Commentary on Seamus Heaney's "Scaffolding".

Mrs. Guezalova English IB 11 Commentary on Seamus Heaney's "Scaffolding" Jennifer Wang Block C Feb. 5, 2004 Seamus Heaney's "Scaffolding" is a simple yet dense poem. The poem uses metaphor to suggest that relationships are not naturally exist but are built over a period of time. Once this relationship has formed its shape, the endurance of such can be reached at eternity. With a determined, confident and very inspirational tone, Heaney emphasizes the importance of trust between the two people through five neat couplets with rhyme. "Masons" in the very first line of the poem is a metaphor suggesting the two people who share the same interests that are determined to establish a friendship. "When they start upon a building / Are careful to test out the scaffolding" depicts the two person's first try to build a friendship. The word "careful" and "test" shows the uneasiness of getting to know a person well at the beginning of the meet due to human's cautious nature. The process towards relationship building is instilled in the next two stanzas. "Make sure that the planks won't slip at busy points" can be interpreted as when mutual difficulties arise, the two people would join together to solve the problems and the relationship won't fall from it. "Ladders" represents the essential stages to reach the height of the relationship and to "tighten bolted joints" refers to the

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Death Of A Naturalist comment on how appropriate the title, "Death of a Naturalist", is and comment on how it changes meaning.

"Death Of A Naturalist" I have been asked to comment on how appropriate the title, "Death of a Naturalist", is and comment on how it changes meaning. The poem is set out in two sections of blank verse (unrhymed lambric pentameter lines). In the first section the poet. Seamus Heaney, notes the festering in the flax-dam, but can cope with this familiar scene of things, rotting & spawn hatching. Perhaps as an inquisitive child he felt some pride in not being squeamish. He thinks of the bubbles from the process as gargling "delicately". He is confident in taking the frogspawn. It's something he does every year and watches the "jellied-specks" become "fattening dots" then turn into tadpoles. He almost has a scientific interest in knowing the proper names ("bullfrog" and "frogspawn") rather than the teachers patronising talk of "daddy" and "mammy". Especially the idea of forecasting the weather by looking at the frogspawn because it's not very helpful as it is blatantly obvious if it is sunny or raining and so there is no need to look at the frogspawn. Seamus Heaney uses onomatopoeia more lavish here than in any poem - and many of the sound are very in delicate: "gargled", "slap and plop" and "farting". The lexicon is full terms of putrefaction, ordure, generally unpleasant things such as "festered", "rotted", "slobber", "clotted water", "rank with cowdung" and "slime kings".

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How Do You Respond To Mid-Term Break? What techniques does Heaney use? Having read the title 'Mid-Term Break', I assumed that the poem

How Do You Respond To Mid-Term Break? What techniques does Heaney use? Having read the title 'Mid-Term Break', I assumed that the poem was about a student's holiday abroad or something similar, however as I progressed through reading the play, I realized that it had a different meaning. The poem has a very deceiving title, a mid-term break is supposed to be a joyous time of holiday but here Heaney must deal with the death of a family member. This misleading title is the first technique used by Heaney to attract the attention of the reader. The poem is also told in first person and this gives the effect that the emotions come straight from the boy to the reader. We respond directly to the boy, which provokes greater sympathy in us when we find out that his brother dies. The first stanza is telling us that the boy is away from home, isolated, upset and waiting. It is made up of short sentences to build up tension and create shock as though the reader is expecting something to happen. One phrase that struck me was 'our neighbors drove me home'. This suggested to me that something had happened as usually a student's parents take them to and from school. We then find out that the father, apparently always strong at other funerals, is distraught, while the mother is too angry to cry. Also the euphemism used by 'Big Jim Evans' - 'it's a hard blow'. Having read this I

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How does Heaney explore the issues of background and identity in his early poems, Digging and Follower?

