The Loss of Childhoos in Heaneys Poems Essay -- Seamus Heaney Poetry

The Loss of Childhoos in Heaneys PoemsSeamus Heaneys poems explore the loss of childhood and the cruelawakening into the world of adulthood. Discuss.Seamus Heaney has been described as the take up Irish poet since Yeats.He was born on April 13th 1939 and was the eldest of nine children toMargret and Patrick Heaney, at the family farm in Mossbawn. He studiedEnglish in Queens University in Belfast, also in Saint JosephsCollege in Belfast, to become a teacher. After many years of writingDeath of a Naturalist was published in 1966. It contains poemssymbolic of death of childhood, specifically Heaneys childhood as acurious young naturalist, eager to learn about nature.Heaneys poems reveal his thoughts of his childhood and his family.His poems ar filled with the images of dying, but are also firmlyrooted in childhood. His poems of transition explore the journey fromchildhood into the adult world.Blackberry Picking is a reflection of adulthood and childhood.Heaney tries to tell us that we should enjoy childhood becauseadulthood is disappointing. He gives the message to have lowexpectations, therefore when we grow up we give not be let down by theadult world.The poem is written from an adult perspective, although it has manychildlike phrases in it. It is about Heaneys summer ventures with hisfriends during which they would collect blackberries in milk-cans,pea-tins, jam-pots. It is an elegy, mourning the spiritual death ofchildhood. The poem is also an extended metaphor. The beginning isabout childhood, seeing the world as a child. However there areassociations made with adulthood throughout the first stanza eg likethickened wine. This implies that adulthood... ...ive side to adultery, monotonous,boring, defensive, greedy and engulfing. Heaney drags out all of theaspects we loathe most about creation an adult. Then he places them in anintimidating setting, through a childs perspective and allows us tointerpret the experience for ourselves.Heaney presents a gener ally pessimistic, almost fatalistic look ofadult life. His poems illustrate dangers and isolation vivid in adultlife, in contrast to the dependence we rely on in childhood. Theyexplain to us the salient change from innocence and purity as infantsto corruption and voracity in adulthood. The poems are used to conveyyoung Heaneys insecurities and uncertainties, coupled with a faint overture through the conclusion of each of the poems something hasbeen learned or achieved. What more can one hope for from thesesignificant childhood incidences?