Seamus Heaney, the winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize for Literature, is among the most widely respected Irish poets of the time. Born on 13 April in 1939 in County Derry, Northern Ireland, his rural Catholic upbringing in Protestant Ulster has provided an important focus for his literary works. His pastoral style of poetry uses specific images of the rural simplicity of rural Ireland to suggest greater, universal situations and ideas (Burris 4). Though he spent a several years in the 1960's as an active sympathizer with the Catholic situation, writing political pamphlets and essays, as a poet, his work is less an ideological statement than an effort to create a "general historical awareness" (Burris 21). His themes contain some ingredients of resistance and small acts of defiance, but do not make an active political statement. He is able to insinuate through his descriptions of the land, the use of mythology and history, and the all-pervading religious atmosphere the images of prejudice, violence, and intolerance.
Though pastoral literature is often used to describe the idyllic rural home life, using smooth and picturesque vocabulary, pastorals often utilize ruder language to imply at greater matters (Burris 4). Heaney makes use of both poetic phrases and conversational language simultaneously, as well as devices such as onomatopoeia and different styles of rhythm, to clarify and focus on his peculiar subjects. Some of his early works have an air of wandering and less focus than that of his later works. He received direction, however, with the beginning of the violence in Northern Ireland in 1969 between Catholics and Protestants. "[T]he problems of poetry moved from being simply a matter of achieving the satisfactory verbal icon to being a search for images and symbols adequate to [Heaney's] predicament" (Malloy 92). Three poems particularly illustrate his search for poetic direction and characteristic perspectives. "Digging," written in 1966, "The Tollund Man," written in 1972, and "Funeral Rites," written in 1975, are each in some way similar in their style and impact, illustrating Heaney's familiar poetic images and common literary themes.
The first poem, "Digging," compares the poet's pen to the farmer's spade, depicting Heaney's early struggle to define himself as a poet, and break the family tradition of physical labor as an occupation. Heaney attempts to connect to the past and continue the tradition, but there is a note of independence and resolution, which may signal the end of the old ways. It serves as a defining moment in Heaney's personal life. It also serves as a hallmark for the poetry that follows. He begins to develop his version of pastoral poetry, and lays the foundation for the political dimensions that ensue.
Heaney was at first wary, and perhaps embarrassed, of his vocation as a writer. Northern Irish Catholics, generally reticent by nature, were ordinarily not especially supportive of literature and poetry. He encountered a degree of occupational tension early on. Heaney said there was "some part of me entirely unimpressed by the activity... it's the generations, I suppose, of rural ancestors-not illiterate, but not literary" (Burris 31). For a time, he had difficulty justifying, even to himself, the validity of his work. When he wrote "Digging," however, it was the first time his feel got into the words, and he found his voice as a poet (Curtis 17).
The poem depicts fond memories from his childhood in the country, emphasizing pride in his culture and personal indecision. His "squat pen" is compared to a clean spade, with a "bright edge," exhibiting his unease and discomfort (Heaney 3). As he muses on the differences he examines the validity of his trade. This soul-searching is amplified by Heaney's use of stanza and line length. The poem begins with a two line stanza, but as the poem progresses, the subject wanders and the stanzas grow in length. His varying use of different syllabic patterns, such as tetrameters, hexameters, and decasyllubic couplets, helps create an impression of searching or wandering (Burris 34). As the author reaches his conclusion, however, both the length of the lines and of the stanzas is shortened, leading to a terse, confident answer as the poet comes to terms with himself.
"Digging" is generally recognized as a poorer example of Heaney's work. Heaney himself describes it as "a big coarse grained navvy of a poem" (Parker 62). The style is much rougher, and its theme is much more direct than his newer pieces. His later style is evident in the use of specific details which create the general impact. Also, the impact created is not as deep or as significant as that in his current poems. The violence of the late 1960's in Northern Ireland largely shapes, to at least some degree, his later works. When he wrote "Digging," Heaney hadn't encountered the violence, or hadn't connected to it. The crudeness of the poem, however, creates an origin and a comparison for the rest of his writing.
In "Digging," the turf cutters offer a perspective from which past and present may be observed. The author relates the poet to a digger or farmer, unearthing valuable objects, bringing treasure to light. In "Tollund Man," he makes a similar comparison, with the poet acting as an archeologist. When Heaney viewed the preserved body of a prehistoric man found buried in the peat, he found a common thread linking himself and his situation with that of the Tollund man. The man had been sacrificed in a ritual by his community to the goddess Nerthus in the hope that this offering would continue the seasons and bring a fertile harvest (Malloy 106). Heaney saw him as a scapegoat for society's crimes and ignorance, in a way a surrogate Christ. His peculiar resurrection is interpreted to mean the possible indication of the redemption of Ireland from the violence she is encountering.
