Like Dolmens Round My Childhood and the Barn Comparative

Like Dolmens round my childhood and The Barn comparative
‘The Barn’ by Seamus Heaney and ‘Like Dolmens Round my Childhood’ by John Montague are two poems that explore the theme of fear in childhood. The fears of each poet are very different in that Heaney’s fear of the barn is triggered by his vivid imagination whereas Montague’s fear of becoming like ‘the old people’ is a much more complex and emotional issue that relates to real life experiences. The theme of fear is apparent right from the start of ‘The Barn’ and Heaney progresses this fear throughout the poem. It is only at the end of ‘Like Dolmens Round my Childhood’ that the reader becomes aware that Montague’s fear was ending up like the elderly people he knew as a child.
Both poems have very different structures. ‘The Barn’ consists of five stanzas with four lines per stanza, whereas ‘Like Dolmens round my childhood’ is made up of seven stanzas with seven lines per stanza. Heaney uses each stanza to progress his story whereas Montague takes each stanza and tells a completely different story with each one. Each then gives the reader a different sensation whenever they read the poem. Heaney writes his poem from a child’s perspective but Montague writes his poem where he looks back on certain experiences from his childhood and reflects on the effect that they had on him. This then again gives the reader different views on how the fear of these children was very much the same but Montague realises that these people he writes about were out casted from the community. Heaney brings to the attention of the reader that the fear that exists in rural childhood is almost magnetic and it kept drawing him in even though it scared him.
Both poets use language and imagery for effect. Montague uses detailed descriptions in order to present a clear image of each elderly person and Heaney uses detailed descriptions to present a clear image of the surroundings. Heaney often uses language to appeal to the scenes ‘musky dark’ ‘smooth chill’ whereas Montague does not apply this technique. Montague tends to use more sinister overtones such as ‘serpent flickered’. The old people in ‘Like Dolmens’ are victims of social isolation and Montague feels guilt for these people. Heaney as a child, alters the view of reality by using military motif and changing farming machinery into weapons and ‘armoury’. This farming machinery creates a dangerous and a hostile environment, whereas Montague uses the parochial community as his hostile environment. On reflection, both of the poems have a negative environment.
Heaney uses emotive language to convey the terror of the boy ‘you felt cobwebs clogging up your lungs’ and likewise Montague also uses language to reveal his disturbance at certain people ‘dead eyes, serpent-flicked’. Both poets also use alliteration and we see this when Heaney uses the phrase ‘cobwebs clogging’ in order to create a feeling of claustrophobia and to heighten the sense of panic. We also see Montague use alliteration when he uses the phrase ‘penny every pension’, to show the kindness of Jamie McCrystal. He also says that Mary Moore’s house was ‘crumbling’, and this refers to her life and how it essentially crumbled around her. Both poets make use of similes and metaphors. Montague uses the metaphor ‘well of gossip’ in order to show society’s negative view of Maggie Owens. Similarly, Heaney uses the metaphor ‘I was chaff’ to convey how small and insignificant the boy feels at the end of the poem. Heaney refers to childhood fairy tales in ‘The Barn’ in order to show the boys fear ‘when the zinc burned like an oven’. Heaney compares entering the barn to entering an oven which is a reference to the fairy tale ‘Hansel and Gretel’. Montague does not refer to a childhood fairy tale, but he does make reference to old Irish superstition when he states ‘The rune and the chant, evil eye and averted head’.
Heaney’s boyhood ambivalence about the barn is a mix of fear and fascination. Montague has a mix of emotions throughout the poem such as fear, guilt and anger. In ‘The Barn’ Heaney’s fear escalate until the boy is left feeling paralysed by the rush of adrenaline and the child’s imagination amplifying and twisting reality. In ‘Like Dolmens’, Montagues fear dissipates and by the end the fear has changed to anger and how these elderly people were treated and how they were subject to social isolation. Heaney has a very narrow scope in his poem and primarily focuses on being inside the barn and the mix of emotions that he felt and went through, but Montague has a much broader scope and in his poem we see and wider mix of emotions. Montague heavily criticises the rural Irish life and this is not usually seen by Irish poets. Montague voices his own opinion on rural Ireland and uses this poem to do so. Also by writing this poem about the old people, has given them immorality and these people will now never be forgotten. The vulnerability that is experienced by the boy in ‘The Barn’ is only imaginary but the vulnerability that these old people experienced in ‘Like Dolmens’ is real.
The tone in ‘The Barn’ begins as a combination of curiosity, excitement and fear; the boy refers to the equipment as ‘an armoury’ and describes the barn as if it were a pirates cove filled with treasure ‘grit of ivory’. However, as the poem progresses, the tone changes from fear to utter terror ‘I lay face-down to shun the fear above’. The tone in ‘Like Dolmens Round my Childhood’ remains solemn and sad until the last stanza. The tone is reflective in the last stanza as Montague is summing up the impact the people he previously described had on him. However, Montague also reveals that he has conquered his fear from childhood, ‘I felt their shadows pass’. ‘The Barn’ ends on a peak of terror with the boy having a nightmare ‘the two lugged-sacks moved in like great blind rats’. Montague is over his fear whereas the boy is not.
In conclusion, though both poets explore different aspects of fear in childhood, they both express these fears using similar literary techniques. However, Montague not only explores childhood fears in ‘Like Dolmens Round my Childhood’ but he also refers to issues in society and his disgrace at modern society ‘Ancient Ireland, indeed! I was reared by her bedside’.