Heaney Context

Question 1

Personal helicon context

Answer 1

In Greek Mythology, Mount Helicon was a mountain on which there were two springs that gave inspiration for art /poetry.

Question 2

Personal helicon context pt 2

Answer 2

The childhood wells and rural upbringing that Heaney depicts in the poem acts as his source of poetic inspiration- his “Personal Helicon”.

Question 3

Personal helicon context pt 3

Answer 3

The fable of Narcissus also takes place here. Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection and when he realises that he can’t have the object of his desire, he ends his life.

Question 4

Personal helicon context pt 4

Answer 4

The poem is dedicated to Michael Longley. He is a poet who was part of a a group (with Heaney) who met weekly to read and discuss each other’s work during Heaney’s university years at Queen’s in Belfast.

Question 5

The forge context

Answer 5

Heaney draws on a familiar childhood scene/memory to which he has remained imaginatively attached.

Question 6

The forge context pt 2

Answer 6

Heaney is remembering his fascination with the forge in his boyhood in the 1940’s when the motor car replaced the horse as a means of transport.

Question 7

The forge context pt 3

Answer 7

Heaney used to pass by this mysterious cornucopia of scrap metal, farm machinery and the obligatory three or four strong farm horses on his way to school at Hillhead near Bellaghy, in rural County Derry.

Question 8

The forge context pt 4

Answer 8

‘The Forge’ which inspired this poem was owned and worked by local blacksmith Barney Devlin and it had been handed down to him by his father before him.

Question 9

The forge context pt 5

Answer 9

The figure of the forge and the blacksmith are representative of a traditional, disappearing way of life.

Question 10

The peninsula context

Answer 10

This poem was written after a drive to the Ards Peninsula in Co. Down and conveys a clear love for the Irish landscape.
It makes extensive reference to the Irish countryside which stimulated Heaney’s mind and inspired much of his poetry.

Question 11

The peninsula context pt 2

Answer 11

This is a poem which encourages the reader to seek inspiration from somewhere- a poem about how to live and express yourself. The landscape can restore your ability to really see the world when it seems that there is “nothing more to say”, it can bring you out of inarticulacy.

Question 12

The wife’s tale context

Answer 12

Heaney’s understanding of the role of women in rural society is based on his mother, Margaret. The voice of the poem is not only Heaney’s mother, but all quintessentially rural women.

Question 13

The wife’s tale context pt 2

Answer 13

The poem depicts a woman who fits the more traditional role of the ‘rural wife’ at the time of mid 1960’s when women were getting out of the home and taking jobs.

Question 14

The wife’s tale context pt 3

Answer 14

The poem conveys a feeling of routine, that this is not based on an isolated event but has occurred many times over years of living on the family farm in Derry.

Question 15

Bogland context

Answer 15

This poem is dedicated to T.P Flanagan, a Northern Irish painter and a friend of Heaney’s.

Question 16

Bogland context pt 2

Answer 16

In the 1960’s he worked on series of bog illustrations and studies and Heaney helped him work on preparatory drawings. Flanagan painted a picture of the bog land and dedicated it to Heaney. Heaney responded with this poem.

Question 17

Bogland context pt 3

Answer 17

In an essay, Heaney said “I began to get an idea of bog as the memory of the landscape, or as a landscape that remembered everything that happened to it”.

Question 18

The harvest bow context

Answer 18

The older male figure in the poem is Heaney’s father, Patrick. Heaney’s familiarity with the process of knotting a harvest bow stems from the fact that he would have seen these bows made each autumn.

Question 19

The harvest bow context pt 2

Answer 19

In a 1996 interview, Heaney spoke of his father’s “majesty” and his father having “the country farmer’s silence and hauteur”.

Question 20

The railway children context

Answer 20

Heaney’s first house as a child in Mossbawn was beside the railway, along which ran poles and telegraph wires.