The religious nature of the tension between the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland is associated with the ritualistic sacrifice of the Tollund man. He links religion in general with the ordering of violence, or sacrifice, in order to bring peace. When the violence erupted in 1969, the killing was uncontrolled, and had lost the ritual. Heaney finds the connection in "Tollund Man" (Malloy 74). The Tollund man is also a product of ritualistic violence out of control. He compares the "old man-killing parishes of Jutland" (Heaney 40) to the counties of Northern Ireland. When the poet speaks of his "saint's kept body" he sees him as a martyr and prays to him to intercede on behalf of the victims of the senseless violence in Ireland, mentioning the "stockinged corpses/laid out in the farmyards" and the "four young brothers, trailed/for miles along the lines." He hopes that through his intercession the atrocities of modern Ireland will not be totally for nothing and that somehow the contention may be resolved.
The historical analogy, myth, and emotion is characteristic of Heaney' poetry, but the many references to land and the emphasis on religion are especially so. The man is found buried in the peat, seemingly married to the earth. The goddess he was sacrificed to, Nerthus, a goddess of the harvest and the seasons comparable to Aphrodite or Demeter in Greek mythology is equated to Mother Ireland and the earth (Malloy 106). The description of the Tollund with his "mild pods of his eye-lids" and "his stained face" suggests an image of Christ the Savior (Heaney 39). His "saint's kept body," dug from "the cauldron bog/Our holy ground " brings to mind the incorruptible bodies of some of the saints of the Catholic Church. These stark images obliquely create a political and religious impact that is strongly representative of Heaney's works.
The last of the poems, "Funeral Rites," is a similarly detailed poem with precise images that have indirect political conclusions or ideas. He begins by describing in detail the images of a corpses and a funeral parlor, "admiring it all" (Heaney 65). The violence makes the author seek solace in the beneficial functions of ceremonies or rituals, as in "Tollund Man" (Curtis 84). From the "Tollund Man" to "Funeral Rites," the poet has gained confidence. In the first poem, there was an air of servitude, with the poet as the servant asking for assistance from his savior. Now, there is more distance, almost seeming to direct the affairs. However, in both poems the poet is attempting to assuage the violence by generating order from death and violence through the use of rituals.
Violence and its byproducts are apparent throughout the poem. Heaney depicts the childhood deaths of family and friends, victims of political violence, and ancient Viking murders, relating them to the condition in Northern Ireland in the 1970's. The "neighborly murders" have become numbingly commonplace, with citizens and "neighbors" deeply and passionately divided (Heaney 66). He sees each "blinded home," blinded by prejudice, by their complicity, to the horrific events that surround them.
As he describes the huge funeral procession, he prays for the end of the senseless deaths. The massive procession leads to the River Boyne, the river of knowledge, to the mounds where Aengus, the Irish god of love is buried (Parker 131). What began as a grieving process becomes a hopeful consummation. Heaney does not specify between the mourners, constituted by both Catholics and Protestants, themselves victims of the violence. They have the same troubles, share the same pain, and journey together to reach an understanding. The mythological figure invoked, Gunnar, is a Viking hero whose unavenged death in a blood feud brought an end to the long-standing and bloody fight. This legendary person, similar to the "Tollund Man," fulfills a Christ- like role, whose own personal sacrifice is held up as an example and message to the people. The last image in the poem is a hopeful picture of resurrection, as Gunnar chants "verses about honor" with "four lights burn[ing]," and the doors of the chamber open, and he turns with a joyful face/to look at the moon" (Heaney 68).
Heaney's pastoral use of the land, religion, and myth creates his unique poetic impact. Though his use of history and myths has been criticized for appearing to give the conflict in Northern Ireland a "fatalistic historical determinism," it is more of an attempt to connect to the past, and put it into a larger mythological perspective(Malloy 91). He seeks to reestablish the timeless rituals in order to put an end to the violence. As poet Tony Curtis says of Heaney's work, "for peace to return to Northern Ireland, people have to reestablish the rhythm of the natural world" (Curtis 11)
Curtis, Tony, ed. The Art of Seamus Heaney. Dutour Editions, Inc. Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, 1994.
Malloy, Catherine; Carey, Phyllis; ed. Seamus Heaney: The Shaping Spirit. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1997.
Parker, Michael. Seamus Heaney: The Making of the Poet. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City. 1993.