Seamus Heaney – North

After having read Heaney’s translated version of ‘Beowulf‘, my expectations of this poetry collection were rather high. Indeed, the fact that I had to pay £9.99 for less than 70 pages also gave me the notion that some very high-quality work was encased within the covers of this particular paperback. In this review, I’m unfortunately not able to go through each of the poems on an individual basis, but I will be able to perhaps refer to one or two in a little more depth.

The collection started out rather nicely, with a couple of poems which are dedicated to his mother. Although these two come across as slightly abstract in their imagery, after reading through them once or twice the intimacy which the poet has with the subject matter is obvious. These two poems also seem to have the warmest tone out of the entire collection, making them a nice starting-read to ease you into ‘Part 1’.

Part 1

This section plunges the reader straight into the realms of Greek Mythology with a poem entitled ‘Antaeus’. It then changes to a number of works regarding Ireland, with the heavily recurring themes of bog land and identity. The works themselves don’t seem to have any heavily set rhythm or rhyme to them, although Heaney does use rhyme, alliteration and enjambment on a number of occasions. I couldn’t help but to feel as though the latter of the methods, along with his short sentences and slightly difficult-to-follow imagery only served to give the poems a disjointed feel. That isn’t to say that these works seem to be scrawlings of nonsense. Indeed, within them there are a few true gems which really capture the message of the collection. Such as “When he stripped off blanket bog / The soft piled centuries / Fell open like a glib”, from the poem ‘Belderg’. The section ends with ‘Hercules and Antaeus’, almost as though it was coming full circle back to the Greek mythology written about in the first poem.

Part 2

This section began by throwing me a little. Expecting a poem of the same type of feel as those in the previous part, it instead began with a prose-poem. The first word, “Archimedes” is yet another tip of the hat to Heaney’s love of Greek mythology, although the prose-poem then goes on without another mention of it. As it turned out, ‘The Unacknowledged Legislator’s Dream’ was probably one of my favourite poems of the entire collection, with the last line of “Were those your eyes just now at the hatch?” leaving me as a reader with a chill running down my spine. Especially when taking into consideration the poems which occurred previously within the collection. In this regard, I can certainly see why this work was put in near the end of the book.

The rest of the poems in this part tend to not feel as disjointed as their Part 1 predecessors. They also cover more modern aspects of Irish national identity, moving away from the Vikings and Celts to concentrate on a period known as ‘The Troubles’. Whether Heaney meant to make these poems more accessible to his readers on purpose is not really something I’d count on, but nevertheless they do seem to be a little easier to follow.

Opinions

Although there’s nothing glaringly wrong with this collection of poems, after having been blown away by his translation of Beowulf, I couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed, and even a little bitter at having spent £9.99 on this book. The few gems of genius within a few of the poems were, I felt, overshadowed by the disjointed and difficult-to-grasp aspects of the text. These works were surprisingly difficult to follow, and unless the reader has knowledge of Irish Ancient history or Greek Mythology, some of the poems are more or less completely inaccessible. Although the book doesn’t come over as particularly pretentious, I feel that it nevertheless shows a certain unconscious elitism on Heaney’s behalf. I also can’t help wondering that the poet made it intentional for non-Irish people to find the poems hard to follow. Whilst that’s obviously his choice, it did irk me that there seemed to be a barrier between me and the poetry, thus hindering my enjoyment of it.

All in all, a few good pieces here…although unless you’re Irish, I’d get it from a local library or second-hand bookshop instead of spending so much money on it straight away.