Question 21

The railway children context pt 2

Answer 21

In an interview, Heaney said that “along the telegraph wires there used to run raindrops, and we used to think the telegrams were sent in the raindrops”.

Question 22

The railway children context pt 2

Answer 22

A child’s understanding of telecommunications in the 1950s would be limited. The speaker’s interpretation provides an attractive alternative to the truth.

Question 23

The railway children context pt 3

Answer 23

The title of the poem reinforces the theme of childhood experiences as it echoes E. Nesbit’s study of children and childhood in her 1906 book of the same name.

Question 24

The summer of lost Rachel context

Answer 24

This poem is about the death of Seamus Heaney’s niece, Rachel Heaney, aged 9, in 1985.

Question 25

The summer of lost Rachel context pt 2

Answer 25

She was killed in a traffic accident when she was riding her bike near the family farm. She rode the bike down the laneway from the farm and spotted her aunt across the road. She rode her bike on to the road and a van knocked her down, killing her instantly. Heaney wrote this poem later that year

Question 26

Postscript context

Answer 26

This poem is based on a memory of a windy Saturday afternoon when Heaney and his wife (Maria) drove with Brian and Anne Friel along the south coast of Galway Bay.

Question 27

Postscript context pt 2

Answer 27

The poem acts as a holiday postcard or P.S. of sorts to the Friels, beginning like a continuation of their conversation on that trip.

Question 28

Had I not been awake context

Answer 28

This poem recalls the aftermath of a serious illness that Heaney endured (a mild stroke in 2006 in a Donegal guest house).

Question 29

Had I not been awake context pt 2

Answer 29

It reflects Heaney’s uncertainty as to where his next poetic spark may come from.

Question 30

Had I not been awake context pt 3

Answer 30

Here, he recalls a moment pivotal to his recovery. In this moment, Nature’s own external show of energy kick-starts Heaney’s own internal engine- this experience offers a re-awakening for Heaney.

Question 31

Heaney own context

Answer 31

Born near Bellaghy in the townland of Mossbawn in Co Derry in 1939. Son of a cattle farmer, the eldest of nine children. Grew up in a rural environment and helped on his father’s farm.

Question 32

Heaney own context pt 2

Answer 32

Heaney’s work deals with the local surroundings of N.I. His poetry makes profound observation on the small details of everyday life.

Question 33

Heaney own context pt 3

Answer 33

Some of his early poems shed light on the rural life in Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s. Heaney refers to local Irish people and traditional trades from the early 20th Century. Some poems concern his personal history.

Question 34

Heaney own context pt 4

Answer 34

Despite the inherently Irish and rural dimensions of his language, Heaney is a universal poet. Nationalist “My passport is green and I will not raise my glass to toast the Queen.”

Question 35

The Conway Stewart context

Answer 35

This poem is based on Heaney’s Father’s gift of a pen to celebrate the passing of entrance examinations and was gifted on the day of Heaney’s departure for boarding school in Derry.

Question 36

The Conway Stewart context pt 2

Answer 36

Heaney said, “The day I entered St. Columb’s College, my parents bought me a Conway Stewart pen. It was a special afternoon, of course. We were going to be parting that evening; they were aware of it, I was aware of it, nothing much was said about it”.

Question 37

The Conway Stewart context pt 3

Answer 37

This poem comes from Heaney’s 2010 collection “Human Chain”. The poems in this collection are preoccupied with connection and separation.

Question 38

The baler context

Answer 38

The solid, repetitive sound of a vital piece of agricultural machinery unearths deep feelings in a convalescent (recovering after ill-health) Heaney. Heaney was affected by the aftermath of a mild stroke in 2006.

Question 39

The baler context pt 2

Answer 39

This poem is about mortality, about self and about a specific friend in memoriam: Derek Hill (a wheel-chair bound painter).

Question 40

The baler context pt 3

Answer 40

In this poem, Heaney acknowledges the need for practical work, but he stresses the need in our work to recognise the marvellous beauty that can be taken for granted.