Bone Dreams by Seamus Heaney - An Analysis

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Bone Dreams by Seamus Heaney - An Analysis

Bone Dreams is an obscure and difficult poem to understand. In all my searching on the internet, I found very little to help me in my analysis of this poem and so the ideas are basically my own. I might be wide of the mark, but for anybody struggling to understand this poem, it might at least give you some ideas of your own. I make no apology for asking questions or for sounding vague or even muddled in places. I hope that this essay is of help to somebody, somewhere.

The poem begins in a thoughtful mood; the voice is relaxed, "White bone found/on the grazing" suggesting that the speaker is walking in the countryside when he discovers a piece of bone in the grass. He uses tactile imagery to describe his find, the bone is "rough, porous" and has "the language of touch". This image would be powerful if not for the mildness of the language, which conveys a musing quality in its passivity, for example, "found" and "grazing" - these words have nothing of a hurry about them and suggest a peacefulness of mind in the opening