Heaney Context Flashcards
(21 cards)
Personal helicon context
In Greek Mythology, Mount Helicon was a mountain on which there were two springs that gave inspiration for art /poetry.
Personal helicon context pt 2
The childhood wells and rural upbringing that Heaney depicts in the poem acts as his source of poetic inspiration- his “Personal Helicon”.
Personal helicon context pt 3
The fable of Narcissus also takes place here. Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection and when he realises that he can’t have the object of his desire, he ends his life.
Personal helicon context pt 4
The poem is dedicated to Michael Longley. He is a poet who was part of a a group (with Heaney) who met weekly to read and discuss each other’s work during Heaney’s university years at Queen’s in Belfast.
The forge context
Heaney draws on a familiar childhood scene/memory to which he has remained imaginatively attached.
The forge context pt 2
Heaney is remembering his fascination with the forge in his boyhood in the 1940’s when the motor car replaced the horse as a means of transport.
The forge context pt 3
Heaney used to pass by this mysterious cornucopia of scrap metal, farm machinery and the obligatory three or four strong farm horses on his way to school at Hillhead near Bellaghy, in rural County Derry.
The forge context pt 4
‘The Forge’ which inspired this poem was owned and worked by local blacksmith Barney Devlin and it had been handed down to him by his father before him.
The forge context pt 5
The figure of the forge and the blacksmith are representative of a traditional, disappearing way of life.
Bogland context
This poem is dedicated to T.P Flanagan, a Northern Irish painter and a friend of Heaney’s.
Bogland context pt 2
In the 1960’s he worked on series of bog illustrations and studies and Heaney helped him work on preparatory drawings. Flanagan painted a picture of the bog land and dedicated it to Heaney. Heaney responded with this poem.
Bogland context pt 3
In an essay, Heaney said “I began to get an idea of bog as the memory of the landscape, or as a landscape that remembered everything that happened to it”.
The harvest bow context
The older male figure in the poem is Heaney’s father, Patrick. Heaney’s familiarity with the process of knotting a harvest bow stems from the fact that he would have seen these bows made each autumn.
The harvest bow context pt 2
In a 1996 interview, Heaney spoke of his father’s “majesty” and his father having “the country farmer’s silence and hauteur”.
Had I not been awake context
This poem recalls the aftermath of a serious illness that Heaney endured (a mild stroke in 2006 in a Donegal guest house).
Had I not been awake context pt 2
It reflects Heaney’s uncertainty as to where his next poetic spark may come from.
Had I not been awake context pt 3
Here, he recalls a moment pivotal to his recovery. In this moment, Nature’s own external show of energy kick-starts Heaney’s own internal engine- this experience offers a re-awakening for Heaney.
Heaney own context
Born near Bellaghy in the townland of Mossbawn in Co Derry in 1939.
Son of a cattle farmer, the eldest of nine children.
Grew up in a rural environment and helped on his father’s farm.
Heaney own context pt 2
Heaney’s work deals with the local surroundings of N.I.
His poetry makes profound observation on the small details of everyday life.
Heaney own context pt 3
Some of his early poems shed light on the rural life in Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s.
Heaney refers to local Irish people and traditional trades from the early 20th Century.
Some poems concern his personal history.
Heaney own context pt 4
Despite the inherently Irish and rural dimensions of his language, Heaney is a universal poet.
Nationalist “My passport is green and I will not raise my glass to toast the Queen.”
