,75,76–7‘TheStrandatLoughBeg’,60–1,96‘StrangeFruit’,48‘SummerHome’,65‘Sunlight’,108–10‘SweeneyRedivivus’,35–6,92,99,102,140‘Terminus’,10,121‘Thatcher’,19,21‘TheThimble’,133–5‘ThreeDrawings’,139‘Tollund’,xv,155–6‘TheTollundMan’,34,42–4,50,126‘TrialRuns’,80‘Triptych’,xiii‘AnUlsterTwilight’,85‘Undine’,22‘TheWalk’,153,156,158‘WhateverYouSaySayNothing’,40,74‘WheelsWithinWheels’,144‘TheWife’sTale’,20,22‘WolfeTone’,127,129–30‘TheWoolTrade’,83

Herbert,Zbigniew,4,117Hewitt,John,4

Hill,Geoffrey,21Hobsbaum,Philip,xiiHolub,Miroslav,117Hopkins,GerardManley,4,25,30Hughes,Francis,xiv,93Hughes,Ted,4

J

JohnoftheCross,Saint,98Joyce,James,4,31,93,96–8

K

Kavanagh,Patrick,xii,4,96Keats,John,6,7,30,169Keenan,Rosie,157,158–9Kevin,Saint,157,160Kinsella,Thomas,4

L

Ledwidge,Francis,60,63–4,74Longley,Michael,xii4Lowell,Robert,xiii,60,61,64,73,74,127

M

McCartney,Colum,xiv,60,61,74,93McCracken,HenryJoy,84–5McGuckian,Medbh,4,5McLaverty,Michael,xiiMcNally,Leonard,104

Mahon,Derek,4Mandelstam,Osip,4Milosz,Czeslaw,117Milton,John,5Montague,John,4Morrison,Blake,xvMotion,Andrew,xvMuldoon,Paul,4,5Mulholland,Carolyn,168Murphy,Bernard,xi

N

NobelPrizeforLiterature,xv,1Nwoga,Donatus,174

O

O’Neill,Louis,60,62,64,74O’Riada,Sean,60,74Ovid,87

P

Palgrave’sGoldenTreasury,5Paulin,Tom,4,5PenguinAnthologyofContemporaryBritishPoetry,The,xvPlath,Sylvia,45Popa,Vasko,117

Q

Queen’sUniversity,Belfast,xi,40

R

Rea,Stephen,xivRonan,Saint,92,99

S

Saddlemeyer,Anne,xiii,40StColumb’sCollege,xiStJoseph’sCollegeofEducation,xiiStThomas’sIntermediateSchool,Belfast,xiiSands,Bobby,104Simmons,James,xiiSocrates,168SomersetMaughamAward,xiiiSophocles,156Spenser,Edmund,87Stevens,Wallace,120–1,122,139,158Strathearn,William,xiv,93Sweeney,King,91–2,99–101Synge,John,86–7

T

Taylor,John,7Tennyson,Alfred,Lord,98Tone,Wolfe,127–9

U

UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley,xiii

V

Valéry,Paul,141

W

Whitbreadawards,xv,xviW.H.SmithAward,xiiiWordsworth,Dorothy,67Wordsworth,William,4,5,27,29,30,67,138,147

Y

Yeats,W.B.,4,5,10,16,17,26,41,49,64,97,99YeatsSchool,Sligo,3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

IamgratefultoSeamusHeaney,firstandforemost,foralltheinvaluablepoetryandprosethathehasaddedtothestoreofliteratureinEnglish.Overtheyears,bothSeamusandMarieHeaneyhavecourteouslyprovidedanswerstoquestionsIaskedaboutthepoems.SeamusHeaneykindlycheckedtheChronologyofthisbookandprovidedtheDiscography.Hehasnotreadthismanuscript:anyerrorsremainingareminealone.My interest in Irish poetry arose first from a course in Victorian Poetry

(including early Yeats) by ProfessorMorton Berman of Boston University; itwasdeepenedbycoursesinmodernIrishwritinggivenatHarvardUniversitybyProfessor John V. Kelleher, who directed my dissertation on Yeats and hasgenerouslysupportedmyintellectualeffortseversince.IamalsoindebtedtotheYeatsCommitteeandtheDirectorsoftheYeatsInternationalSummerSchoolofSligo,Ireland,whereIfirstheardSeamusHeaneyreadhisworkin1975.Professor Frank Kermode, General Editor of the Fontana Modern Masters

