CARLOS MANUEL
MARTINHO LAJARIN POESÍA DE LOS SIGLOS XIX Y XX
carmarla@alumni.uv.es
GRUPO – A
In this paper I´m going to analise
the poem “ Traditions” by Seamus Heaney. This work is about the perspective of
the poet showing the confrontation of the language of power ( English) versus
the inability or not to be able to speak his own language and the difficulty of
expressing his own identity.
The poem “Traditions” has a
strange distribution of the stanzas. As we can see, this poem is divided in
three parts. And each part has three stanzas with four lines each one. In this
poem by Heaney there is no rhyme. There is no typical pattern like abab or
abcabc. It is like a letter expressing the poets feelings, but not concerned in
the rhyme of the words.
First we have the title “
Traditions”. This title gives us a clue about what is the main theme of the
poem. Probably the author is referring to the traditions of somewhere, but at
the beginning we don´t know which place it is.
We can see
that the poem is dedicated to someone; “ For Tom Flanagan”. To understand
correctly the poem we have to know who is Tom Flanagan.
“ Thomas
Eugene Flanagan is an American-born writer and professor of political science
at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. He was the only son of an
Irish-American family from Illinois, and he attended the University of Notre
Dame, Indiana as an undergraduate.”( wikipedia).
In the
first stanza of the first part of the poem the author is making reference to
the language and the mouth. The word “our” in the first line is very important,
because it is making reference to both of them; to Seamus Heaney and to Tom
Flanagan. When the author says: “ guttural muse” he refers to their language;
the Irish. In the first three lines, Heaney is saying that the Irish has been
modified or that has dissapeared because the “ alliterative tradition”
(probably referring to English) pushed away the Irish vocabulary.
Then the
author makes two comparisons of that fact: the uvula of that muse that has been
forgotten or like a Brigid´s Cross yellowing in some outhouse. A Brigid´s Cross
is “Usually known as "Bride's Cross,"
this equal-armed cross is traditionally woven from straw in honor of Ireland's
Saint Bridget.(...) The cross itself is a type of solar cross, and both the
symbol and the woven representation probably predate Christianity in Ireland.”
(altreligion). And it is like the Irish tradition disappears in an
outhouse.
Then in the
third stanza of the first part, when the author says: most sovereign
mistress” he is talking about English.
English as a sovereign language. And the next lines talking about the “ British
isles”, refers to the English of Britain.
In the first stanza of the second part
of the poem, the author says: “ We are to be proud of our Elizabethan English”,
like it is untouchable and perfect, and makes an example of the “perfect word”:
“varsity”. But in contradiction, in the second stanza the author compares
“deem” and “allow” trying to say that they are correct words but the meaning is
very similar and we use these words when we suppose that both are correct in
each case, because they are not perfect words like “varsity”.
In the
third stanza of the second part, the author makes another example, but this
time he is talking about the lowlanders and the wrong pronunciation of the
words.
In the two first stanzas of the
third part of the poem, Seamus Heaney talks about MacMorris. MacMorris is a
character from the play King Henry V by William Shakespeare. MacMorris
represents an “Irish officer”(rhymezone). That is the reason why Heaney says “
around the Globe” because in this play MacMorris travels ( The Globe was
William Shakespeare´s theatre). And because the character is Irish, the author
uses him to make an example of the characteristic pronunciation of the English
for an Irish. And it is representd in the word “ ish” in “ What ish my
nation?”.
Over again
in the last stanza we have the relation to Ireland. In this stanza Heaney talks
about Bloom. When he says: “Bloom” he refers to Leopold Bloom. Leopold Bloom is
a character from James Joyce’s Ulisses. And the author talks about him in this
poem because in the book Bloom has an Irish mother “readers
often forget Bloom’s Irish mother” (sparknotes)and because in the book the
character “exposes the insularity of Ireland and Irishness in 1904”
(sparknotes). Also when he says: “ the wondering Bloom” he is making reference
to the fact that in the book, Bloom is a character that “ reflects the
simple decency of a common man”( bway).
If we pay
attention, we can see that the two last stanzas are connected. It is like in
one of them MacMorris makes a question “ What ish my nation?” and then in the
next stanza Bloom says : “ Ireland”. It is like he anwers the question.
CONCLUSION:
I think that it is a very good poem reflecting the feelings of an Irish person
versus the supremacy of the English language. It is interesting how he uses the
irony in the first part of the poem when he talks about how the English
imposes. And also I like the way it is written because it is a poem where there
is no need no make rhymes to express what he wants to say. Also it is
interesting the way Heaney makes examples of characters that are Irish to make
the reader understand what he is talking about.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
“Tom Flanagan – Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia” info-en@wikimedia.org. This page was last modified 03:32, 6 April 2006.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Flanagan
“www.wikipedia.com”
Brighid´s cross - ©2006
About, Inc., A part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.
http://altreligion.about.com/library/glossary/symbols/bldefsbrighids.htm pr@about.com. “http://about.com”
SparkNotes: Ulisses: Analisys Of Major Characters- Douthat, Ross. SparkNotes on To Kill A Mockingbird.20 March 2003. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mocking.>
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/ulysses/canalysis.html
“ sparknotes.com”
Rhymezone:
Shakespeare – Histories- King Henry V- Act III, Scene II-Copyright ©
2005Datamusehttp://www.rhymezone.com/r/gwic.cgi?Path=shakespeare/histories/kinghenryv/iii_ii//&Word=meant,+captain+macmorris,+peradventure+i+shall+think
“ www.rhymezone.com”
Ulisses For
Dummies - info@bway.net 568 Broadway Ste. 404 .. New
York City, 10012 .. tel 212.982.9800 http://www.bway.net/~hunger/ulysses.html
“ www.bway.net”