Title

LOVERS ON ARAN (1966)

Seamus Heaney

The timeless waves, bright, sifting, broken glass,

Came dazzling around, into the rocks,

Came glinting, sifting from the Americas

To possess Aran. Or did Aran rush

To throw wide arms of rock around a tide

That yielded with an ebb, with a soft crash?

Did sea define the land or land the sea?

Each drew new meaning from the waves’ collision.

Sea broke on land to full identity.

(‘Death of a Naturalist’)

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

‘Death of a Naturalist’, Seamus Heaney, First published in 1996 by Faber and Faber Limited, London,(page 34)

POETIC COMENTARY

“The poem that I’m going to analyze is ‘Lovers on Aran’ which is a poem extracted from the book ‘Death of a Naturalist’ written by Seamus Heaney and published in 1966. Heaney was born in April 1939 in Mossbawn (North Ireland). Between 1957 and 1972 he lived in Belfast and he wrote his first book of poetry there: ‘Death of a Naturalist’. ‘This poetic composition is rooted in the physical and rural contexts of his childhood.’ The poet describes the experiences of his childhood and the political conflict of Ireland for his years as a poet. One of the best poems of this composition is ‘Digging’.” (Wikipedia)

‘In 1921 The Irish Free State and Northern Ireland were born. Each had its own Parliament; each was to be separate from Great Britain but under the Crown. It then declared itself a Republic in 1948/49 ending all links’. (The Seamus Heaney Page) North Ireland wanted to continue being part of the United Kingdom. In 1969, the Provisional IRA (Irish Republican Army) arises and they ‘advocate free Irish unified state and without ties with United Kingdom. They used violence against unionist and British people.’ (IRA-Wikipedia) “The poet was very conscious about the problems of his country and he talked about that in his poems throughout his life. He tries to incorporate politics in his poetry. The most important collection of poems in which the author shows the problems between South Ireland and North Ireland is ‘North’ (1975). Although he was from North Ireland, he was always open-minded and he never despised the Republic of Ireland and England because he rejects violence and he is against IRA.” (Seamus Heaney-Biography)

Moreover, ‘Irish literature has been written in English and in Gaelic’. (Project: Ireland). Heaney wrote in Irish and his verses were ‘linguistically tuned to the Anglo-Saxon note in English.’ (S.H-Biography). Furthermore, ‘the Gaelic heritage has always been part of his larger keyboard of reference and remains culturally and politically central to the poet and his work.’ (Seamus Heaney- Biography) “In ‘Lovers on Aran’ there is a word that comes from Scottish which is ‘glint’.” (Online Etymology Dictionary)

To begin with the poem, on the one hand, the title is about the symbolic love between the Atlantic Ocean and the Isle of Aran. This place is ‘located at the western end of Galway Bay (Ireland) and it consists of three islands’ (Links). On the other hand, the title reminds of the relationship between Ireland and Great Britain. They are lovers that need each other but one of them doesn’t want to belong to the other. The lovers are an ironic way to show the apathy between Ireland and the Provisional IRA because most of the Irish people reject it. The theme of the poem is the power of the land and how the Irish people fought for independence. The poem is concentrated on the relationship between Aran and the Atlantic Ocean that could be the names that the poet uses to hide their true identity: Ireland and Great Britain or the triangle IRA-Ireland-United Kingdom. "The poem questioned if Ireland let Great Britain dominate it or if Ireland wanted to be dominated by Great Britain and if Ireland benefited itself or, if it lost out. In addition, another question is if the fact that Great Britain left out its possession on Ireland was a benefit to each. In the last two lines of the poem, there is a metaphor that talks about the separation between Ireland and Great Britain which is applicable to the case of North Ireland and South Ireland too. But, the poet never says what his stance about that theme is. He doesn’t want to convince us that the best is to be independent of Great Britain but not using army conflict; he just shows us his reality and the political situation that his country lived." (The Seamus Heaney Page)

The poet starts the poem presenting the impending conflict in Ireland in the sixties. The IRA had broken the peace and they were difficult times. ‘Broken glass’ is the moment in which the glass has been filled to the brim and it has broken. The conflict has started and the poet reflects on that.

In the first stanza, the protagonist is the sea and more specifically the waves that arrive at Aran’s coast. They have been forming the Isle. This sea is the Atlantic Ocean which separates America from Ireland. The poet admires America since he was a child. He looks at it as a symbol of grandeur and progress. America is a wonderful country full of opportunities. Then, the waves that arrive from America announce their arrival flashing. Furthermore they go from America to Aran and not on the contrary. And Aran is who admitted that the waves arrive strongly there. They sound like ‘broken glasses’. Symbolically, waves represent IRA and Aran is Ireland. They burst into Aran and it couldn’t do anything. The sea dominates Aran. The USA has been the biggest imperialist power of the world and they achieved their aims by wars. The IRA uses the same method of rebellion, the arms.

In the second stanza, the protagonist is Aran. The Isle is who firstly existed and who lets itself be washed by it. There is a metaphor: ‘arms of rock’. It could have two interpretations. The first one is that Ireland opens its arms with resignation to accept that the IRA has irrupted in Ireland. The second interpretation is that the IRA uses firearms to fight against unionists and Britons and Irish people fight against IRA with the rocks of dialogue. They are strong people prepared to fight against any kind of violence. The poet talks about Aran as if it was a person. It represents the Irish people. Aran welcomed the sea and surrounds it because it couldn’t do anything. This stanza is made by way of a rhetorical question.

The 3^rd stanza, as the second stanza, starts with a rhetorical question about who is the true protagonist of the poem, Aran or the sea. "If the Irish people let IRA reach a high degree of protagonist or if the Britons go on being also protagonists in Northern Ireland or if the real protagonist will be only Ireland. Finally, IRA will reach a ‘full identity’ in the Irish society. So far the poet talked about them as if they were merging in to one. From here on they are named as two independent forces. Each one has its own identity. But land is not defined by frontiers. Who define them is politics and society. The separation between North Ireland and South Ireland is just a political and religious question." (The Seamus Heaney Page)

About the poem’s structure, it is composed of three stanzas of three lines each one. Its rhyme is aba cdc efe. Although it has long lines, it has a lot of musicality and it could be a short song. The poet uses alliteration in the first line to describe the waves. He also uses repetition to describe the waves’ movement ‘Came dazzling’ ‘Came glinting’ and in the second stanza: ‘To posses’ ‘To throw’. Heaney repeats words like ‘waves’, ‘Aran’ and ‘broke’.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

- ‘Death of a Naturalist’, Seamus Heaney, First published in 1996 by Faber and Faber Limited, London, (page 34)

- ‘Muerte de un Naturalista’, Seamus Heaney,

Traducción de Margarita Ardanaz, Edición bilingüe, Editorial Hiperión 1996

http://www.poeticas.com.ar/Biblioteca/Muerte_de_un_naturalista/indice.html (23-4-06)

- Seamus Heaney-Biography

Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1995, Editor Tore Frängsmyr, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1996 http://www.uv.es/~fores/PoesiaUK2005/1Heaney,%20Seamus/heaney-bio.html (23-4-06)

- Project: Ireland ‘Irish Literature’

Eric Thalasinos

http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/Countries/Ireland/lit.html (23-4-06)

- Seamus Heaney-Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre

Jimmy Wales y Larry Sanger (2001)