As I started reading field work by Seamus Heaney, I was utterly perplexed when trying to derive the meaning of his poem. After a few reads, however, I began to use the tactics my fellow peers used in class. I started breaking down the poem and looked up the meanings of the words that I didn't understand.
I, then, began to notice that "Field Work" is a love poem that had four parts to it. It first begins with a joining of nature poetry and love poetry. Then, it calls itself into question. In the end, it is resolved in an act of human contact and an assertion of the “perfection” of the beloved but she is unidentified.
What I found most intriguing was part four of the poem. Heaney consisted the poem out of three sentences spread out over twenty lines of poetry. The poem, as if to prepare its audience for the assertion of the final lines, reaches a very low point of unpleasantness which was the “cat-piss smell” of the blossom of a currant shrub. Now the poet no longer relies upon the distorted eye; he makes physical contact, touching the beloved for the first time in the poem, to place a thumbprint on her hand, another O-shape, now not like a vaccination mark but like a birthmark, umber like the dream of the sunflower. The final lines are a clear and direct assertion of love:
"you are stained, stained
to perfection."
-Ali
I also found the last part the most interesting. I thought it was interesting because they finally interacted and I thought it was also adorable in a love-y kind of way. I saw it as he loved her regardless of her flaws either; she was perfect to him.
ReplyDeleteWhen i first read this book i was too confuses when reading this. i was having a hard time getting wat the poem was trying to say and what Heaney was trying ot convey. after reading it a few times i was able understand it and i thought the poem was very interesting to read and how Heaney made a lot of references about nature to women and man ade items.
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