the forge

Question 1

on surface, it may be read as a poem that’s

Answer 1

•celebrating local craftsmanship. and exploring cultural roots, a nostalgic poem of social history

Question 2

however, the real subject of the poem is

Answer 2

•the mystery of the creative process

Question 3

the work of the forge serves as a

Answer 3

•extended metaphor for the beating out of a work of art, the creating of poetry

Question 4

the reader, like the speaker in this case, is

Answer 4

•outside, peering in at the mystery
•one can catch glimpses of beauty in the making: “The unpredictable fantail of sparks” or hear snatches of its elegant sound: “short-pitched ring” or the “hiss”

Question 5

the secret of its construction, though,

Answer 5

•remains a mystery, inaccessible to the non artist
•onlookers can see the event but can’t perform it themselves or even understand it

Question 6

creativity is a fabulous process,

Answer 6

•the stuff of legend, of medieval romance
•the anvil is a horned “unicorn”: but is also a sacred process, and the smith is its high priest

Question 7

the making of art isn’t the exclusive preserve of intellectuals and the “chattering classes”

Answer 7

•but can be born of even the uncouth and uncommunicative (“hairs in his nose,/He leans out… grunts and goes in”)

Question 8

art isn’t necessarily anchored to the here and now

Answer 8

•the artist withdraws from the modern world to create (“He… recalls a clatter/Of hoofs where traffic is flashing in rows;/Then grunts and goes in, with a slam and flick/To beat real iron out..”)

Question 9

the poem deals with the

Answer 9

•mystery and sacredness of art and at the same time puts before us the ordinariness of the artist

Question 10

probably based on heaney experience at

Answer 10

•a real forge- Devlin’s forge at Hillhead, not far from Mossbawn, where the Heaney first lived during the poets youth

Question 11

from this forge, heaney

Answer 11

•borrowed the anvil to lend realism to his part as a blacksmith in a Bellaghy Dramatic Society production about the 1798 Rising

Question 12

the ordinary bric-a-brac of life

Answer 12

•is endowed with metaphysical meaning and poetic significance by the writer

Question 13

the image has literary echoes too,

Answer 13

•smiths featured in the work of Gerard Manley Hopkins, a poet much admired by Heaney

Question 14

Hopkins uses the smith as a symbol of

Answer 14

•human strength, beauty and Christian courage in ‘Felix Randal’ and as a metaphor for God in ‘The Wreck of the Deutschland’, where he sees the God-smith forging humankind to what shape he wills

Question 15

for heaney, the forge

Answer 15

•had both a strong physical and literary presence

Question 16

all imagery in poem is generated by

Answer 16

•the forge and its surroundings

Question 17

the discarded bric-a-brac (“old axles and iron hoops rustling”) recalls

Answer 17

•the real disorder out of which true beauty is created

Question 18

the unexpected glory of sparks (“The unpredictable fantail of sparks”) provides

Answer 18

•the only flash of color in the otherwise Stygian gloom

Question 19

darkness is

Answer 19

•the predominant backdrop color here
•in fact, a number of poems in this volume- ‘The Outlaw’, ‘Gallarus Oratory’ and ‘The Forge’- feature dark places, enclosed spaces

Question 20

what are these dark places, and enclosed spaces

Answer 20

•they paradoxically are places of great energy and creativity, whether biological, spiritual or artistic
•here too the dark is seductive and creative, enticing and explosive

Question 21

central image is

Answer 21

•the anvil, which heaney allows to have a couple of different implications, associating its horn with the mythical beast of medieval romance & its square end with a religious altar

Question 22

what aspects of creativity are fostered

Answer 22

•both the romantic and sacred aspects of creativity are fostered

Question 23

sound is

Answer 23

•an essential feature of pictorial composition for heaney

Question 24

we’re aware of the musical quality of the verses,

Answer 24

• the onomatopoeic “hiss”, “slam” and “flick”
•the alliteration of “grunts and goes”

Question 25

there’s also a subterranean musical echoes within words

Answer 25

•they provide a background resonance
•eg. the flat ‘e’ and ‘a’ sounds in “somewhere”, “square” and “altar” focus on the weight of the anvil and its central importance

Question 26

form is

Answer 26

•petrarchan sonnet, with the octave devote to the forge and the sestet providing a shift in focus to the smith

Question 27

what does this division of form allow

Answer 27

•allows the anvil as “an altar” to be emphasized at the pivotal point of the poem