“A girl in a white dress was being courted out among the cars:
as her voice swarmed and puddled into laughs
I felt like some old pike all badged with sores
wanting to swim in touch with soft-mouthed life” (Heaney 28).
In this quote, Heaney seems to be reflecting on his life. It seems that his tone is filled with sadness because he realizes that he is permanently excluded from joining the magical world of youthfulness. Heaney’s imagery is so vivid that it is almost as if the reader feels the warmth of the girl’s laughter and the sees the despair on Heaney’s face as he realizes that he will never again be able to court a young girl and delight her to the point of laughter. It is also interesting to note that while the author compares himself to a somewhat repulsive breed of fish, he envisions the young people as a type of “soft-mouthed” (Heaney 28) fish that possesses healing powers. Perhaps he feels that just being close to the young adults will help him forget his agedness and relive his own youth. This piece was also intriguing to me because Heaney’s experience of mourning the loss of his youthfulness seems to be an experience common to all. Thus, I feel that this poem reveals the human side of Heaney. He may have an uncommon ability to weave words together in a complex and confusing manner, but he is also just an old man filled with a desire to reclaim his extinct youth. We are all young now, but, 50 years from now, will we find ourselves in Heaney’s shoes as well?
I believe that the man was having a realization that he is no longer apart of that crowd of people. I believe there comes a point in a person's life as they get old that something in their emotions and in their mind says how they are not apart of the youth anymore but is now an older person or a senior. To me I thought that theme of the poem is the effects of time that it has a person. It ruined the man's confidence because he saw a pretty girl outside. He wanted to go and flirt with but his age had developed as an insecurity.
ReplyDeleteSeamus Heaney was born in 1939 and the book Field Work was published in 1979, which means the author was only 40 years old. When I think about it, being 40 is not such a high age that a person would feel so lonely and pessimistic. In my opinion, Haenye for some reason felt very lonely and sad at the moment he was writing the poem; probably what he was going through at that time might have made him feel old and melancholic, which could be the bombing in Dublin and the whole situation between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland or his personal life, such as missing his wife when he was away from her somewhere in a lonely hotel room.
ReplyDeleteHana
Anna, good post -- and I think Hana makes a good point about Heaney's age when this poem was written. But there is something that can still make us feel lonely and old -- a moment, a time, another person. And we just feel this immense sense of loss for the time that has passed. But Anna, I do think you're right that this is what makes this poem so universal. It's universal for us to feel sad and lonely sometimes, and that is what works here.
ReplyDeleteThis poem reminded me of the scene in "Citizen Kane" when Mr. Bernstein reminisces about a girl in a white dress he saw decades ago. "I only saw her for one second," he says, "but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl." A wonderful scene that also deals with the passage of time.
ReplyDeleteI think it was just that he was staying alone and was watching the crowds laughing and enjoying themselves outside, nothing more. In a reflective mood and yes missing his wife and family. We all do when we are away. A Tench fisherman myself, an Irishman and a huge Heaney fan. He has captured the essence of Summer here.................
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