How does Heaney explore the issues of background and identity in his early poems, Digging and Follower? Digging and Follower show Heaney delving into his earliest personal memories of his childhood and giving them life through words. He uses diverse approaches to expose the underlying emotion of his memories, using tactile imagery that is often also metaphorical. On the surface, his poetry may appear simple, or perhaps trivial - but often, as with all things, there is more to it than what first glance reveals. Heaney does not use pretentious elaborate visual description that is 'sugar coated' in the way that memories usually are. His use of onomatopoeia and 'clumsy' words such as "squelch", "slap" often verge on the grotesque but are extremely effective in conveying a sense of reality. By remembering these simple details, such as the sound of a spade 'rasping' as it sinks into 'gravelly ground', Heaney can make connections with his past background and seek to define his identity through his poems. Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun. Digging presents a good example of a parallel between the tactile and metaphorical. The first two-line stanza 'earths' the poem to the poet - using direct, simple, striking language. "Gun" particularly draws the reader's attention; it is aggressive and monosyllabic. Heaney remembers the way his father, a

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Commentary on "Casualty" by Seamus Heaney.

IB English 2002: Dianna Gu Commentary on "Casualty" by Seamus Heaney The poem "Casualty" by Seamus Heaney is strong in emotive language and possesses a sensitivity that reaches down to the core of feeling. "Casualty" is written in three distinct sections, each of which conveys a slightly different tone and mood, though each retains the vivid imagery and lyrical warmth that is so typical of Heaney's poems. The poem speaks mainly of a drinker that the poet knew but who was killed when the pub he was drinking in was bombed. Through his reflections about his feelings towards this man, Heaney also conveys some political views, subtly, yet effectively, bringing forth the tension between the Irish Catholics and Protestants. This he achieves through mockery of trivial concerns, especially in part one. Part one of the poem elicits the deep admiration that the poet felt towards the drinker. This feeling is conveyed by the warmth of the language used as well as by the slow steady pace of the meter. The first image portrayed in the poem is, however, one of solitude. The line "He would drink by himself" conveys this sense of aloneness, yet, at the same time, suggests secrecy and the possible participation in something that is prohibited. The next line mitigates this desolate feeling through a delightful physical description: "And raise a weathered thumb". This is the first

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A comparison between Seamus Heaney's

In both the poems "Digging" by Seamus Heaney and "Catrin" by Gillian Clarke the main theme is that of parent child relationships. "Catrin" relates to the inner thoughts and feelings of a mother giving birth whilst "Digging" shows a son's admiration for his father. In "Catrin" we first see the title, one that could possibly be addressed to a real daughter or exploring the relationships between mother and daughter in general, whereas "Digging" simply states the subject matter. In "Catrin" the author is initially quite cold and impersonal as she addresses child before birth, waiting for her arrival; "As I stood in a hot, white room at the window watching", possibly showing this as being her first child, so she is unsure of what to expect, and unsure of her feeling towards the child. This phrase seems very clinical and resembles a hospital ward. However from the very beginning of "Digging" we are greeted with warmth in the form of assonance such as the words "snug as a gun", which in addition are references to the way a gun is crafted for a person, so also the pen (and thus poetry) is perfect for Heaney, or vice versa. These comforting semantics are built upon with words such as "clean" and the sibilance; "spade sinks" and alliteration; "gravely ground." These phrases just roll of the tongue, easy top speak so easy to accept. By contrast Clarke has begun to create a semantic

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Seamus Heaney's poems explore the loss of childhood and the cruel awakening into the world of adulthood. Discuss.

POETRY COURSEWORK - SEAMUS HEANEY Seamus Heaney's poems explore the loss of childhood and the cruel awakening into the world of adulthood. Discuss. Seamus Heaney has been described as 'the best Irish poet since Yeats'. He was born on April 13th 1939 and was the eldest of nine children to Margret and Patrick Heaney, at the family farm in Mossbawn. He studied English in Queen's University in Belfast, also in Saint Joseph's College in Belfast, to become a teacher. After many years of writing "Death of a Naturalist" was published in 1966. It contains poems symbolic of death of childhood, specifically Heaney's childhood as a curious young "naturalist", eager to learn about nature. Heaney's poems reveal his thoughts of his childhood and his family. His poems are filled with the images of dying, but are also firmly rooted in childhood. His poems of transition explore the journey from childhood into the adult world. "Blackberry Picking" is a reflection of adulthood and childhood. Heaney tries to tell us that we should enjoy childhood because adulthood is disappointing. He gives the message to have low expectations, therefore when we grow up we will not be let down by the adult world. The poem is written from an adult perspective, although it has many childlike phrases in it. It is about Heaney's summer ventures with his friends during which they would collect blackberries in

