Death - Seamus Heaney Flashcards
‘To a coarse croaking I had not heard before’
Death of a Naturalist
- Symbolises the death of Heaneys childhood - his voice dropping due to puberty.
- Heaney is slightly frightened of these changes, which is seen in the underlying tone of fear created by the language of ‘coarse croaking’.
‘Bubbles gargled’
‘The slap and pop were obscene threats’
Death of a naturalist
- In the first stanza, Heaney uses onomatopoeias of ‘Bubbles gargled’. This not only allows the reader to picture the setting better but also creates contrast in the second stanza (when Heaney is growing up). ‘
- The slap and pop were obscene threats’ - this is contrasting to the light and child-like use of onomatopoeias in stanza one. This shows Heaney’s fear of growing up and effectively points out the brutality of growing up.
‘mud grenades’
Death of a Naturalist
- This alludes to the ongoing civil war during Heaney’s childhood - which subsequently would have caused him to major faster due to the exposure to such violence.
‘Festered’
‘Flax had rotted there’
‘Punishing sun’
Death of a Naturalist
- Heaney also uses language to hint at ignorance of the war when he was a child. While the language in the first stanza is much more childlike, with Heaney referring to the frogs as ‘daddy frog’ and ‘mammy frog’, there’s still gruesome language - ‘Festered’, ‘Flax had rotted there…’, ‘Punishing sun’. This use of language amongst the free-spirited language suggests ignorance to the civil war, and that Heaney is beginning to notice the harsh world, yet is actively trying to remain in childhood.
‘His last gruel of winter seeds/Caked in his stomach.’
The Tollund Man
- The enjambment in these two lines highlights to the reader how well preserved the body must be for his last ever meal is still intact in his stomach
‘Naked except for the cap, noose and girdle’
The Tollund Man
- This use of word choice shows the brutality of his death, and the fact that he is naked except for his kill equipment introduced the idea that he has been stripped down to nothing more than death.
‘Something of his sad freedom’
The Tollund Man
- This use of oxymoron shows how the Tollund man is sad that his life is ending in such a brutal way, but is glad to finally be free from the constraints of violence
‘she tightened her torc of him/ And opened her fen,/ Those dark juices working/ Him to a saint kept body’
‘I could risk blasphemy’
The Tollund Man
- This powerful imagery introduces the femininity of the bog. This suggests that through the bogs own holiness, she is now making the bog become holy too. While this does clearly suggest the Tollund man’s death as a gift to the gods or a sacrifice, it also suggests that Heaney is beginning to worship the body and begins viewing him as an incorruptible catholic. - ‘I could risk blasphemy’. Heaney sees the bog body as a symbol of hope for all those who had died in the Troubles in Ireland
‘I will feel lost and unhappy and at home’
The Tollund Man
- Shows how the ritualistic death in Aarhus reminds Heaney of the sectarian killings in Ireland - yet he feels lost as he feels there is nowhere he can go without violence.
‘Trove of Turfcutters’
The Tollund Man
- ambiguity - on one hand this could mean that the Tollund man would be seen as a ‘treasure’ and a symbol of hope for the innocent farmers in ireland. But, more likely, this could mean that, due to the Bogs in ireland and Heaneys belief in a goddess in the bog, Heaney views the bog as a place to worship, value and protect the ‘souls’ of all the farmers (‘turfcutters’) who lost their life during the Troubles.
‘The scattered, ambushed/ Flesh of labourers’
The Tollund Man
- Heaney is claiming that the killing is, like the Tollund Man, ritualistic.
The opening of Punishment is ‘I’.
Punishment
- This automatically shows the connection between Heaney and the Bog body and shows how he feels as if he is also being punished.
‘The wind on her naked front’
‘…your brains exposed’
Punishment
- this use of imagery shows how exposed the body was in her death - which links to later in the poem when we discover she was most likely sentenced to death for an affair/loving someone (an intimate relationship) - This idea is further implemented later in the poem when Heaney states ‘…your brains exposed’ which shows the intrusiveness of her death.
‘Little Adulteress’
‘but would have cast, I know, the stones of silence.’
Punishment
- this allows insight into the cause of the girls death - and begins to relate back to Ireland and the deaths in Ireland. This relates to the girls in Ireland who would be ostracised for dating a British soldier. This also relates to ‘Jesus and the Adulteress’ which not only suggests that these Irish girls’ actions were being seen as blasphemous, yet, Heaney points out the hypocrisy of the punishers and his own silence on the matter - ‘but would have cast, I know, the stones of silence.’ - this is pointing out Heaney’s own guilt.
