Heaney’s poems explore by varied poetic means the enduring significance of family and childhood in human life

Much of Heaneys poetry, particularly from his early selections, explores puerility and family. Heaney perhaps uses these subject areas as a means of scuppering his true self by travelling back to his root. His puerility experiences concur sure enough had a muddy feign and subprogramed as inspiration for many of the verses from his first book, Death of a Naturalist, merely there ar too poems in later books that explore this theme. Aside from giving us an insight into Heaneys early life, his exploration of puerility and family also reflects the rural Irish culture at the time and the semi governmental situation in Ireland.The poet also explores the themes of puerility and family through the use of sundry(a) poetic devices, including vivid imagery and structure. The first poem that I piddle decided to examine is Digging from Heaneys first collection, Death of a Naturalist. This poem focuses on the poets father and grandfather, and his admiration for their digging skills. It also guides the great contrast amid father and son, in that Heaney has no turn over to follow men wish them his talents lie in writing. Digging is the first poem in the selection, and certainly depicts Heaneys insecurities close to his writing career and his early struggle to define himself as a poet, and break the family tradition of rural labour. The poem is littered with unhomogeneous poetic devices, which help to bring the poem and the poets feelings alive to the reader. Firstly, Heaney uses the simile, snug as a gun to describe the way the pen feels when he holds it. This suggests that it fits his hand surface and is genuinely powerful.It could also mean that, whereas his father and grandfather use the spade as their weapon, Heaney uses the pen. Some make also proposed that the image of the gun is a reflection of the violence in Northern Ireland. However, this can non be so, because this poem was produce in 1966, before the troubles started. He also chooses to use rather vivid language to describe his fathers actions while digging in the garden. For example, a vindicated rasping sound is almost onomatopoeia, as the joint actually sounds homogeneous the noise a spade makes when it sinks into steadfastly ground.Further examples of onomatopoeia are, squelch, smack, sloppily and gravelly. Straining rump is also a heartfelt choice of language, as the reader can instantly visualise how hard the man is working and feel his pain. A further poetic creature is the use of technical language, such as lug and shaft, which show their technique and skill in their trade, as they know exactly what they are doing and thoroughly understand every part of their tool.Colloquial language is also utilize, such as By God, the old man could handle a spade. This is perhaps used as a way for Heaney to consociate with the rural population of Ireland and associate himself with his roots. The structure of the poem is also a very important feature, as it helps to illustrate Heaneys insecurities with his writing career. The stanzas are very irregular, suggesting that the poets thoughts are wandering aimlessly as he is trying to discover his true identity and accept his trade.However, the structure could also be give tongue to to portray the idea of digging, in that the first four stanzas grow in length, almost a uniform a spade travelling thickheadeder into the ground. Heaney uses the theme of Digging and roots as an extended metaphor, as through writing this poem, he is attempting to ingest back and identify with his own roots and dig into the past and his childhood, in order to discover his true self. He demonstrates the significance of family and childhood experiences and the impact they pay back on your actions in later life.Heaney was clearly worried that he was disappointing his father by non continuing the family trade, and this poem seems to act as an apology for this. The last stanza of Digging is very similar to the first st anza, further instead of the pen being as snug as a gun, Heaney resolves that he will dig with it. This implies that the pen is Heaneys tool, just like the spade was his predecessors tool. The occupations may be vastly different, but they still imply a great deal of expertise.The second poem that I have chosen to explore is personalized Helicon, which is also from Heaneys first collection, Death of Naturalist. This poem contains many double meanings. On the surface, it would appear as if Heaney is reflecting on his pet pastime as a child, which was playing with water and salutarys. This, indeed, is true, but he is also using the theme to talk about writing poetry. The word Helicon in the title refers to a place in antediluvian Greece where there are springs that supposedly give inspiration to anyone that drinks there.This suggests that, for Seamus Heaney, the memories of his childhood and his venerate for water and rise are his personal inspiration for his poetry. It is also an provoke choice of word because both sources