Death

Prompt: Seamus Heaney's poetry blurs the line between life and death 

Heaney doesn't place a permanency on death, emphasizing it's transformative qualities.

Critique 3
Seamus Heaney blurs the line between life and death by creating instances where an individuals death can create life and new hope. This is primarily shown in the poem, Requiem for the croppies where the death of the soldiers leads to barley growing from the ground. The poem gives imagery of violence and bloodshed as the "hillside blushed", the blushing alludes to thousands of men being killed by the british and spilling their blood on the hill. So much blood is spilt that the ground is stained and "soaked in our broken wave" - the wave of men who had been killed. So many men are killed that they are not given proper burials and are buried where they lay "without shroud or coffin". By providing imagery of unmarked graves, the reader is able to comprehend the extent of the battle and how devasting it was for Irish people. However, despite the mass death there is a deeper meaning to the poem. Vinegar hill gave inspiration to future generations, specifically the Easter risings of 1916 which led to Irish independance. The planting of barley seeds by the soldiers death is a metaphor for the planting of revolutionary spirit amongst the Irish and shows that not all death will be terrible, but instead great things can come from death, in this case future rebellions and eventual victory. As a result the line between life and death had been blurred by Heaney.