Heaney uses his personal experience of having to face a fear which he has been ‘coloured’ by in his childhood memories where he remembers rats being ‘Behind the hen-coop’ in his yard. The central theme of the poem is fear where he cuts through the pensive atmosphere that he has created to make the reader on edge by vividly describing the dull and grey scene to the reader. The tempo of the poem seems to be speeding up in stanza 3 where he has just been faced with this ‘rat’. By showing that he has conquered his real life and metaphorical fears, I believe that Heaney wants the reader to absorb the morals of the poem that most fears can be conquered by just looking at their logical threat.
By using the ‘dirty-keeled swans’, use of rodents also the description of the ‘river’ further emphasise the murkiness of the environment. He uses the calm and pensive mood to contrast with the fast paced and tense atmosphere which is created in stanza three to the penultimate stanza. In the last stanza however, Heaney slows down the pace of the poem restoring the tranquillity which is seen at the start. We can also observe a sense of accomplishment from the view point of Heaney when he crosses ‘the bridge’ which retains a metaphorical and literal boundary in Heaney’s life.
The poem has been written in 9 quatrains (stanzas) which I feel is well structured to give the impression of fear by introducing the phobia (stanzas 3 and 4), facing it (stanza 5), overcoming it (stanzas 7,8) and concluding the poem well in stanza 9. Heaney uses a ‘loose’ rhyming scheme in stanzas 1, 3, 6, 8 and 9 which have the rhyming pattern abcb. Stanzas 2 and 4 have a rhyme ‘shift’ to abac. Stanza 7, the climax of the action, uses the rhyming scheme of abab. Stanza five, which is crucial for the poems structure, has the effective rhyming scheme of abbc. Heaney uses enjambment between stanzas 3,4 and 5 to show the pace of his fear as he sees the rat. He also uses caesura to create atmosphere ‘He trained on me: I stared him out’.
In the poem, Heaney vividly explores the nature of fear by effectively using alliteration ‘curtly, close’ and sibilance ‘Something slobbered’. The repetition of ‘s’ and ‘c’ sounds really show the fear evoked by the rat. When the rat is described as ‘Insidiously listening’, onomatopoeia is used to enhance the senses of the rat. Heaney uses some brilliant techniques to evoke fear into to the reader by using some very vivid imagery ‘On ceiling boards above my head’. He uses simile to compare components in the poem like the rat as it ‘clockworked aimlessly a while’. When he describes the features of the rat, sudden realisation is shown when he describes the weakness of the creature with its ‘raindrop eye’ and ‘old snout’. This gives the reader the impression that Heaney does not fully understand the threat imposed by this insignificant animal.
Heaney’s poetry is mainly based on his personal experiences giving us an insight into his life as a child. Heaney’s poetry is very detailed and I feel as a reader, I can experience a sense that I am in the scene as it unfolds. Many of his poems are very macabre although I have really enjoyed Heaney’s poetry. In my mind, they are understandable, interesting and above all enjoyable to read. Heaney is a very talented poet as by looking at his work, we can see evidence of a very skilled writer through his use of language. In the poem ‘An Advancement of Learning’, he executes the use of imagery with precision painting a very graphic image in our heads of the fear that he is facing. For me, this poem is my favourite as it gives us a cross section into Heaney’s work by using a variety of poetic components.
