How Seamus Heaneys Childhood Affected His Poetry Essay -- Seamus Hean

How Seamus Heaneys Childhood Affected His songSeamus Heaney was born in the North of Ireland in 1939 on a lift withhis mother and father and nine other siblings. Generally Heaneyspoems are influenced by animals through his childhood experience,specifically within The archean Purges and An Advancement ofLearning. Heaney grew up near Belfast, during the time of TheTroubles, the Irish civil war. Although Heaney left at the summit ofthe war, it is obvious his work reflects his experiences of that time.For an example The Early Purges illustrates this. Where theyconsider death unnatural. Growing into an environment where Heaneywill appreciate that death does exist, the extract interprets cleanup positionto be artificial. Many of Heaneys early poems dealt with experiencesof childhood and a frequent issue is how these experiences affect us.One poem that deals with a childhood experience is The Early Purges.The title immediately suggests that the poem is rough getting rid ofundesirabl es. It is about a particular incident and how we loseinnocence, describing the effects of Heaney witnessing the killing of faint and tiny kittys. The words, Soft paws scraping like madsuggests how preoccupied and threatened the kittens are they are sosmall that they are unable to climbing out of the bucket. The word,soft indicates a feeling of guilt about destroying the helplesskittens. The kittens are made to seem innocent and vulnerable throughthe phraseology used. The words, frail metal sound and tiny din implythat the kittens dont arrange enough noise to be significant. They areonly small and powerless. metal cannot be described as frail but thekittens illustrate this. in like manner din cannot be express... ...ut how we lose innocence. It is ambiguous and ironic - poetappears to endorse the discover that sentiments displaced by livingare false, but ends with an unconvincing clich Pests mother to bekept down, and a cheap jeer at townies. In fact the young Heaneysreact ion is the one the poet really approves.The poem recalls a particular incident (the first time Heaney, as aboy, witnessed the farmhand killing kittens) and how he (the poet)became used to this in time. Now, he writes, he has a similarindifference to the death of animals. Dan Taggart justifies action bysuggesting the kitten have no values scraggy wee shits and adultHeaney does the same, correct swearing like Dan Taggart bloody pups. Wesee older person set about to deceive child to protect him from hiscompassion (Sure isnt it better for them presently? - but the child isnot convinced).