'Field work' by Seamus Heaney- Context

Oysters

-Oysters is a reference to the colonization of Ireland and how the country has been 'ripped', leaving the people 'shucked and scattered'

-Ireland is rich in minerals and agricultural land; which has been exploited by the colonizers

-feminist viewing- Ireland has metaphorically been raped by its male oppressors

-'Romans' famous colonizers

Triptych

-a triptych usually conveys Christian images and means 'something in three parts', with the centre image being the most significant. In this case, the central poem, Sibyl (about the regression of mankind) juxtaposes the images of agricultural wealth and an idyllic world in the outer poems.

- ''After a killing' is in response to the murder of Christopher Ewart Biggs', the British Ambassador who was murdered by a landmine in 1976. 'Unquiet founders' is a reference to the Easter Rebellion of 1916 and the founders of the Irish Free State n 1920- freedom fighters.

-'Sibyl' explores the idea of national identity and the passivity of the Irish people towards the political unrest of The Troubles and the consequences of the sectarian violence. Religious connotations with the 'forgotten water in a well'. The alder tree symbolises Ireland and is orange inside or a reference to the 'bleeding trees' in hell. 'nymphs' are mythological creatures denoting fertility and new life. 'flayed' also has religious connotations as monks would whip themselves to repent their sins.

'At the Water's edge' is about Heaney visiting places of cultural importance- he's looking back at history to find answers for the future. reference to the stone work of monasteries and the 'carved monastic heads' is a reference to pre-dated Christianity. 'Like bread on water' is a reference to Catholicism and possibly how faith is dissolving. 'Boa' was a pre Christian Celtic war goddess. Religious images 'bow down...pray...penitiential'

'March at Newry' was a Civil Rights march that happened a week after Bloody Sunday in Newry.

The Toome Road

'broken alder branches' - an alder tree is indigenous to Ireland - conveys the split in Ireland and lack of continuity.

'their back doors on the latch'- passivity of the Irish towards the political troubles - anger and contempt.

-reference to The Troubles and the consequences of the sectarian violence.

-'omphalos'- greek word meaning 'naval' bub of something- or the symbolic centre of Ireland.

The Strand at Lough Beg

-Lough Beg is a lake in Armagh, which is the area Heaney is originally from- this is home.

-Poem is an elegy for his cousin Colum McCartney who was killed in 1975 by Protestant militants

-epigraph is from Dante's Purgatorio- a cleric climbs the mountains of hell, guided by Virgil. It's the second part in the trilogy and 'purgatory' is the place between heaven and hell where you're judged to decide whether you go to heaven or hell. Creates a link between Colum and Dante and elevates him almost to a majestic status.

-'Sweeney' is a reference to the story of Sweeney, an Ulster king and hero of Irish poems; he goes mad and apparently was cursed by St Ronan as he slew one of his clerics and was killed. Materialises the sense of danger

- 'you and yours and yours and mine' is a reference to a traditional Irish toast

-'spoke an old language of conspirators'- Colum came from a long line of passive farmers who turned a blind eye to the politics of Ireland (is Heaney critical of this?)

-'I dab you clean with moss' is a direct reference again to Purgatorio, as Virgil wiped the remnants of hell from Dante's face with moss .

-10 years later, Heaney wrote 'Station island', in which he questions and condemns this poem for white-washing the brutality and hellish nature of the troubles and death.

A Postcard from North Antrim

-an elegy for Heaney's university (Queen's University) friend who moved away from home to California and travelled around as a social worker for under privileged children.

-'Antrim' means Lone ridge - he was alone, he stood up against order and refused to be coerced into

joining a faction.

-'dulse-pickers' - edible seaweed, a local culture

-list of Lowell- like nouns

-'a nineteenth century wind' is a reference to the Potato Famine which killed over 1 million people. In response to this, secret organisations began to try to overthrow the British

-'Sing of the calabar' about a boat in a storm, the narrator was the only survivor- lonely

-list of traditional Irish Protestant ballads because Sean was Protestant

-Lowell- like list of nouns- creates a very personal tone as these are the things Heaney associates with Sean.

-'peace line' a fence to 'protect' communities from each other

Casualty

-an elegy lamenting for the unknown- political as opposed to personal.

-Louis O'Neill who died because he ignored the curfew and went for a drink, when the Catholic pub where he was, was blown up.

-O'Neill was a regular at Heaney's step fathers pub and a local fisherman.

-'Provisionals' - Provisional Irish Republican Party, formed after the split of the IRA in 1969

-'the thirteen men in Derry' - Bloody Sunday Killing of the unarmed civil rights protestors

-'braced and bound like brothers in a ring' MORRISON sees the image as a negative depiction of tribal society

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Breakaway style

'Field Work' 's breakaway style is paradoxically burdened by the poet's desire to resuscitate an Irish past

The title

The title reflects a side of Heaney that equates the use of imagination with honest labour and with a fidelity to loved ones and the past. The poems are readings, not declarations

'hunger of rural culture'

'Field Work' reflects the "hunger of a rural culture for its own image and expression"

Preoccupations

-During the time he wrote Field Work, Heaney also wrote essays collected in preoccupations; suggesting a desire to become a more pastoral Irish Catholic

marriage in Field Work

Seamus Deane says 'Field Work is about the durability and centrality of the sacrament of marriage'

'Ease of voice'

Heaney stated that the "ease of voice" characterises his poems

Heaney and Lowell, Henry Hart

'Lowell's burnished rhetoric...reverberates through Field Work'

In Memorian Francis Lesgeway

In Memorian Francis Ledgeway was inspired by Lowell's 'For the union dead'