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Mid-Term Break: Critical Essay. Heaney reveals his true feelings to us in the poem and makes it real to us by using various techniques. How Heaney achieves this will be the subject of this essay.

Mid-Term Break: Critical Essay The grief Seamus Heaney suffered when his younger brother died is obvious after reading his poem Mid-Term Break. Heaney reveals his true feelings to us in the poem and makes it real to us by using various techniques. How Heaney achieves this will be the subject of this essay. In the first stanza of his poem, Heaney describes the anxiety he undergoes while waiting for his neighbours to pick him up from boarding school. Following this stanza he then describes the events that occurred when he arrived home. Heaney ends the poem with a single sentence saying "A four foot box, a foot for every year". When we read the title Mid-Term Break, we expect this to be a happy poem as it indicates a holiday but even though we are unsure what this poem is about, we instantly realise that this is not a cheery poem about a young boy's holiday. Our first clue is that it says he spent all morning in the "college sick bay"; you do not tend to associate sick bays with good things. Our next clue is that Heaney says that the bells are "knelling" rather than ringing. "Knelling" means the ringing of funeral-like bells, not the ringing of school bells. These clues suggest that someone has died. He emphasizes the effect of these clues by using alliteration. The third clue is that he says he met his "father crying" on the porch. Heaney goes on saying how his father always

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Death of a naturalist

Death of a naturalist "Death of a Naturalist" is concerned with growing up and loss of innocence. The poet vividly describes a childhood experience that precipitates a change in the boy from the receptive and protected innocence of childhood to the fear and uncertainty of adolescence. Heaney organises his poem in two sections, corresponding to the change in the boy. By showing that this change is linked with education and learning, Heaney is concerned with the inevitability of the progression from innocence to experience, concerned with the transformation from the unquestioning child to the reflective adult. The poem opens with an evocation of a summer landscape which has the immediacy of an actual childhood experience. There is also a sense of exploration in "in the heart/Of the townland;" which is consistent with the idea of learning and exploration inevitably leading to discovery and the troubled awareness of experience. To achieve this Heaney not only recreates the atmosphere of the flax-dam with accuracy and authenticity, but the diction is carefully chosen to create the effect of childlike innocence and naivety. The child's natural speaking voice comes across in line 8; "But best of all". The vividness of his description is achieved through Heaney's use of images loaded with words that lengthen the vowels and have a certain weightiness in their consonants; "green

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Follower and Digging by Seamus Heaney

Describe a main idea in each of the short texts (poems) and explain why these ideas were significant A main idea of Follower is the role reversal between father and the son, Heaney. In Follower, Heaney is a young boy looking up to his own father deferentially and as the time passes the roles change. On the other hand, a main idea of Digging is about love, respect and admiration from Heaney to his father and ancestors. In addition, both of the poems, Heaney wants to follow his father's footsteps. In Follower, Heaney says that his father is 'An expert' with such a great pride because he is a skilled and physically powerful farmer as it is shown in this quote; "Narrowed and angled at the ground, Mapping the furrow exactly". Heaney is a little boy in the poem and he looks up to his father in the physical way because his father is tall and strong but he is small and short. "I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake, Fell sometimes on the polished sod"; it brings up the picture of the ploughman's boots and the clumsiness of little Heaney while sometimes his father gives him rides on the back because he could not stand Heaney's awkwardness. Heaney also wants to be exactly like his father and become stronger when he grows up. Even though, Heaney is a nuisance who always trips, falls and talks in the poem and it shows the enthusiasm of how much Heaney wants to help his father do the

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