series,commissionedthisbook,whichwithouthimmightnothaveexistedinitspresentform.IamindebtedtotheeditorsoftheNewYorkTimesBookReview,the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, the New Republic, theCambridgeReviewandtheHarvardReview,who,byinvitingmeovertheyearstowrite onHeaney’swork, have helpedme in the preparation for this longereffort, thoughIdonotquotehereanyofmyearlieressaysonHeaney.FormyopportunitytowriteonHeaneyinmyEllmannLectures,TheBreakingofStyle,IthankProfessorRonaldSchuchardofEmoryUniversity.In1995,astheCharlesStewart Parnell Lecturer at Magdalene College, Cambridge, I lectured onHeaney in the welcoming atmosphere of the Irish Studies Colloquium, andparticipatedinapublicconversationwithSeamusHeaneyundertheauspicesofthecollege,wheremykindhostwasProfessorEamonDuffy.I am sincerely grateful for thework of the bibliographers, scholars, critics,

editorsofcollections,journalistsandinterviewerswhohavediscussedHeaney’swriting since he first began to publish. They have not only laid the basis fortracking Heaney’s allusions, his intellectual and poetic sources, and hisdevelopmentovertime;theyhavealsohelpedtocreatetheterms–literaryandpolitical– inwhichhisworkhasbeenhithertodiscussed.Whetheragreeingordisagreeingwiththem,Ihavefoundthemseriousandstimulating.

The Corporation of Yaddo granted me the Iphigene Ochs SulzbergerResidencyforthesummerof1997,whenIwasengagedinwritingthisbook.Mythanks go to the Director of Yaddo, DrMichael Sundell, and to my Harvardcolleague, thepoetHenriCole,who sponsoredmyvisit toYaddo and therebygavemeaninvaluableeightweeksofsolitude,comfortandcongenialcompany.The libraries of Harvard University and of Skidmore College have beenindispensabletothecompletionofthisbook.I am grateful to Faber& Faber for permission to quote at length from the

poetry of Seamus Heaney, and to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for Americanpermissions.Mysisterandbrother,andmybrother-in-lawandsister-in-law,namedonthe

dedicatorypage,havewarmlysupportedmeinmywriting,andhavebeenhappyformeintheresultsofthatwork.Ithankthemfortheirlife-longaffectionandencouragement.

ABOUTTHEAUTHOR

HEANEY

HELEN VENDLER is Professor of English and American Literature at HarvardUniversity.SheistheeditorofTheFaberBookofAmericanPoetry(1990)andtheauthorofbooksonW.B.Yeats,GeorgeHerbert,WallaceStevensandJohnKeats.HermostrecentbookisTheArtofShakespeare’sSonnets.

NOTES

1.ThemostcircumstantialaccountofHeaney’slifeinprintistobefoundinMichaelParker,SeamusHeaney:TheMakingofthePoet(London:Macmillan,1993).InreferringtoLondonderry/Deny,IhavefollowedHeaney’sownusage,andused‘Derry.’

2.LettertoJohnTaylor,30January1818;inRobertGittings,LettersofJohnKeats(NewYork:Oxford,1970),p.59.

3.InP.J.Drudy,ed.,IrishStudies,1(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1980),pp.1–20;thisisfromp.14.

4.SeamusHeaney,interviewedbyBrianDonnelly,inBroadridge,ed.,SeamusHeaney(Copenhagen:DenmarksRadio,1977),p.60;quotedinParker,SeamusHeaney,p.105.

5.Broadridge,p.48.6.W.K.C.Guthrie,TheGreeksandTheirGods(Boston:BeaconPress,1962;reprintof1955correctededitionfromoriginaleditionof1952),p.88.

7.‘Ataleoftwoislands:reflectionsontheIrishLiteraryRevival’,inDrudy,ed.,IrishStudies,1,pp.1–20;thisquotationisfromp.9.

8.Spenser,AView,quotedinPreoccupations,p.34.Parker(SeamusHeaney,pp.95–6),correctingfromSpenser’soriginal,substitutes‘bear’for‘carry’,andomits‘like’before‘anatomies’.

PRAISE

Morefromthereviews:

‘Quietvirtuositysustains thiswork froma leading literarycritic…steadfastlyattentiveyetagreeablyimaginative;remarkably,Vendlerisacriticwhosepowerssometimes seem akin to those of her subjects.Her unusual fairness in an agewhencriticismisofteneitherpoliticallymotivatedortooarcaneinitslanguageandconcepts tobe readwidelyshouldbenoted (andnotedagain).Would thatthereweremoreVendlerswritingcriticism–andnotaboutpoetryalone.’

Kirkus

‘Skilful…agodsendtoundergraduateseverywhere.’CATRIONAO’REILLY,IrishTimes

‘Heaneythrivesonbeingread insuchaprovocativeway…asaNewCriticalReadingVendler’sbookcanhardlybefaulted.’

