any of Heaneyâs poems deal with the Loss of Innocence and the Getting of Wisdom

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Order NowThe collection is an autobiography illustrating lessons Heaney has learnt during his life. The collection begins with poems written in the eyes of a child, and as we progress through the poems, the protagonist seems be getting older and perhaps wiser. The childhood innocence present early on in the collection seems to fade away during his lifeâs experiences, which show him the inevitability of death and decay, the bad nature of certain humans, and the fact that fear is one of manâs greatest opponents.
These realisations of Heaneyâs are gradual and start off by being less serious. The poem Death of a Naturalist shows a newly found fear of Heaneyâs. His childish paranoia leads him to believe âthe great slime kings Were gathered there for vengeanceâ, due to him consistently stealing frogspawn. The ugly, menacing look of the frogs, âloose necks pulsed like snailsâ, cause Heaney to run away scared because of a childish assumption that if he tries taking any eggsâthe spawn may clutch itâ. The Barn follows up with further examination of fear.
Heaney does not however seem to know exactly what his fear is, but he âlay face-down to shun the fear aboveâ His childish curiousness probably attracted his to this barn more than once (âand into nightsâ) regardless of his fear, indicating some excitement involved. An Advancement of Learning, shows a wiser Heaney deciding to confront his fear of rats, (âI used to panicâŠ.. scraped and fedâ ). Finally as the rat retreated Heaney âwalked on and crossed the bridgeâ symbolising him overcoming his fear.
Poems with a theme of fear are absent until later on in the collection, where the issues get more serious. Honeymoon Flight shows a married Heaney, realising his vunerability and compulsory submissiveness whilst encountering engine difficulties on a flight. âDependant on the invisible air To keep us airborneâ. The rhythm and structure indicates panic, as Heaney knows that he cannot do anything to help the situation. âTravellers, at this point, can only trustâ. The concluding poem with a theme of fear, Storm on the Island, is a great illustration of the gaining of wisdom throughout the collection.
Through the mentioned poems, Heaney has shown his reactions to his fears as he grows older. This particular poem however, comes to the conclusion that our own minds make fear what it is, and sometimes there is nothing at all to fear. (Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear). This statement can be related to The Barn, where Heaney doesnât even exactly know what his fear is, but his imaginative mind causes childish similes to be conjured up in his head. Eg âtwo-lugged sacks moved in like great blind ratsâ. His mind is what makes his fear so bad, and he realises this as he grows older.
The inevitability of Death and Decay is an issue where the collection strongly describes Heaneyâs losing of innocence and getting of wisdom. His first real realisation of inevitable decay is in Blackberry Picking. The âglossy purple coatâ of blackberries decayed after collection to produce a ârat-grey fungusâ. (It is interesting that Heaneyâs disliking or rats has caused his to associate them with various descriptions of things which are bad). His innocent view of how âgood things donât always have to come to an endâ still remains slightly.
âEach year I hope theyâd keep, knew they would notâ) Heaneyâs experiences get more serious as the collection moves on, and the subject of decay goes from blackberries to animals. The Early Purges show a young Heaney exposed to the murder of cats and other animals. He is clearly shaken by these events âsuddenly frightenedâ, and deep inside he dislikes the actions taken against them. However, Heaney was at an age where curiosity was a big part of him and the gaining of wisdom was sought after. Therefore he tries to take up Dan Taggartâs thinking, and condones the violence. Living displaces false sentimentsâ are wise words from a young Heaney.
However, he doesnât have enough knowledge to be too confident with his ideas. He makes a comparison between the slaughter of these animals with the killing of pests on farms, and uses it to condone the violence on the animals. His continued living however, would probably prove to displace this false idea that the two events are comparable. Mid-Term Break deals with the serious issue of the death of Heaneyâs brother. The poem is interesting as it doesnât actually reflect on Heaneyâs feelings at the time.
Maybe this is because Heaney wishes not to discuss the matter, but it could just probably be that his innocent age at the time of the incident disabled him from realising the seriousness of the issue. For the Commander of the Eliza illustrates the decay of humans taken from an older Heaneyâs perspective. The atrociousness of the sight (âSix wrecks of bone and pallid, tautened skin. â) clearly affects Heaney. He knows there is nothing he can do and even though the sight saddens him a great deal, he also would prefer leaving them to themselves as oppose to staying around to console them.
I hoisted And cleared off. Less incidents the betterâ I suppose this is human nature, and doesnât make his a bad person, however he has seemed to have come to terms with the inevitability of death and decay, and has realised that it is survival of the fittest in the cruel world. âWho could not swim might go ahead and sinkâ I think that this particular gaining of wisdom can relate to a lot of his poems. The idea of âsurvival of the fittestâ seems evident in many poems. Eg.
Turkeys Observed shows that when the turkeys are dead, they just look like lumps of flesh. (âindifferent mortuaryâ) The fact that a living turkey looks less repectable than other animals, means that it is treated with less respect when it is dead, (âjust another poor forked thingâ). If the turkey was stronger, wiser or perhaps more attractive then maybe it would not be getting treated with no remorse. (âstripped down to a shameful rudderâ) Running along a tangent to this issue to inevitability of decay, is Heaneyâs respect for his father.
Digging illustrates Heaneyâs respect for his fatherâs great ability to dig. âBy God, the man could handle a spade. â Heaney never mentions a flaw in his father once in the poem. However, Follower finishes with a different view taken by a more mature (older) Heaney, where his father is now viewed as some sort of a pest. He realises how he must have been to his father as a child, âI was a nuisance, tripping, falling,â but goes on to say how they seem to have traded places and his father is an irritation.
Keeps stumbling Behind me, and will not go awayâ. His innocent respect for his âflawlessâ father seems to be inversed just when he realised his fatherâs age has caused his abilities to deteriorate. Love is another issue with which Heaney can be seen to have more educated views on as the collection progresses. Love is not really expressed that much at the start of the collection, lust is focused on instead. Eg. âlust for pickingâ in Blackberry Picking.
However, with age, comes maturity, and childish superficialities generally disappear, or at least continue at a much lower scale. Heaney doesnât write about any instances of puppy love or love a a youngster, but we know that he did have them. It tells us so in Twice Shy, âOur juvenilia Had taught us both to wait, Not to publish feeling And regret it all too lateâ This shows us that Heaney has learnt through experience that jumping on instinct tends to lead to disaster, and it is best to let love take its course.
âMushroom loves already Had puffed and burst in hate. However, puppy love is still evident in the case described in the poem, as we hear about ânervous childish talkâ. The poem shows that Heaney does realise that Love can bring pain, but his feelings bring out the child in him, and perhaps he will act on instinct if the opportunity arised. Valediction illustrates turmoil felt as a cause of losing a loved one. Love bringing pain is now evident yet again. âSelf is mutinyâ , itâs clear he needs her to feel good again. He is dependant on her for life to go smooth, âabsence Rocked loveâs balanceâ.