CARMEN PASCUAL SASTRE
PAPER VIII
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SEAMUS
HEANEY
http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=6714&poem=31188
Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet who, among
other recognitions of his work, was awarded with the Nobel price in Literature
in 1995. The most characteristic trait of his poems lies in the Gaelic
heritage. He is deeply concerned with the political and religious division of
his home land, North Ireland. Then, this tight bond to the Irish land is
clearly shown throughout all his work. In most of his poems, Heaney tries to
hide the real meaning of the work behind some other theme, which at first sight
seems to be the core topic of the poem. This is what happens in the poem I have
chosen, Act of Union. In that poem,
Heaney is describing two scenes at the same time. Thus, the poem can be
interpreted as one of both scenes, without taking into account the other topic.
Or, on the contrary, it can be read as a comparison, paying attention to the
two different themes. On the one hand, Act
of Union depicts a man and a woman in a sensual position, Heaney describes
the parts of the body of the two persons, supposedly in love. He uses words
such as to-night, bed, back, arms, legs, shoulders, caress, etc. which can be
related to a scene of lovers. But, as it can be seen in the following lines, it
is quite noticeable the double meaning it conveys. On the other hand, by the
use of expressions as ‘a gash breaking’, ‘eastern coast’ or ‘gradual hills’,
the poet changes the direction of the poem trough a political issue, through
what could be a second interpretation of
the poem.
A gash breaking open the ferny bed.
Your back is a firm line of eastern coast
And arms and legs are thrown
Beyond your gradual hills. I caress
Moreover, the title
itself, Act of Union, is highly
illustrative. In the case of the lovers, spending a night together, making love,
is an act of union, an act of becoming closer to each other. While for the
political and geographical comparison, Act of Union probably is an ironical
reference to the Independence of North Ireland, since Heaney must be speaking,
in a hidden way, about the supremacy of England over Ireland, and of the
Protestantism over the Catholicism in Ireland. The following two lines of the
first paragraph illustrate this political issue.
I am the tall kingdom
over your shoulder
That you would neither cajole nor ignore.
These following lines
also show Heaney’s political ideology, in which ‘I’ means England and according
to the poet’s ideology it is that country the one that does not let Ireland
free.
Conquest is a lie. I
grow older
Conceding your half-independant shore
Within whose borders now my legacy
Culminates inexorably
Heaney begins the second
paragraph comparing the male figure, the man of the couple of lovers to the big
force;
And I am still
imperially
Male, leaving you with pain
Therefore, he is making
allusions throughout the entire poem to the political issue. He uses also some
invented words as: ‘obsinate’, ‘wardrum’ and ‘ignmorant’. They can be
misspelling, but the most probable is that Heaney used them intentionally. He
could be using ‘obsinate’ as a mixing of obstinate and obsessed, ‘wardrum’
meaning wardroom and making reference to the rum, and ‘ignmorant’ as a mixing
of ignorant and immoral. This can be used by Heaney as a device to emphasize
the meaning of these words.
In this poem Heaney uses
the allegory of the woman to speak of his home land. He personifies the land,
his home land, North Ireland. He tells the reader his political feelings of
resignation through the figure of a woman, a woman’s body. ‘Stretchmarked body’, is a highly illustrative
example of the duality in the meaning of the author’s words. Like in the
majority of his poems, in this one he also refers and speaks about his natal
land; ‘I caress the heaving province where our past has grown’. Therefore, his
entire work is related to his biography.
Another important element in this poem which he uses
to mention in his writings is the ‘bog’. In Act
of Union he uses bogland and bog-burst. The bog is the starting point for
the exploration of the past, and in several works Heaney has returned to the
"bog people", bodies preserved in the soil of Denmark and Ireland[1].
In conclusion, Seamus Heaney is a poet deeply involved
with the Irish political and religious conflict. He is a man who has used the
poetry to defend his land and his people, and also to attack the oppressors.
And Act of Union is a beautiful poem
which summarizes Seamus Heaney way of thinking.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/heaney.htm,
‘Seamus Heaney’, 1997, (23-04-06).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seamus_Heaney,
‘Seamus Heaney- Wikipedia’, board@wikipedia.org, 2006, (22-04-06).
http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1995/heaney-bio.html,
Seamus Heaney –biography-‘,weboffice@nobel.se, 2005, (23-04-06).
http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=6714&poem=31188,
‘Act of Union –Seamus Heaney’, PoemHunter.com, 2006, (23-04-06).