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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.

BBC News has reported that Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Féin, was arrested on Wednesday April 30th and is being held by Northern Ireland police in connection with the 1972 murder of Jean McConville. McConville was abducted, executed and buried in secret on Shelling Hill beach in County Louth, Ireland. Her body was discovered in 2003.

The story, which is still developing, does not yet expand on Adams’ connection, but it does include information about Ivor Bell, 77, leader of the Provisional IRA in the 70’s, who was charged based on the interview he gave to researchers at Boston College. Although the researchers told the interviewees that the tapes would only be released after their deaths, some of the content was handed over to U.S. authorities.

AP News includes that Adams was arrested on suspicion of involvement in McConville’s murder. Adams was implicated in the murder by two former IRA members, who also gave interviews to Boston College. Adams confirmed his arrest today, stating that it is a voluntary, prearranged interview. Here’s Adam’s statement as reported by AP:

“Well publicized, malicious allegations have been made against me. I reject these. While I have never disassociated myself from the IRA and I never will, I am innocent of any part in the abduction, killing or burial of Mrs. McConville.”

     The ongoing investigation of McConville’s murder is evidence that the shock of sectarian violence still reverberates in the present. The politics of the Troubles and justifications for violence, any political rhetoric for or against the Union or the Republic pale in comparison to the actors’ collective culpability in sectarian atrocities. Our memory of the Troubles should lie, as Heaney wrote in The Graubelle Man:

with the actual weight
of each hooded victim,
slashed and dumped.

 

One of the constant themes present throughout the majority of Heaney’s work is his conflicted sense of belonging, particularly considering the time he spent away from his homeland and his Catholic upbringing. Many expected his sympathies to remain loyal to the oppressed Catholics in Northern Ireland, but Heaney was always careful when writing about controversial subjects, keeping cautious not to adhere to the inclinations of mob rule in his poetry.

In an interview with Tiago Moura, Heaney describes the significance behind his play on the words “herd” and “heard.” He proclaims the danger of “h.e.r.d. feelings” that must be regarded with caution due to the unpredictable and often violent tendencies of mob rule. In the midst of this sort of chaos, he asserts that it is the duty of the writer, the individual to be “heard,” and to depict the subject matter as a separate entity from the “tribe.” Heaney admits that this is an exceptionally fine line to straddle, and associates his own struggles of this nature with those of Black- American poets during the American Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s.

This struck me as a profound association, and it serves as an intriguing parallel to his own struggles of finding his place. It puts the writer in a difficult position, forcing them to serve as the “voice” or “consciousness” of his/her people and stand up for their interests or to assess the situation objectively and seek an alternative action. His example with Black-American poets identifies the substantial difference between the use of “I,” singular, and the use of “we,” plural. Especially during times of crisis, this seemingly trivial distinction may drastically alter the interpretation of the poet’s political sympathies. The Civil Rights movement serves as a more familiar context to portray Heaney’s perspective from when regarding it through the scope of a Black-American poet abroad. This interview also serves to explain how crucial the meticulousness of word choice and placement can be, especially when writing in the midst of crisis.

The interview is about three and a half minutes long, and offers some interesting perspective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7sskc1pi_k

 

Throughout the class’ examination of Heaney’s original poetry, we have oftentimes mentioned how connected he is to the history of Ireland in a physical context, namely the soil.  Considering this fixation on the organic development of Ireland and Irish culture, I found myself thinking about Heaney’s coveted translation of Beowulf.  While his work with the poem has earned much acclaim as an engaging and accurate translation into modern English, one must puzzle over what this says about Heaney as a poet, as well as an Irishman.

While Heaney is a native of Northern Ireland, as well as a born Catholic, his translation of a traditional English epic poem that is classic to the English archives of literature encourages further criticism to follow his history of teetering between political views and alliances with Irish and English conflicts.  In an interview with the New York Times, Heaney himself admits, “Part of me had been writing Anglo-Saxon from the start.”  Heaney’s ability to maintain a reputation as a talented and skilled writer despite the political complications regarding his career is nothing short of incredible.

To illustrate the skill with which Heaney takes history and reforms it for modern society, below are hyperlinks to two youtube videos that read Heaney’s translation of  Beowulf aloud in the tradition of the bard performing his art, bringing to life the lyrics that Heaney so carefully deduced to be the most accurate way of giving this classic piece new life.

