Biography

“Seamus Heaney was born in April 1939, the eldest member of a family which would eventually contain nine children. His father owned and worked a small farm of some fifty acres in County Derry in Northern Ireland, but the father's real commitment was to cattle-dealing.”(1)

“Even though his family left the farm where he was reared (it was called Mossbawn) in 1953, and even though his life since then has been a series of moves farther and farther away from his birthplace, the departures have been more geographical than psychological: rural County Derry is the "country of the mind" where much of Heaney's poetry is still grounded.”(1)

“When he was twelve years of age, Seamus Heaney won a scholarship to St. Columb's College, a Catholic boarding school situated in the city of Derry, forty miles away from the home farm, and this first departure from Mossbawn was the decisive one. It would be followed in years to come by a transfer to Belfast where he lived between 1957 and 1972, and by another move from Belfast to the Irish Republic where Heaney has made his home, and then, since 1982, by regular, annual periods of teaching in America. All of these subsequent shifts and developments were dependent, however, upon that original journey from Mossbawn which the poet has described as a removal from "the earth of farm labour to the heaven of education” (1)

“Heaney’s poetry, from his beginnings in “Death of a naturalist”, is anchored in fisics and rural contexts of his childhood”(2)

“Heaney's work often deals with "the local"—that is, his surroundings and everything inclusive of them. Inevitably this means Ireland, and particularly Northern Ireland.”(3)

“Despite his many travels much of his work appears to be set in rural Derry, the county of his childhood.”(3)

“Heaney's work is deeply associated with the lessons of history, sometimes even prehistory. Many of his works concern his own family history and focus on characters in his own family, they can be read as elegies for those family members.” (3)

Commentary

According to the extracted biography, this paper will deal with the poet’s childhood. The first years that the poet passed in Derry, North Ireland.

The chosen poem is called “Sunlight”, in which we will see the enormous influence that, this first years, had on the poet’s work.

In the first reading of the poem, we can see how the poet remembers what he lived when he was surrounded by nature, in his farmhouse. This memory is full of yearning, he has the necessity of reviving some of the activities that represented his daily routine but, on the contrary of considering this like something boring, he is trying to show us these things making him a happy man. In my opinion, it is these kind of activities that are in everybody’s life, so we can see that the poem talks about things that can be understood by the readers, beacause it’s also our reality. The author wants to show us what he feels about the land where he was born, and the feeling is affection, a sweet memory that he will keep up forever.

After a second reading we appreciate the image of a woman: “ her hands scuffled over the bakeboard”. In my opinion, “her” refers to her mother.

As the poem is a detailed observation, the poet describes what a long afternoon was in his Ireland, this land of which he doesn’t want to be divided, he needs to remember it every day and it’s very important for him to show us what he lived there that he wants to write about and give it to us, that’s why he put his life in these verses because he wants to bring us near the place where he observes his mother taking care of her family.

“There was a sunlit absence./The helmeted pump in the yard/heated its iron,/water honeyed/in the slung bucket/and the sun stood/like a griddle cooling/against the wall/of each long afternoon.”

In these first verses, the author shows us the place in which we have to locate ouselves to prepare us for all that we will see. I mean, Heaney wants that we go with him to the time and space where the action is happening, and he does it by means of a brief description in which we see that it’s a long and sunny afternoon and we are surrounded only by nature, and waiting for the action to start.

“So, her hands scuffled/over the bakeboard,/the reddening stove/sent its plaque of heat/against her where she stood/in a floury apron/by the window.”
His mother is cooking and she is dressed up in a stained apron with flour. She, without knowing the she is being observed, continues with her daily job and nothing can distract her.
“Now she dusts the board/with a goose's wing,”
While the cooking job is finishing, she starts dusting with a wing. This is an usual image, but the poet describes it with soft words turning this normal duty into a sweet activity carried out with love and naturalness.
“now sits, broad-lapped,/with whitened nails/and measling shins:”
Now she has finished with the dust and she sits down waiting for the meal to be done. The author talks about his mother giving her a special consideration. He is observing all that she is doing. It gives us another idea referred to the poet’s childhood: he was surrounded by love, he was always with the people that loved him.
“And here is love/like a tinsmith's scoop/sunk past its gleam/in the meal-bin.”
In this last stanza, the poet shows his feelings about these memories, and he identifies this daily rutine with love, the family union, the longing of being surrounded by the land that saw his growing up.
We can see in this poem a display of affection. The influence that childhood had in his poetry. He has turned up what we call routine into a poem full of tender things and furthermore giving to this normal life the meaning of “place of love”
 
Bibliography
1_ http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1995/heaney-bio.html. Copyright © Nobel Web AB 2006. The Official Web Site of the Nobel Foundation. Last modified June 2, 2005. Last time viewed 10 May 2006 
2_ http://www.epdlp.com/escritor.php?id=1806. copyright © 1998-2006, epdlp All rights reserved.
3_ Seamus Heaney. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 10 May 2006, 17:58 UTC. 10 May 2005 21:28. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seamus_Heaney. 
 
 
 
 
 
1. Sunlight Seamus Heaney.
 
There was a sunlit absence.
The helmeted pump in the yard
heated its iron,
water honeyed
 
in the slung bucket
and the sun stood
like a griddle cooling
against the wall
 
of each long afternoon.
So, her hands scuffled
over the bakeboard,
the reddening stove
 
sent its plaque of heat
against her where she stood
in a floury apron
by the window.
 
Now she dusts the board
with a goose's wing,
now sits, broad-lapped,
with whitened nails
 
and measling shins:
here is a space
again, the scone rising
to the tick of two clocks.
 
And here is love
like a tinsmith's scoop
sunk past its gleam
in the meal-bin.
 
 

http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Seamus_Heaney/17776