of inspiration are associated with water. So deep you saw no reflection in it describes one particular well that Heaney encountered as a child. However, the image of the merchantmanless well also portrays what a poem is like, filled with different meanings. A further example of a double meaning can be found in the line, A white face hovered over the bottom.This refers to the literal reflection of Heaney that could be seen in the water, but could also mean that he is always obvious in his poems each poem connects in some way with the poet, no matter what the theme is. An important poetic device that the poet uses in Personal Helicon is highly expressive and vivid language, which helps the reader to envision exactly what the wells were like. Good examples of this are fungus, dank moss and finger slime, which all conspire up wonderful, yet repulsive images of exactly what wells are like and the enjoyment that children find in wet, dirt y places.Heaney has also incorporated a clever metaphor into the poem, which is the trapped sky. The sky is obviously not trapped deep down the well in a physical sense, but it appears to be due to its reflection in the water at the bottom of the well. The last two lines of Personal Helicon are extremely significant, as they tally the motivation behind Heaneys poetry and illustrate exactly what he is like. I rhyme to see myself, to set the darkness repriseing. This would imply that Seamus Heaney writes poetry in order to discover himself and approach subjects that cannot be approached in any separate way. A critic at a time proposed that the darkness refers to the unknown, the things that remain hidden, concepts that have not been brought into the light and expressed in words. Whether it is personal fears or social and political injustices, poetry is a medium to bring these unspoken attitudes and opinions to the world, and to make them echo and resound with force.The mention of the word, darkness also links in with Heaneys abutting book, entitled Door into the Dark, suggesting that he was very insecure and upset about his debut collection of poems and how successful it would be. Overall, Personal Helicon gives the reader an insight into Seamus Heaneys childhood and the features of rural Ireland, and shows, similarly to the previous poem, what effects childhood experiences can have on a persons later life.The final poem that I have chosen to study is The Other Side from Heaneys third poetry collection, Wintering Out. This poem chronicles the poets childhood experiences of the vast divide between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, and tells the story of a Catholic family (Heaneys family) and a Protestant neighbour living on the separate side of the stream. Heaney uses a great deal of religious imagery indoors this poem, perhaps in order to reinforce the theme of religious divide. A good example of this is, Its misfortunate as Lazarus, that ground.Lazarus is the name of a poor man in the bible, so this is a clever simile that not only depicts the poor quality of Heaneys farmland, but also underpins the overall theme of the poem. There are a number of other religious images at bottom the poem also. That tongue of chosen people is a reference to Protestants and the accompaniment that they are supposed to speak properly and in a brilliant manner to Catholics. Chosen people is a biblical image and promised furrows links in with the bible and the idea of the promised land. Tares is another word used in the poem that suggests religious significance, as in the bible, these were weeds that the confrontation deliberately planted to ruin others crops. Another interesting simile within this poem is, as if party to lovemaking or a strangers flagging. This is an excellent use of imagery, as it really portrays to the reader the extent of the neighbours overplus at having interrupted Heaneys familys prayers. Another poetic dev ice used in the poem is onomatopoeia, shown through the expression moan of prayers.The word moan really does sound like the chanting of prayers often heard in churches, as it is a rather extended, droning word, reflecting what the prayers were like. To conclude, The Other Side depicts the significance of family and childhood experiences, as Heaney has undoubtedly gained much inspiration from his memories of the division between religions in Ireland when he was a child. Overall, it is evident that a number of Heaneys poems explore the enduring significance of family and childhood in human life, as he openly acquires a good deal of inspiration from his early years.Within these poems, he uses various poetic devices as a means of expressing memories, feelings and objects in a highly vivid and engaging way. His fascinating and intelligent use of language is certainly at the forefront of all of his poems, whether it is shown through imagery, onomatopoeia or realistic descriptions. Heaney once said that, Words themselves are doors, suggesting that they can open up reinvigorated ways of understanding, expressing and interpreting situations and feelings.