DAVIDWHEATLEY,TES

‘Combining biographywith history and highly developed senses of aestheticsandpoetics,VendlerguidesherreadersthroughHeaney’sworklikeanaturalistidentifyingplantsinathickforest.ShetrackstheevolutionofHeaney’simagery,hismusicality,thebeatandvelocityofhispoems,hismany-tendrilledmetaphorsand symbols, his flair for storytelling, and his moods, obsessions, andrevelations. Astute, specific and expressive, Vendler is an ideal readingcompanion.’

DONNASEAMAN,Booklist

OTHERWORKS

AlsobyHelenVendler

Yeats’sVisionsandtheLaterPlaysOnExtendedWings:TheLongerPoemsofWallaceStevens

ThePoetryofGeorgeHerbertPartofNature,PartofUs:ModernAmericanPoets

TheOdesofJohnKeatsWallaceStevens:WordsChosenOutofDesire

TheMusicofWhatHappens:EssaysonPoetryandCriticismSoulSays:OnRecentPoetry

TheBreakingofStyle:Hopkins,Heaney,GrahamTheGivenandtheMade:RecentAmericanPoets

Poems,Poets,PoetryTheArtofShakespeare’sSonnets

MODERNMASTERS

Currentlyavailable:BERLIN JohnGrayCHOMSKY JohnLyonsDURKHEIM AnthonyGiddensFOUCAULT JGMerquiorFREUD RichardWollheimJUNG AnthonyStorrLACAN MalcolmBowieMARX DavidMcLellanPIAGET MargaretBodenPOPPER BryanMageeSAUSSURE JonathanCullerWINNICOTT AdamPhillipsWITTGENSTEIN DavidPearsHEANEY HelenVendlerForthcoming:HAYEK RobertSkidelsky

CHRONOLOGY

1939: BorntoPatrickHeaneyandMargaretKathleenHeaney,13April,inCountyDeny,NorthernIreland,atfamilyfarm,‘Mossbawn’.Eldestofninechildren.

1945–51: AttendsAnahorishSchool,a‘mixed’elementaryschoolofCatholicandProtestantchildren.MasterBernardMurphy,whotaughtLatintoHeaney,iscommemoratedin‘StationIsland’V.

1947: NorthernIrelandEducationActenablesaccesstohighereducationforchildrenofpoorerfamilies;itenablesHeaneytoattendStColumb’sCollegeinDerryasaboarderonscholarship,and,later,toattendQueen’sUniversityona‘StateExhibition’bursary.

1951–7: AtStColumb’s,wherehemeetsSeamusDeane(poetandcritic,latertoedittheFieldDayAnthology).

1953: YoungerbrotherChristopher,fouryearsold,killedbycaronroadnearhouse(recalledinpoem‘Mid-TermBreak2019;).

1956: HeaneypassesA-levelsinEnglish,Latin,Irish,FrenchandMathematicswithAgrades;winsbursarytostudyatQueen’sUniversity,Belfast.

1957–61: AtQueen’s,wherehetakesFirstClassHonoursinEnglish,andisawardedMcMullenMedalforacademicachievement.In1959firstpoemspublishedinQueen’sliterarymagazine.

1961–2: StudiesatStJoseph’sCollegeofEducation,Belfast,forTeacher’sTrainingDiploma.

1962: TeachesatStThomas’sIntermediateSchool,Belfast.HeadmasterMichaelMcLaverty,fictionwriter,iscommemoratedin‘SingingSchool’.HeaneyreadsthepoetryofPatrickKavanagh,andundertakespart-timepost-graduatestudyatQueen’sduring1962–3.

1963–6: TeachesatStJoseph’sCollegeofEducation;attendsBelfastGroupmeetingsledbypoetandQueen’sUniversitylecturerPhilipHobsbaum,wherepoets(includingMichaelLongleyandJamesSimmons)readandcritiqueeachother’swork.

1965: MarriesMarieDevlinofArdboeinCountyTyrone,graduateofStMary’sCollegeofEducationinBelfast,1962.

1966: SonMichaelborn.DeathofaNaturalistpublished.HeaneybecomeslectureratQueen’s.

1968: SonChristopher(namedfordeadbrother)born.1968–9: Catholiccivilrightsmarches,counteredbystatepolice.

1969: DoorintotheDarkpublished.InAugustBritishtroopssentintoBelfastandDeny(commemoratedin‘SingingSchool’).HeaneyspendstwomonthsinEuropeduringthesummerinfulfilmentoftherequirementsofSomersetMaughamAward.

