Tree Lore and the Yeatsian Shadow

I think one way in which we can see a merging of Yeats’s mysticism and Heaney’s interest in nature as an organic form of poetry is through Celtic tree lore. Although mysticism thickly coats Yeats’s poetry, Heaney’s poetry seems more aligned with magical realism; nevertheless, the symbolic meaning behind the types of trees mentioned in poems such as “The Diviner”, “Thatcher”, “Ministry of Fear”, and “The Strand at Lough Beg” illuminates the subconscious influence of Yeats in Heaney’s naturalistic themes.  I wanted to investigate how much of Heaney’s word choice was aesthetic, and how much was symbolic. Words like  “yew”, “willow”, “hazel” and “sycamore” have their own natural rhythm and lyrical sound, but according to tree lore, all have their own distinctive implications.  While researching, I was struck by the page on hazel trees specifically, for the article begins with a quote from Yeats. He says, “I went out to the hazelwood / because there was a fire in my head” (http://www.druidry.org/library/trees/tree-lore-hazel). It appears that tree lore, and hazel specifically, was such an integral part of Yeats’s personal symbolism, that he almost seems to have claimed ownership of the word.

In the line “The lowland clays and waters of Lough Beg, / Church Island’s spire, it’s soft treeline of yew”, did Heaney use the word “yew” instead of “birch” or “elder” because of the particularly lyrical affect of the word “yew”, or was there precise intent behind that particular choice of tree?

The multivalent meaning of each tree is complex and quite Yeatsian, but did Heaney painstakingly utilize this mystical vocabulary in a conscious effort to imbue his poetry with Celtic meaning, or is this another example of his inability to escape Yeats’s shadow?

Heaney Conveys the Tension Between Individual Self and Public Identity Through Poetry

Heaney conveys his voice through autobiographical elements, testing the distinction between speaker and poet and blurring the dividing line between his individual sense of identity and the one represented in his poetry. Though the overarching themes of his poetry are tonally apparent without the contextual background of his personal experiences, the need to know the details of his life in order to receive a complete impression of his work draws from the  idea that our private self and our public self are separate.

Heaney illustrates this separation of selfhood and public identity by portraying himself as a character in his own work, indicating the complexity of identity in subtle shifts between narrative voices, often not indicating who the speaker is until after the dialogue is presented in the stanza. In section VIII of “Station Island” the lines of direct dialogue dominate the stanzas, infrequently indicating who is speaking. Heaney’s archaeologist cousin is given a large presence in the piece wheras Heaney’s character simply mentions “I could not speak”. The more forgiving criticism of Heaney’s role as a poet merges with Colum’s aggressive accusation. Heaney interjects only slighty, pleading with his cousin before his cousin is given the last word. The prominence of the ghosts voices in this section suggest that this is a inner conflict within Heaney that he is illustrating, personifying certain emotions that are otherwise incommunicable to act out a performance. The use of dialogue supports the drama-like atmosphere that Heaney creates, and the vague shifts between character perspectives insinuates Heaney’s internal struggle. Together, they represent the composite existence of identity as both public performance and inner sentiment.  He uses direct dialogue to indicate speech, generating a conversation between himself as a character and the ghosts of his past in a way that imitates banter. Moreover, the immaterial and phantasmal form in which he portrays his friends and family suggests that they represent the pieces of his self that were shaped by their influence. His cousin, Colum, appears “bleeding, pale-faced…plastered in mud” just as he appeared “in Jerpoint the Sunday [he] was murdered.” As a result, he produces an effect that resembles inner conflict and the process of self-identification.

Furthermore, by incorporating unique experiences of love, loss, and guilt, these autobiographical references to personal relationships and individual experience elicit sympathy while highlighting the notion that our private self is communicable only in individual terms, and thus not entirely transferrable from person to person. Heaney uses abstract words that fuse two seemingly unrelated words into one in order to express the inadequacy of language. The lack of an accepted definition to his words imbues his lines with a sense of authenticity, yet the open-endedness of these made-up words also alienate us from his poetry and each other as we are given the liberty to provide our own interpretation of the words. Thus, Heaney utilizes language to demonstrate the tension between the individual and poetry written for the collective.

Heaney demonstrates that poetry is both an expression of the self and a performance. His abstract words and banter with ghosts indicate the difficulty of deciphering the two from each other. and the anxiety that Heaney feels when his sense of self comes in contact with the role of a poet. Through poetry, Heaney expresses the anxiety he feels when his sense of self comes in contact with the public role of the poet, and more importantly, the danger of assuming that performance signifies the wholesome quality of personality.

Astrology and Yeats’ Notion of Irish Identity

The influence of the sun and moon are apparent the physician's investigation of the cosmological influence of the sun and moon on the human body and soul.
An Illustration from Robert Fludd’s Utriusque Cosmi. The influence of the sun and moon are apparent in the physician’s investigation of the cosmological influence on the human body and soul.

“If I had not made magic my constant study I could not have written a single line…The mystical life is the centre of all that I do and all that I think and all that I write.”

–Yeats writing to his friend, Thomas Moore, in 1925

Abundant images of the Sun and Moon in his poetry reflect Yeats’ role as a mystic and astrologer, while pointing to a more complex interpretation of the role Celtic Astrology plays in Yeats’ juxtaposition of cosmological meaning and Irish nationalism. In his poem “The Man who dreamed of Faeryland”, Yeats conjures a whimsical portrayal of the Irish essence, suggesting that there is an intrinsic Celtic nature in the modern Irish man by underlining it with descriptions of “a gay, exulting, gentle race / under the golden or the silver skies” (20-21).  In line 23 of the same poem as well as in the last two lines of “The Song of Wandering Aengus” the sun and moon indicate Yeats desire to draw from their astrological significance and underpin his belief that human beings are born with an essence that is proven in the stars. Searching for this ancient, true, Ireland, Yeats’ speaker in “The Song of Wandering Aengus” vows to “walk among long dappled grass, / And pluck till time and times are done / The silver apples of the moon, / The golden apples of the sun” (21-24). The sun and the moon act dually as icons of nature in a spiritual sense and a scientific sense, for they hold a mystical power that is “an unexplained rule of thumb that somehow explained the world” (Mann 4) and can be mapped out through means of studying astrology. Reminiscent of the zodiac, which, as we know, is based on a combination of the moon phases and the Sun’s movement throughout the year, Yeats incorporates astrological symbolism in his illustration of Irish identity in order to suggest that there is a parallel between the distinct Celtic element that encompasses the Irish race and the 12 signs delineating humanity into essential characteristics. Yeats presents this conviction that the universe is “symbolical of the personal spiritual life” (Mann) in “He wishes his Beloved were Dead” where the lines “But know your hair was bound and wound / About the stars and moon and sun” illuminate the notion that Ireland’s identity is a fundamental constitution of the mind and soul that is traceable through ancient sources.

Mann, Neil. “Astrology.” W. B. Yeats and “A Vision”:. Clemson University Digital Press, 2012. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.

Mann, Neil, Gibson, Matthew, and Nally, Claire V. “W.B. Yeats’s A Vision Explications and Contexts”. Clemson University Digital Press. 2012. Web. 04 Feb 2014.