Heaney’s “Beowulf” Performed Part 1

Heaney’s “Beowulf” Performed Part 2

New York Times’ “A Better Beowulf”

Although I had never heard of John Synge or his plays until taking Dr. Doggett’s ENGL 458: Major Authors: Yeats and Heaney, I have been listening to Blake Shelton for years. It took me by surprise when I was playing his album in entirety, to find a song titled “Playboys of the Southwestern World.” The title is derived from Synge’s play “Playboy of the Western World,” but upon listening to the song, I did not see a clear connection between the song and the play. It is fascinating to think about the allusions to art and literature that we miss in daily life, only to discover them later in order to view the piece (in this case, a song) through a different lens.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kFzRTENSC4

I thought this poem was particularly interesting,because it again dealt with the issue of what the role of a poet is. Should he be actively involved in the political ordeals and the violence that Northern Ireland was submerged in?

The first stanza immediately tells us that he is talking about the troubles that northern Ireland, “that was a time when the times were also in spasm”. And here again, Heaney makes clear that he believes that the poet should distance himself, because although he feels he was involved and did address  in the political drama and all the violence that was going on, (he was “mired in attachment”), the people around him felt that he should be more active, like a Lorca figure, as he mentions in “Singing School”. That they want him to do more, or at least that he felt that the people wanted him to do more becomes  clear when he says “they began to pronounce me a feeder off battlefield”.

And he did flee from this, “so I mastered new rungs of the air to survey out of reach”, which then also reminds us of his inherent feeling of always being an outsider observing and commenting on what’s going on in the group that he feels he cannot be part of, he will always be ‘an inner émigré’. However, although he escaped by making his ‘first flight’, it is interesting to note that Heaney does not feel threatened or put down by the people’s response. He uses these critics to his advantage and grows stronger as a poet from them, for he says; “the onslaught of winds I would welcome and climb at the top of my bent”.

I grew up listening to traditional Irish ballads, many of which are a rather disturbing example of romanticizing Irish martyrdom and suicidal revolutionary activities.  Examine three stanzas from my childhood favorite, Boolavogue, which tells the story of the Irish Rebellion of 1798:

“Then Father Murphy from old Kilcormack/ Spurred up the rocks with a warning cry:/ ‘Arm, arm!’ he cried ‘For I’ve come to lead you;/ For Ireland’s freedom we fight or die’

…

“At Vinegar Hill, over the pleasant Slaney/ Our heroes vainly stood back to back/ And the Yeos at Tullow took Father Murphy/ And burnt his body upon the rack

“God grant you glory, brave Father Murphy/ And open heaven to all your men/ The cause that called you may call tomorrow/ In another fight for the Green again”

To give some context to the ballad’s lyrics, a priest (Father Murphy) leads a charge of Irish rebels against the onslaught of the English Yeomen (soldiers). The rebellion was sure to fail: the French, supposed to come to Ireland’s aid, had failed to land on the coast due to poor conditions; informants had warned the British of the rebellion and most of the leadership had been rounded up. The British, as a matter of policy, massacred any rebels.  The rebellion that so romantically promises eternal glory to Father Murphy’s men is essentially a suicide mission.

This is the same kind of disturbing Romanticism that appears in Yeats’ “Cathleen ni Houlihan”, and it is this sort of thing which made Yeats wonder if his writing caused men to go out and get shot.  Romanticism applied to violence and war often falls apart in the face of harsh reality.  Americans learned this lesson with the introduction of televised warfare during the Vietnam War: it was easy to view WWII are heroic and glorious, but it was harder to take that view of a war in which you could turn on your television and watch men’s heads being blown off.

This, I believe, is Heaney’s reaction to the Troubles in Northern Ireland.  Heaney looks at the hosts of Irish who have died for Ireland, from the ancient Bog Bodies, to the medieval and early modern rebellions against the British Crown, to the Easter Rising, to the Troubles.  He examines the romanticizing of the death and gore, and is deeply disturbed by the harsh reality of public bombings and paramilitary operations.

Contrast the lyrics to Boolavogue with Heaney’s poem, “Requiem for the Croppies”, also about the 1798 Rebellion and written on the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising:
The pockets of our greatcoats full of barley…
No kitchens on the run, no striking camp…
We moved quick and sudden in our own country.
The priest lay behind ditches with the tramp.
A people hardly marching… on the hike…
We found new tactics happening each day:
We’d cut through reins and rider with the pike
And stampede cattle into infantry,
Then retreat through hedges where cavalry must be thrown.
Until… on Vinegar Hill… the final conclave.
Terraced thousands died, shaking scythes at cannon.
The hillside blushed, soaked in our broken wave.
They buried us without shroud or coffin
And in August… the barley grew up out of our grave.

