"Alive and violated,
They lay on their bed of ice:" (Oysters 3)
Within the Seamus Heaney book titled Field Work, the poem “Oysters” stuck out to me the most and within this poem the two lines above caught my attention. Starting with the first line, as we discussed in class, we all know that when you eat raw oysters they are in fact alive. I really like how Heaney used the word violated. I think this is a very strong word to use here because he’s only talking about food. When I hear the word violated, I almost always want to associate it with people so hearing it in this context brings in a lot of power. Similarly, he uses the word bed in the next line. Again, I usually always associate this word with people. The way that Heaney uses these (human) words is as if he really does care about/respect these oysters that he is eating and that he feels bad doing so, hence violating. Why do you think he does this? I know if I were describing oysters it would be more like, “alive and fresh, they are tossed into ice to stay cool.” By comparing these two, you can definitely tell that Heaney is thoughtful and passionate about them!
Kristy, yes. There is something violent and terrible about the word "violated" here. There is something sexual about it, too. Heaney is VERY thoughtful, and that makes him such an interesting poet to read.
ReplyDelete