How Seamus Heaneys Childhood Affected His Poetry Essay -- Seamus Hean

How Seamus Heaneys Childhood Affected His PoetrySeamus Heaney was born in the North of Ireland in 1939 on a farm withhis pose and father and nine other siblings. Generally Heaneyspoems are influenced by animals through his childhood experience,specifically within The Early Purges and An Advancement ofLearning. Heaney grew up near Belfast, during the cartridge holder of TheTroubles, the Irish civil war. Although Heaney left at the height ofthe war, it is obvious his work reflects his experiences of that time.For an example The Early Purges illustrates this. Where theyconsider death unnatural. Growing into an environment where Heaney go away appreciate that death does exist, the extract interprets killingto be artificial. Many of Heaneys early poems dealt with experiencesof childhood and a frequent theme is how these experiences affect us.One poem that deals with a childhood experience is The Early Purges.The title immediately suggests that the poem is about getting rid ofundesirable s. It is about a particular incident and how we loseinnocence, describing the effect of Heaney witnessing the killing offrail and tiny kittens. The words, Soft paws scraping like madsuggests how helpless and vulnerable the kittens are they are sosmall that they are unavailing to climb out of the bucket. The word,soft indicates a feeling of guilt about destroying the helplesskittens. The kittens are made to seem innocent and vulnerable throughthe language use. The words, frail metal sound and tiny din implythat the kittens dont make enough noise to be significant. They areonly small and powerless. Metal cannot be described as frail but thekittens illustrate this. Also din cannot be express... ...ut how we lose innocence. It is ambiguous and ironic - poetappears to endorse the view that sentiments displaced by lifetimeare false, but ends with an unconvincing clich Pests have to bekept down, and a cheap jeer at townies. In fact the girlish Heaneysreaction is the one the poet real ly approves.The Poem recalls a particular incident (the first time Heaney, as aboy, witnessed the farmhand killing kittens) and how he (the poet)became used to this in time. Now, he writes, he has a similarindifference to the death of animals. Dan Taggart justifies action bysuggesting the kitten have no values scraggy egest shits and adultHeaney does the same, even swearing like Dan Taggart bloody pups. Wesee older person try to deceive child to protect him from hiscompassion (Sure isnt it dampen for them now? - but the child isnot convinced).