Prompt: Within his poetry Heaney explores how love shaped his character.
Critique 1[]
The narrators in Heaney’s poetry are a reflection on Heaney’s past and memories. The impact of love comes from significant others, family, country and curiosity. In The Swing, it is Heaney’s love for his mother that allows him to recognise the hard work involved in reality, keeping him grounded rather than solely immersed in his dreams and ambitions. “Even so, we favoured the earthbound”, even though they have the ability to soar sky high, they remain with their mother who is “steeping her swollen feet” from a hard day’s work. She does not have the privileges of an elevated status. Death of a Naturalist demonstrates how the narrator’s love for learning and his burning curiosity to explore frogs that ultimately leads to the ‘death of his innocence’ as he is faced with the sickening and threatening reality of the frogs that have swarmed the flax-dam. In Poem, it is the addition of Heaney’s wife Marie that he believes will perfect his imperfections and better his character through doing so. Lastly, within Requiem for Croppies, it is a passion for Irish independence and patriotism that motivated the men to fight and die for their cause, and furthermore, impact and inspire independence to finally be achieved.