Out of the Bag by Seamus Heaney

Question 1

Title: “Out of the Bag”

Answer 1

References the phrase ‘let the cat out the bag’ meaning to reveal a secret
The speaker finds out how babies are born

Question 2

Themes

Answer 2

Identity
Family
Society
Childhood
Relationships

Question 3

Structure

Answer 3

Cyclical nature allows the speaker to discover time is not so linear.

The first section being longer than the other three could suggest that the events of childhood have had a big impact on the development of the speaker, and this is why a disproportionate amount of the poem is dedicated to this part, as it acts as the foundations for the rest

Section 1 and section 2 are not in regular triplets however section 3 and 4 are. Representing how as the speaker goes through life he is able to piece together and make sense of all realities. The haze of his childhood fades away.

Question 4

Section 1:
“All of us came in Doctor Kerlin’s bag.”

“Those nosy, rosy, big, soft hands of his”

Answer 4

poem opens with the child’s voice and his distorted concept of childbirth
- opening statement sets the sweet, mock-innocent tone
- ‘all of us’ - colloquial language - personal pronoun ‘us’ refers to the narrator’s siblings
- ‘Doctor Kerlin’ clearly commands a lot of respect from the children
Explores children gullibility

Childlike meditation on the origin’s from the speaker
nursery-rhyme rhythm to the ‘nosy. rosy big soft hands of his,’ appropriate to the perceptions of a very small boy

Question 5

context

Answer 5

in past, more reticent eras, adults were reluctant to explain to children ‘how babies were made’ and one of the myths told to children was that they ‘came in the doctor’s little black bag’