MrChill

The subjects of Heaney’s poems are brought before our eyes through his innovative use of imagery and the precision of his language. How true is this statement of the poems by Seamus Heaney studied by you? Support your response with relevant references from the poems on your course.

The use of Heaney’s detailed imagery and precise language within his poetry gives the reader a look into his thoughts and feelings at the time of his writings. These thoughts and feelings which are explored throughout his poetry can also be related to by his readers. Due to these reasons many of his poems are unforgettable and hold onto the reader’s attention from beginning to end. I will look into Heaney’s precise imagery and language usage in several of his poems throughout this essay. The poems which I have studied are The Forge, The Tollund Man and The Harvest Bow. Each and every one of these poems are littered with tremendously detailed imagery and pin point language which helps to create these images.
Firstly I will discuss the forge. This poem is one of my favourite poems by Heaney. My reason for this is because of the beautiful imagery which is used throughout which also creates an aww like atmosphere. From the first line of the poem your attention is immediately captured “all I know is a door into the dark”. The use of imagery here is clearly stated as nothing. But within this nothing there is an outstanding amount of imagery which can be formed as it is all left up to the imagination influenced by other senses.
Heaney creates imagery from the sound which he describes within the forge “Inside the hammered anvils short pitched ring”. The use of the words hammered and short pitched ring create the sound within the readers imagination as well as creating the image of the Black smith big and strong in all his glory whilst crafting a master peace “beat real iron out”. Once again Heaney’s use of senses create more imagery from the unknown “the anvil must be somewhere in the