the forge Flashcards
on surface, it may be read as a poem that’s
•celebrating local craftsmanship. and exploring cultural roots, a nostalgic poem of social history
however, the real subject of the poem is
•the mystery of the creative process
the work of the forge serves as a
•extended metaphor for the beating out of a work of art, the creating of poetry
the reader, like the speaker in this case, is
•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”
the secret of its construction, though,
•remains a mystery, inaccessible to the non artist
•onlookers can see the event but can’t perform it themselves or even understand it
creativity is a fabulous process,
•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
the making of art isn’t the exclusive preserve of intellectuals and the “chattering classes”
•but can be born of even the uncouth and uncommunicative (“hairs in his nose,/He leans out… grunts and goes in”)
art isn’t necessarily anchored to the here and now
•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..”)
the poem deals with the
•mystery and sacredness of art and at the same time puts before us the ordinariness of the artist
probably based on heaney experience at
•a real forge- Devlin’s forge at Hillhead, not far from Mossbawn, where the Heaney first lived during the poets youth
from this forge, heaney
•borrowed the anvil to lend realism to his part as a blacksmith in a Bellaghy Dramatic Society production about the 1798 Rising
the ordinary bric-a-brac of life
•is endowed with metaphysical meaning and poetic significance by the writer
the image has literary echoes too,
•smiths featured in the work of Gerard Manley Hopkins, a poet much admired by Heaney
Hopkins uses the smith as a symbol of
•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
for heaney, the forge
•had both a strong physical and literary presence
all imagery in poem is generated by
•the forge and its surroundings
the discarded bric-a-brac (“old axles and iron hoops rustling”) recalls
•the real disorder out of which true beauty is created
the unexpected glory of sparks (“The unpredictable fantail of sparks”) provides
•the only flash of color in the otherwise Stygian gloom
darkness is
•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
what are these dark places, and enclosed spaces
•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
central image is
•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
what aspects of creativity are fostered
•both the romantic and sacred aspects of creativity are fostered
sound is
•an essential feature of pictorial composition for heaney
we’re aware of the musical quality of the verses,
• the onomatopoeic “hiss”, “slam” and “flick”
•the alliteration of “grunts and goes”
