Sunlight - Seamus Heaney

sunlit absence

creates a warm opening to the poem

helmeted pump

signifies a protection, indirectly relates to The Troubles

heated its iron

reiterates the idea of warmth, assonance

water honeyed

sweetness of earthly produced things, purity

slung bucket

used for carrying water

the sun stood like a hot griddle cooling against the wall

simile regarding the sun

each long afternoon

description of the days, use of assonance to prolong the sentence like the warmth

her hands scuffled over the bakeboard

first mention of his aunt, baking

reddening stove

image of warmth, oven

plaque of heat

another image of warmth, reference to commemorating

goose’s wing

used for dusting

broad lapped

description of his aunts lap, broad-vowel assonance

whitened nails and measling shins

honest description of his aunt

to the tick of two clocks

alliteration, reference to time

here is love

statement sentence, showing something

like a tinsmith’s scoop sunk past its gleam in the meal-bin

usual simile describing love