The line “they buried us without shroud or coffin” seems to undercut any would-be heroism of the act: the “terraced thousands died”, the hillside “soaked in our broken wave” of blood, and the men were buried without ceremony or honor.  The agency is not given to the men: Heaney does not write “we fought and died for Ireland”; he describes the very land of Ireland soaking up the rebels’ blood  and spitting out barley in its place.  Death is part of the natural cycle in Ireland, and we see again Heaney’s familiar image of the bloodthirsty land that needs to be fed by dead bodies of Irish men.  This is the same image present in Heaney’s Bog Bodies poems: the peat bogs take in the dead bodies, and accept their sacrifice, and years later men like Heaney’s father cut the peat from the bog.

…and to conclude a rather somber post, here’s a beautiful rendition of Boolavogue by Anthony Kearns. Not as rustic as some more authentic versions, but still a really nice song, and the operatic style really draws attention to the romantic subject matter. 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHNHhQ1Q_nk

During the time when Seamus Heaney was writing, there was great political turmoil in Northern Ireland. Beginning in the 1960’s, the Troubles were a conflict between those in Northern Ireland who wanted to remain loyal to Britain (Loyalists, who were mainly Protestants) and those who wanted to be a separate entity from Britain (Nationalists, who were mainly Catholic). This was a time of militant violence and fear among both parties, as attacks were prevalent and deadly. Despite Heaney being a Catholic from Northern Ireland his poetry doesn’t really delve into this political realm until the publication of North in 1975.

Though the main issues from the Troubles are mostly in the past, connections to them in popular culture still exist. Despite it being a traumatic event, it is a major part of Northern Irish history. The American Celtic punk band Flogging Molly writes music that connects to Ireland and their history. Their album Drunken Lullabies features two songs that can be directly connected to the Troubles and some of the imagery and themes that can be found in Heaney’s poems from North.

Continue reading “The Troubles, Flogging Molly, and Heaney’s North”

Gusty Spence seems to me to be the first person who actually got that there is no such thing as the ‘essential Ireland’ as Heaney alludes to in his poem  “The Stations of the West” when he says “I had come west to inhale the absolute weather”. There is nothing that is inherently there and only to be found by a certain group of people, in this case either Protestants or Catholics. Spence is then also the first one, who as David Ervine says, will try and organize a peace treaty.

It can therefore be said that he is the first one that realizes that there are not ‘essential’ differences between Protestants and Catholics that cannot be overcome and make them inherent enemies of each other. It reminded me a lot of the two men in Heaney’s poem “Trial Runs” who are able to joke about each other religion. “’Did they make a Papish of you over there?’ ‘Oh damn the fear! I stole them for you, Paddy, off the Pope’s dresser when his back was turned.’”

This whole view of Spence being seen as one of the rare members of the UVF and IRA who finally was able to focus on the things they had in common instead of the difference, can be supported by the fact that this poem is included in Stations, which was released in 1975, only two years after Spence had convinced the leaders of the UVF to temporarily cease fire, ending the violence for at least a little while.

This is of course a highly debatable view, and I would like to know what you think and if you think this is even a slightly justifiable argument.

I was perplexed by the frequent shifts in tone of Heaney’s poem, “Oysters,” and the contrast between the luxury of eating them and his description of the rigorous processes that allow him such privilege. The opening stanza creates a euphoric tone indicating the richness of the oysters, but shifts abruptly to the harsh process of collecting them.  Throughout the poem, Heaney paints an increasingly harsh picture of the logistics of the oysters’ delivery while he enjoys the delicacy in a detached state from the process.

The metaphor represents the harsh social and political conditions being faced by those living in Northern Ireland during the 1970’s, a time of violence and hardship.   Heaney indirectly describes the state of Northern Ireland and its occupants through the oysters as “ripped and shucked and scattered,” due to the “philandering” of the British military and increasing violence in the area during the peak of Protestant and Catholic tensions.  Heaney’s portrayal of himself in this poem recognizes his position of privilege, but displays his understanding of his position as a poet in the midst of a chaotic uprising that ultimately fuels his writing.  I would imagine that this adheres to Heaney’s ambivalence in his sense of belonging.  Though he tries not to engage the situation radically, one can see his sense of responsibility to comment on the events unfolding as a leading voice in Irish culture.  I can’t tell for certain if he feels guilty for his position of privilege from the poem.  He “toasts friendship” over oysters acquired through conflict, but what does that mean if the conflict is that of Northern Ireland?  It may fuel his writing, but clearly Heaney wouldn’t ask for any of that.  It seems to suggest that by understanding the conflict that feeds him his material he has a responsibility to make sense of it, in his case, by turning it into artful poetry.  This idea appears true in the final line, in which the conflict “quickens [Heaney] into verb,” or writing.