Sunlight

Published?

1st poem in 1975 “North” collection

Context

Serene/positive view of NI, Heaney wanted to show that it was not only conflict and violence.

Personal connection

Childhood memories, remembering NI as a safe, loving place, feeling of protection from violence, love throughout the passing of time

Heaney quote on his aunt

“a second mother”, Mary Heaney

Main messages

How peaceful Mossbawn was, feeling protected from violence while in the midst of it, love is shown through actions rather than words.

Nostalgic warm atmosphere, sibilance stanza 1, assonance. Syntax gets attention

There was a sunlit absence.

Personification stanza 1, sense of protection, enjambment

The helmeted pump in the yard
heated its iron,

Golden, slow , peaceful imagery, childlike simile

water honeyed

in the slung bucket
and the sun stood
like a griddle cooling
against the wall

Fast-paced verb, skilled/gentle, personification, working in unison/harmony.

So, her hands scuffled
over the bakeboard,
the reddening stove

Domestic image, warmth/love, remembers her doing what she loved

sent its plaque of heat
against her where she stood
in a floury apron
by the window.

Admirable image of hardworking older woman, passing of time

now sits, broad-lapped,
with whitened nails

and measling shins:

Working in unison with the kitchen again, kitchen is a personified image of her and her love, sense of time passing, togetherness, her aging, him in the present, her in the memory, memory is a bridge

the scone rising
to the tick of two clocks.

Simile, domestic image, love is tangible and ordinary, love is not always said but shown through actions. Old-fahioned vessel for flower=reference to Old/Historical Ireland.

And here is love
like a tinsmith’s scoop
sunk past its gleam
in the meal-bin.