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Digging

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8 stanzas, short to long forms to mimic a spade going through the earth first poem in Heaney's first poem book, the title can be taken in four different contexts and is overall about the likeness between his father's/grandfather's craft and poetry links include "The Forge", "Follower", and "Pitchfork" "My grandfather cut more turf in a day/Than any other man on Toner's bog." ars poetica poem

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Ancestral Photograph

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Five stanzas in sestets in a very structured manner to further the theme of solidity and controlled poem itself is a frame to represent the characters in the poem, could be considered a preservation and elegy, and attempts to capture the essence of the poem in an immortal way "Your stick/Was parked behind the door and stands there still."

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Follower

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six consistent stanzas of four lines with abab rhyme to represent rows on a farm with precision and control discusses Heaney and his father, how he would stumble in his wake as his father expertly sloughed the fields "It is my father who keeps stumbling/Behind me, and will not go away."

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Mid-Term Break

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7 tercets to build up to the last night, speaker is 12 but Heaney was in his 20s as he wrote this, and is an unemotional rendering of an emotional moment of his brother's death "A four-foot box, a foot for every year."

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The Forge

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One large stanza to link blacksmith and poet, and there is a transformation throughout the poem furthered by rhyme scheme; poem a glorification of the unglamorous labor class; literal vs. imagined "All I know is a door into the dark" Door into the Dark: name of the second poem book ars poetica poem

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Death of a Naturalist

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"frog orgies" - Mr. Rohol poem of a curious, terror, and disgusted tone with a central theme of lost childhood innocence with rapid succession of images of decay two stanzas, one long and one short to represent transformation and sudden realization name of the first poem book

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Blackberry-Picking

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poem of rot and decay with two stanzas, one long and one short to show the transformation extended metaphor of childish hopes that continue to exist despite the wake up call of rot every year "Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not."

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An Advancement of Learning

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a poem of conquering a phobia/fear with 9 quatrains composed of short lines to give a more urgent feel/tone and flashing images, lots of emotions and feels "Then I walked on and crossed the bridge."

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The Early Purges

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farm animals drowning and dying, 7 consistent tercets with a distant, cold tone to separate life and death

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Casting and Gathering

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industrial vs. real, used to synthesize opposites begins with one line and continues with 5 consistent quatrains "I love hushed air. I trust contrariness."

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Oracle

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one stanza, very short lines of a character/image within the trunk of a willow tree

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In the Beech

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begins with one line and continues with a cinquain, two quatrains, a cinquain and a couplet, discusses the British and Irish politics (tanks advancing) "I was a lookout posted and forgotten."

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Quitting Time

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The end of Heaney's father's work, compare & contrast to "Follow" one large stanza for consistency and solidity

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Funeral Rites

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compare and contrast to Digging 20 quatrains, the slow march of a funeral

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The Harvest Bow

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"The end of art is peace" 5 sestets, voyeuristic poem of a "love knot" to his father slightly less masculine and sort of feminine title represents a finality and an achievement

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The Butts

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proceeding the funeral of Heaney's father, overly honest and multiple time shifts short tercets in 11 stanzas

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"The Door Was Open and the House Was Dark"

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four tercets with a final line of an empty house, his father's house after his death "On an overgrown airfield in later summer"

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A Call

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Heaney on the phone with his wife, sees his father gardening as an old man, gardening the weeds as frail as him

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The Haw Lantern

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two stanzas, a small light that lights the way in winter

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Old Smoothing Iron

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Female labor, five quatrains and very consistent, watching a woman work and labor

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The Pitchfork

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five quatrains with short and long lines like the prongs on a pitchfork, the imagery of the sailing object and the underlying extended metaphor is furthered by the appreciation that is exuded

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The Harrow-Pin

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6 consistent tercets to form a a very straightforward poem, essentially about a kale stalk transitioning into brute, rusted pins to form an extended metaphor

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Terminus

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11 couplets comparing two different worlds: modern and industrial so that Heaney didn't have to choose between the worlds

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Churning Day

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up and down stanzas, long and drawn out and then quick and smooth to mimic churning, appreciation and respected tone with heavy imagery to present unifying but unpleasant labor

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Personal Helicon

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ars poetica poem "I rhyme/To see myself, to set the darkness echoing" poem was a way of seeking self-knowledge, last poem in first book describing his inspiration for poems, his personal way of discovering his love for the arts; allegory to a mountain in Greece

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The Play Way

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one big stanza about music and making music, silence into melody

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Mother of the Groom

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four quatrains, discusses a nostalgic and left out mother at his brother's wedding, a mother remembering her baby boy

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Night Drive

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a poem about the journey to Heaney's wife, which was life fulfilling, sexual imagery with Italy and France

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A Kite for Michael and Christopher

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a poem for heavy's sons, an extended metaphor about their lives

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The Barn

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a poem about Heaney as a child, overwhelmed by the space he's in, fearing his surroundings which include animals in it "A scythe's edge, a clean speed, a pitchfork's prongs"

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Field of Vision

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five quatrains about a woman in a wheelchair, describing her physique and what she stares out the window at

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Serenades

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five quatrains about Irish nationalism through describe the songs of the Irish nightingale

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Drifting Off

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9 tercets of various birds of an epic quality

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The Badgers

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poem for his wife, compares his love live to the badger in the garden

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The Skunk

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poem for his wife, compares her to the slinky, sexy striped skunk

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The Otter

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7 quatrains reminiscing on Irish childhood through artistic thoughts and feelings, extended metaphor to show the importance of love

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Scaffolding

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one stanza, extended metaphor of the masons' work

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Poem for Marie

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a poem for his wife, explaining everything Heaney would do for his wife and more

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A Dream of Jealousy

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first person voyeuristic, one stanza about Heaney staying loyal to his wife behind her back

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Twice Shy

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five sestets describing the very first walk with the woman who would be Heaney's wife

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The Underground

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four quatrains, consistent with a steady rhyme a poem about an incident from Heaney's honeymoon, could represent the London subway

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Villanelle for an Anniversary

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a villanelle for Harvard University's 350th birthday

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Stern

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in memory of Ted Hughes, metaphor for a ship

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The Turnip-Snedder

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10 couplets, set in "an age of bare hands/and cast iron" about a manually driven turnip-crushing machine

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