Both the poems contain references to animals which can be alternatively interpreted for other meanings. In the third section of AAPD Heaney describes people as desperate as a “plucked bird” which gives the image of a scrawny and desperate meal rather than a fuller one. Heaney also refers to the plants being buried “in the bitch earth” which isn’t a complement for the earth at all. This reference shows the soil to be useless and unreliable which is also the image of women Heaney wants us to understand when the term ‘bitch’ is used. Heaney is showing us that the people of Ireland are being made to suffer from their unreliable and incompetent soil. All through TFM the animal imagery is in the form of the mouse. The child appears on the scene carrying a “quivering mouse” which has nestled nicely into his hands. Even though the eyes are described as “two sparks burning” there is also shown to be a lack of any hope, as “we know it will die and ought to finish it off”. This merely shows suffering is so bad that Clarke is giving up faith already and just wants the suffering to be over. The mouse’s pain quantity is shown as “it curls in agony big as itself” as this oxymoron insinuates the pain is as big as itself. This is clearly such a small size compared to the rest of the world, but the entire size of the mouse so becomes incredibly immense. After the death of the mouse, “the fields hurt”. This personification of the fields created by the death of the mouse exposes us to the suffering brought by farm machinery and the suffering inflicted on innocent animals. Also it seems the pain of the animals and the field seems to have had an effect of the children as they “kneel in long grass starring at what we have crushed”.
Religious input, or lack of, is shown throughout both the poems. During AAPD there is a clear desperate link to God and religious images as the Irish people cling to what they can in hope their suffering will be brought to a quick finish. The new, yet rotten, potatoes that were growing in Ireland “had lain three days in the long clay pit”. This sounds similar to the time Jesus spent in his tomb, so it shows the Irish praying that similar to Jesus, the potatoes will rise again. Offerings were made to the gods in AAPD such as “Libations of cold tea” to attempt at winning favour so they wouldn’t be forced into the same suffering again. There is no contemplation of faith in TFM. The Bosnian civil war is ongoing which is pushing that country apart leaving the people separated and un-united, unlike the people of Ireland who are brought together by their famine. There seems to be very little belief in TFM that things could possibly get any better from where they are, however the children “kneel in long grass” as if they’re kneeling in prayer at the death of these creatures.
All through TFM there is a link with the outside world from the, brought to attention by the mention of “we can’t face the newspapers” which links to the earlier statement of “the radio’s terrible news”. It makes the field represent a microcosm of the outside world and the Bosnian wars. The final stanza really seems to show the carnage of the outside as it depicts the garden full of the “saved, voles, frogs, a nest of mice” implying the rest lie dead, like the aftermath of a battle. Clarke shows a reminder of the fragility of humans as she claims children have “bones as brittle as a mouse-ribs”. This forces us to see how cruel it is to go to war and provoke suffering upon other people.
I find both the poems equally effective for portraying suffering; however the language used in Heaney’s poem entices me more as the double usage of the word crow in line 5, “crows attacking crow-black fields” links the people to the land. His descriptions of potatoes as “live skulls, blind-eyed” similarly link the potatoes to the people of Ireland and make their suffering, similarly to the state of the potatoes sound disgusting. The language chosen by Clarke in her poem similarly changes the sounds of the meadows where you’d expect to hear bird’s song and bees to saying the air “hums with jets”. Obviously the air being filled with war planes is not something you imagine you’re reading into when reading the title, The Field Mouse. Both the poets manage to captivate the reader and force the images of suffering down their throats from the word go.
