Out of the bag - Seamus Heaney

Childhood innocence and imagination

Heaney engages in an exploration of the power and potency of an innocent child’s imagination, vividly capturing the theme of childhood innocence through the young persona’s fantastical understanding of birth 

Myth, medicine and healing

This blending of ancient myth with modern medicine suggests that healing is not only a physical process but also a spiritual and imaginative one, where the intersection of science and magic merge to shape human understanding . Therefore, Heaney suggests that medicine isn't solely a scientific discipline, but is also the domain of faith, myth and the miraculous 

Life and death

Heaney delicately balances the themes of life and death, tracing a continuum that begins with the mystery of birth and extends into reflections upon mortality and the ephemerality of life. By weaving together the miraculous and the mortal, Heaney presents life and death not as opposites, but as inextricably interwoven forces in the shaping of identity and society 

Structure/form

• Rigid tercets throughout (reminiscent of the pregnancy trimester?), however fluidity in line length. Lack of rhyme scheme could provide authenticity 

• Long sentences, enjambment makes it difficult to discern where one sentence ends and the next begins. Overwhelming 

• The structure is consistent throughout the poem, with the exception of a one line stanza at the end of the first section. The fragmentation of the stanzas could therefore be interpreted as demonstrating the way in which the narrator’s thoughts were often broken, and needed to be pieced together in order to have full understanding of a situation 

• Cyclical structure, returning to the ‘room I came from’. Ties memories of family births into a broader exploration of where people come from and how stories shape their lives and sense of self 

‘Out of the bag’

• Pun on childhood misunderstanding, truth revealed – truth about sex and childbirth, knowledge of which spells the end of childhood innocence. The phrase ‘out of the bag’ has idiomatic interpretations of revealing a secret 

• The bag functions as a multifaceted symbol that encapsulates the central themes of creation, understanding and transformation. Symbolically, the bag becomes a site of transition between ignorance and understanding, between the mythic and the medical, childhood and adulthood – where Heaney employs a complex interplay of oppositions to explore the indeterminacy or humanity 

• The child’s belief that babies are ‘out of the bag’ by the doctor, who seems almost godlike, reflects a naive and wonder-filled perception of adult mysteries. This infantile interpretation contrasts sharply with the clinical reality hinted at in the poem’s later sections, highlighting the gap between imaginative innocence and mature understanding 

• The symbol also functions metapoetically – the doctor’s bag becomes a metaphor for the poet’s own craft, from which language and memory are drawn and made tangible. Just as the doctor extracts life from the bag, the poet draws meaning and history from memory and language. Heaney’s use of intertextual allusion – especially to classical medicine and myth – elevates the bag from a mundane object to a vessel of cultural and metaphysical significance. The ‘bag’ therefore becomes metaphorically the repository of stories, fantasies and memories that Heaney carries with him still. Demonstration of how belief can shape experience. The bag acts as a symbol, a vessel or storehouse of memory from which Heaney pulls images for his art 

‘Colour of a spaniel’s lug’ ‘collar that was also spaniel-coloured' 

• Charming and surprising reference that reminds the reader of the persona’s childhood excitement and imagination. However, this is contrasted by the specificity of the vivid spaniel references and the realism this creates. The association of the doctor with the spaniel imagery greatly contrasts the ‘hyperborean’ eyes and ‘darken the door’  

• Colour imagery ‘colour of a spaniel’s inside lug’ is very vivid, but ‘lug’ is also an old-fashioned colloquialism. Archaic words like ‘lug’ and ‘scullery’ age the poem. More specific colour imagery ‘beyond-the-north-wind blue’ 

• Sensory-rich lens of childhood perception 

‘Ritual’ ‘the god..’ ‘shrines’ ‘ark’ 

• Semantic field of religion suggests an existential wonder, mystery of creation 

• Religion is not explored through overt theological discourse, but through symbolic imagery and tone. Biblical allusion to Noah’s Ark, creation and God   

• Idea of a higher power, perhaps this is mirrored in the wonder the persona has towards Doctor Kerlin. Doctor Kerin evokes a religious authority to the child, capable of producing life that elevates him to a near-divine status. His almost ritualistic procedures and repeated washing could be interpreted as a form of sacralisation of the secular – a process where everyday actions take on a spiritual or transcendent significance through the lens of childlike imagination 

• ‘Bits of the grass’ bears religious connotations. St Bernadette saw an apparition of Mary at Lourdes, and was told to eat the grass – a healing spring then appeared in that spot which Bernadette dug. 

Lourdes, ‘Sanctuaries of Asclepius’

• The concept of healing in Europe can be traced back to the Sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus, Greece. Epidaurus is considered by many to be the birthplace of modern medicine.

• In the final section of Out of the Bag, Seamus Heaney adopts a more introspective and meditative tone, potentially revealing the speaker’s own confrontation with mortality and existential uncertainty.

• The references to Lourdes, a site of pilgrimage renowned for miraculous healing, alongside the physical fragility implied by words such as “fainted,” “blinking,” and “shaky,” suggest that the speaker may be ill or entering a period of bodily decline.

• These images introduce a philosophical memento mori, where the adult speaker—perhaps nearing the end of his life—returns to the origins of existence, contemplating the mystery of birth as a way of understanding the inevitability of death. 

‘Undarkening’

• The motif of coming “out of the bag” in childhood raises the unspoken question: if life begins in mystery, where does it lead once it ends? This existential arc is deepened through the image of the “undarkening door,” a phrase that subtly invokes biblical symbolism—doors often represent thresholds between states of being, particularly between earthly life and spiritual afterlife.

• The paradoxical quality of “undarkening” suggests a movement toward light, clarity, or transcendence, perhaps even a heavenly or divine presence.

• Furthermore, the speaker’s yearning to “be visited by” and to approach the “precincts of the god” echoes a desire for spiritual connection or revelation, reinforcing the poem’s quiet but profound exploration of faith, transience, and the longing for meaning beyond the material world.