Commentary on Twice Shy by Seamus Heaney

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‘TWICE SHY’ BY SEAMUS HEANEY

Her scarf a la Bardot,
In suede flats for the walk,
She came with me one evening
For air and friendly talk.
We crossed the quiet river,
Took the embankment walk.

Traffic holding its breath,
Sky a tense diaphragm:
Dusk hung like a backcloth
That shook where a swan swam,
Tremulous as a hawk
Hanging deadly, calm.

A vacuum of need
Collapsed each hunting heart
But tremulously we held
As hawk and prey apart,
Preserved classic decorum,
Deployed our talk with art.

Our Juvenilia
Had taught us both to wait,
Not to publish feeling
And regret it all too late -
Mushroom loves already
Had puffed and burst in hate.

So, chary and excited,
As a thrush linked on a hawk,
We thrilled to the March twilight
With nervous childish talk:
Still waters running deep
Along the embankment walk.

‘Twice Shy’ by Seamus Heaney is a poem that sensitively and elegantly expresses the furtive emotions that characterize young love – an encompassment of naivety, idealism, expectation and a considerable degree of fear. In particular, through the use of extended descriptions and various modes of figurative language, Heaney makes sure to attribute this experience to an overriding sense of tension; a fitting tone to a profound experience that is almost ubiquitously relatable.

Setting plays a vital role in the communication of tone in this poem. In the first stanza, Heaney writes that the narrative is set ‘one evening’ by a ‘quiet river’. By doing so, Heaney effectively mutes our sensory receptors – the ‘evening’ and ‘quiet’ leaves not only the characters but also the reader in the dark and the deaf. The effect is an elevation of prominence of those that are still at arm’s length – namely, the protagonist and his female partner. With the senses shut, there are no distractions; yet there is also no escape, for by muting the senses Heaney astutely takes away the means of it. Therefore, through the very subtle manipulation of setting, Heaney enforces the feeling of commitment – a terrifying obligation no doubt, not least for te ‘Twice Shy’ protagonists of the poem.

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In the second stanza, the importance of setting if further extended. Heaney employs personification to describe the characters’ surroundings: the ‘Traffic holding its breath’ and ‘Sky a tense diaphragm.’ The function of the use of personification is clear: by vitalizing the surroundings, it is almost as if the inanimate universe is actively and sentiently wrapping itself around the couple, for as previously established, Heaney has shifted absolute focus onto the narrator and his partner. The nature of this personification makes this point even clearer: both ‘holding its breath’ and ‘tense diaphragm’ convey a tone of almost asphyxiating tension and anticipation. ...

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