Critical Analysis- Sheeney Flashcards
Secure A05 for poetry
Is the poets public duty to act offensively or remain in the shadows.
“if a poet must turn his resistance into an offensive, he should go for a kill and be prepared, in his life and work, for the consequences.”
The identity of the community appears through the isolated character attempting to rejoin the tribe.
“these voices from a colonial and agricultural desolation must be attended to in the search for a more satisfactory future.”
A representation of the poet’s faith in poetry.
“Art has a religious, a binding force, for the artist. Language is the poet’s faith.” (Andrews)
Poetry appears weak in a violent world.
“a view of poetry as secret and natural even though it must operate in a world that is public and brutal.” (Andrews)
The masculine appearance of the Craft.
“In the masculine mode, the language functions as a form of address… a labour of shaping.” (Anderson)
The masculine physicalisation and inability to articulate language, this is the poet’s duty.
“Toughen up, don’t whine, be a man!’ It’s the face of someone who hands down the rage and pain of what it is to be a man.”
Heaney presents the natural occurrence of poetry that is divided into the presets of masculine and feminine. (Apollonian and Dionysian.)
“masculine will and intelligence and feminine clusters of image and emotion.” (Heaney)
Progression to the light from roots in the earth.
“A move from Antaean darkness into Herculean light.” (Davies)
The base nature of poetry.
“The act of writing itself is political.”
The move to Glanmore acts as an act of freedom.
“Heaney is liberated in the space of exile.”
“rediscovers a strength in the firmer ground.”
Both poets attempt to find a middle-ground between art and duty.
“the intertwining of the creative and the responsible is… interrogated.” (Heaney)
“poised on the brink… standing Janus-like with one eye on life and one on death.”
Poetry and violence are intertwined at the base.
“the roots of poetry and of violence grow in the same soil… nature of guilt and its intimacy with the act of writing.” (Deane)
The poets search for self-mastery.
“the area that is his by choice and not dictated by circumstance… “Poetry is out of the quarrel with ourselves .”
The agricultural- ploughing nature of poetry.
“turning the unresolved conflicts and turmoil of one’s life into something realised, artistic, whole.”
The community desire the poet to represent their voice.
“the composer became public property… as part of the community desirous of a leader, a representative, a symbol.”
