“I Rhyme, to See Myself, to Set the Darkness Echoing.” How Far Does This Statement Apply to and Sum Up Seamus Heaney’s Intentions in Writing Poetry?
“I rhyme, to see myself, to set the darkness echoing.”
How far does this statement apply to and sum up Seamus Heaney’s intentions in writing poetry?
In part Seamus Heaney uses his poetry to explore himself but he also explores beyond himself. In his earlier work he mainly explores his childhood. However this develops in his later work, where he looks at his nationality and explores the concept of Irish identity. Heaney also explores darkness on varying levels from the literal to the metaphysical in terms of morality, as well as shining effulgence on the forgotten people.
“Personal Helicon” marks a departure from his autobiographical earlier work, within the collection “Death of a Naturalist”, “Personal Helicon” shows this transition from exploring childhood, to exploring the world beyond himself, in terms of national history, and identity; though by extension implicitly understanding and exploring himself.
“We know who we are only when we know who we are not”.
The transition from childhood is markedly shown and emphasised in personal Helicon. The poems structure is composed of five stanzas; the first four stanzas are mostly composed of monosyllabic nouns with a simple lexicon, mimicking a child’s speech; the exception being, “Fructified”. Therefore in the first four stanzas it clearly explores Heaney as a child looking back in the past tense at his “raison d’etre”, he is preoccupied with the hedonistic, perhaps epitomizing Freud’s psychological principle with the, “will to pleasure”, or Adler’s “will to power”. As shown by the delight Heaney as a child gains from the onomatopoeia noise and power of throwing the bucket down the well,
“I savoured the rich crash when a bucket,
Plummeted down at the end of a rope”
Moreover other subtle means shown the primeval senses of the child are invoked using a childlike litany monosyllabic olfactory images coupled with assonance and alliteration making the prosody uniform, flirting with the readers
How far does this statement apply to and sum up Seamus Heaney’s intentions in writing poetry?
In part Seamus Heaney uses his poetry to explore himself but he also explores beyond himself. In his earlier work he mainly explores his childhood. However this develops in his later work, where he looks at his nationality and explores the concept of Irish identity. Heaney also explores darkness on varying levels from the literal to the metaphysical in terms of morality, as well as shining effulgence on the forgotten people.
“Personal Helicon” marks a departure from his autobiographical earlier work, within the collection “Death of a Naturalist”, “Personal Helicon” shows this transition from exploring childhood, to exploring the world beyond himself, in terms of national history, and identity; though by extension implicitly understanding and exploring himself.
“We know who we are only when we know who we are not”.
The transition from childhood is markedly shown and emphasised in personal Helicon. The poems structure is composed of five stanzas; the first four stanzas are mostly composed of monosyllabic nouns with a simple lexicon, mimicking a child’s speech; the exception being, “Fructified”. Therefore in the first four stanzas it clearly explores Heaney as a child looking back in the past tense at his “raison d’etre”, he is preoccupied with the hedonistic, perhaps epitomizing Freud’s psychological principle with the, “will to pleasure”, or Adler’s “will to power”. As shown by the delight Heaney as a child gains from the onomatopoeia noise and power of throwing the bucket down the well,
“I savoured the rich crash when a bucket,
Plummeted down at the end of a rope”
Moreover other subtle means shown the primeval senses of the child are invoked using a childlike litany monosyllabic olfactory images coupled with assonance and alliteration making the prosody uniform, flirting with the readers