1970–71: InUnitedStatesasvisitingprofessoratUniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley.1971: InternmentwithouttrialpermittedinNorthernIreland.1972:30 January:InDerry,‘BloodySunday’(so-calledinreferencetoearlier

‘BloodySunday’of21November1920,whentheIRAkilledelevenunarmedBritishofficersinDublin,membersoftheDublinCastleIntelligenceUnit,andinreprisaltheBritishArmyshot21membersofacrowdwatchingafootballmatchinCrokePark,Dublin).ParatroopersfromtheBritisharmykillthirteenunarmedcivilrightsmarchersandwoundtwelve.HeaneyrecallshisparticipationinprotestmarchatNewry,1972,in‘Triptych’IIITheHeaneysmovetoGlanmoreCottage,nearAshford,CountyWicklow,intheRepublicofIreland;cottage(formergate-keeper’scottageonSyngeestate)rentedtoHeaneysbyProfessorAnneSaddlemeyer,editorofSynge’sletters.(Severalyearslater,theHeaneysbuythecottage.)WinteringOutpublished.

1973: Daughter,CatherineAnn,born;eventrememberedin‘APillowedHead’.1975: Northpublished.W.H.SmithAwardandDuffCooperPrize.Heaney

beginsteachingatCarysfortTeacherTrainingCollege,Dublin,wherehebecomesHeadofDepartment.FriendshipwithRobertLowell.

1976: HeaneysmovetoDublin,livingnearSandymountStrand.1979: FieldWorkpublished.HeaneyreturnstotheUnitedStatesasavisiting

professorforonetermatHarvardUniversity,Cambridge,Massachusetts.1980: Preoccupations(essaysandarticles)published.Poems1965–1975

published.1980–81: TenRepublicanprisonersdieinhungerstrikeprotestingcriminalstatus,

claimingpoliticalstatus.One(unnamed)appearsin‘StationIsland’IX,perhapsFrancisHughesofBellaghy.Otherdeathsfromsectariancausescommemoratedin‘StationIsland’arethoseofHeaney’scousinColumMcCartney(VIII)andHeaney’sfriendWilliamStrathearn,apharmacistwhowasmurderedinasectariankillingbytwooff-dutypolicemen(VII).

1981: HeaneyreceivesofferofprofessorshipfromHarvard;resignsfrompositionatCarysfortCollege.JoinsFieldDay,groupfoundedbyBrianFriel(playwright)andStephenRea(actor)tomounttheatreinDerry.

1982: Beginsfive-yeartermcontractwithHarvard,teachingonesemesterperyear.Teachingincludesworkshopsincreativewritingandlecturecoursesinmodernpoetry,bothBritishandIrish.

1983: TranslationofmedievalIrishpoemBuileSuibhnepublishedasSweeney

Astray.AnOpenLetterpublishedasFieldDayPamphlet#2,objectingtobeingincludedas‘British’inThePenguinAnthologyofContemporaryBritishPoetry,editedbyAndrewMotionandBlakeMorrison.

1984: StationIslandpublished.AppointedBoylstonProfessorofRhetoricandOratoryatHarvard.MargaretHeaneydies,commemoratedin‘Clearances’.

1986: PatrickHeaneydies,commemoratedin‘TheStoneVerdict’.1987: HawLanternpublished.WhitbreadAward.1988: GovernmentoftheTongue(essays)published.Electedtofive-yearterm

1989–94asProfessorofPoetryatOxford,togivethreepubliclectureseachyear.

1989: ThePlaceofWriting(RichardEllmannLectures)published.1990: TheCureatTroy(aversionofSophocles’sPhiloctetes)published,and

performedbyFieldDayTheatreCompanyinDerry.SelectedPoems1966–1987published.

1991: SeeingThingspublished.1994: TentativeceasefireinNorthernIreland,commemoratedin‘Tollund’.1995: 10December:HeaneyawardedtheNobelPrizeforLiteraturein

Stockholm,Sweden.TheRedressofPoetry(Oxfordlectures)published.1996: TheSpiritLevelpublished.CommonwealthAward.Heaneyresigns

BoylstonProfessorshipatHarvard,isappointedEmersonPoetinResidencetovisitHarvardinnon-teachingstatuseveryotherautumnforsixweeks.

1997: TheSpiritLevelnamedWhitbread‘BookoftheYear’.InJuly,renewedceasefireinNorthernIrelandafterLabourvictoryinBritain.

ABBREVIATIONS

(SeeBibliographyforpublishinginformation.)

CP CreditingPoetryDD DoorintotheDarkDN DeathofaNaturalistFW FieldWorkGT TheGovernmentoftheTongueHL TheHawLanternN NorthP PreoccupationsRP TheRedressofPoetrySA SweeneyAstraySI StationIslandSL TheSpiritLevelSP SelectedPoems1966–1987ST SeeingThingsWOWinteringOut

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