HEANEY

Charlotte Crewe

Candidate number: 1056

Comment closely on ways in which Heaney presents his attitude towards the past in poem or extract of your choice, considering how far and in what ways in reflects the style and concerns of poems in Death of a Naturalist.

In the poem Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney there is a distinct sense of nostalgia but also slight ambivalence towards his childhood memory of picking the blackberries in his past. The other poems within Heaney’s ‘Death of a Naturalist’ collection also feature similar feelings towards his own past.

Heaney’s use of biblical language in “Blackberry-Picking” helps to convey his attitudes towards the past which he acknowledges greatly in a range of his poems from the Collection. In this poem Heaney regularly utilises words which share connotations of Christianity and religion; within lines 5-7, Heaney describes the ‘flesh’ and ‘blood’. Suggestively, the use of these words symbolize a Eucharist, which could show how Heaney believes that Blackberry-Picking itself was almost a ritual or ceremony that he did religiously. Additionally, in lines 16-17, Heaney is conveying further religious symbolism when he mentions the ‘thorns’ that got stuck in his hands during the Blackberry-Picking. This shares close connotations with the thorn crown which Jesus wore, which is almost suggesting as if Heaney felt as though he was making a sacrifice when he picked berries, or as though he was put through severe punishment when it came to what he went through in order to get the berries. This shows that he feels quite troubled by his past and his childhood as he is referring to what you would typically view as a happy memory and comparing it to the pain which Jesus Christ went through in the Bible. Heaney continues to employ a grudge-bearing view towards his past in other poems in his collection, one being ‘Death of a Naturalist’. In this poem, Heaney emphasises a sense on reminisce towards his childhood memories, when he utilises dark adjectives such as “festered” and verbs such as “invaded”, as this language shows the reader how Heaney feels bitter towards these memories. This reveals how Heaney initially begins with describing a memory through nostalgia, before it gradually becoming more twisted and darker.

The use of structural techniques in Heaney’s ‘Blackberry-Picking’ allow the reader to understand Heaney’s deliberation to reveal an attitude to his past which gradually alters throughout his poems, and shifts from a nostalgic attitude to a more disturbing memory. Heaney has purposely written the poem using an Iambic pentameter which whilst giving it a rhythm and reflecting the pace of his life, also makes it sound more violent and aggressive, reflecting his disturbing memories. This has been utilised deliberately in order to reflect Heaney’s lack of appreciation towards his memories of his past; he wants us to recognise his bitterness towards this memory by creating the poem to sound distressed. The way in which the poem begins with “Late August, given heavy rain and sun” juxtaposes how Heaney becomes towards the end of the poem, as he stresses that “all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot”. Heaney often changes his poems to become more dark towards the end of them, hence why in Blackberry-Picking he goes from saying how his happiness was always taken away from him; we know this from the comparison between ‘heavy rain and sun’ to ‘smelt of rot’. This significant difference reflects why all of his memories always end in upsetting him. This structure is mirrored by Heaney in the poem ‘Follower’ as it too has a similar structure to Blackberry Picking. At the beginning of ‘Follower’, Heaney’s imagery of his fathers’ shoulders ‘globed like a full sail strung’, connotes a seemingly joyous memory, however this quickly develops into a memory filled with disturbance and sadness. As the poem progresses, it discusses the ‘hob-nailed wake’, which connotes the waves in an ocean and the imagery of chaos, just like Blackberry-Picking. This idea reflects how the majority of Heaney’s memories usually developing into a thought of darkness.

The deliberate forms used throughout the poems are significant in the fact they also help reflect Heaney’s attitudes towards his past, which is revealed by Heaney’s use of Voltas and irregularly structured stanza’s. In ‘Blackberry-Picking’, Heaney conveys his attitudes towards the past through his variation of stanza lengths and line sizes. Although that is seemingly an insignificant feature, it can be argued that Heaney has deliberately utilized irregular stanza sizes in ‘Blackberry-Picking’ to echo his twisted memories of his childhood; this unstructured pattern is arguably reflective of the chaos which comes with his nostalgia and how it gradually develops into a nightmare as opposed to an enticing memory. Furthermore, the use of the Volta in the poem, ‘Blackberry-Picking’, is also significant as it automatically allows Heaney to go from a semi-pleasant memory to showing how he also perceives his past as unfortunate and unforgiving. Additionally, Heaney’s tendency to use lines of a similar length could be to reflect how his memories are monotonous in the sense that they all end up developing into a thought of sadness. We see Heaney’s deliberate form utilizations also in ‘Digging’; each stanza has a completely unique appearance, just like ‘Blackberry-Picking’, suggesting chaos and uncertainty when it comes to thinking about his past. overall, Heaney’s use of form is significant as it allows the readers to grasp an idea of the monotony and chaos which comes with the package of Heaney’s nostalgia towards his past.

Throughout Heaney’s collection of ‘Death of a Naturalist’, Heaney reflects his attitudes towards the past through multiple features such as biblical language, metre and form. The language throughout ‘Blackberry-Picking’ and the rest of Heaney’s collection strongly reflect how he feels a sense of bitterness towards the past and his childhood memories. Additionally, the form and structure deliberately used by Heaney indicate this further, such as his use of the Iambic Pentameter to show a violent and aggressive tone, highlighting his revolt towards his memories. Overall Heaney’s presentation of the past is majorly cynical as the circumstances of his poems in the collection gradually become worse as they progress, which resembles feelings of disappointment, portrayed entirely though deliberate choice of language, form and structure.

Total words: 1028

Titles and quotes: 54

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Charlotte Crewe