Mossbawn+Sunlight

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Mossbawn: Two Poems in Dedication
For Mary Heaney

I. Sunlight
There was a sunlit absence. The helmeted pump in the yard heated its iron, water honeyed

in the slung bucket and the sun stood like a griddle cooling against the wall

of each long afternoon. So, her hands scuffled over the bakeboard, the reddening stove

sent its plaque of heat against her where she stood in a floury apron by the window.

Now she dusts the board with a goose's wing, now sits, broad-lapped, with whitened nails

and measling shins: here is a space again, the scone rising to the tick of two clocks.

And here is love like a tinsmith's scoop sunk past its gleam in the meal-bin.

Main Points/Introduction: Theme 1: Slow passage of time emphasizing the attachment to childhood memories:
 * Recalling and reflecting his childhood memories (links in with how this is a common aspect with other poems like Digging, Death of a Naturalist). However, unlike these poems the tone is of fondness and nostalgia.
 * Slow pace and inaction complements the sense of nostalgia and longing.
 * Time shifts in the form of temporal connectives creates an effect of capturing cherished moements in the past (preservation of childhood memories).
 * Natural, rural and domestic imagery creates a warm homely image in the reader's mind.
 * Captures a moment
 * Deatiled description of the aunt baking portrays the love and attachement in their relationship (mention the dedication here 'For Mary Heaney').
 * Taken from "NORTH", 1975
 * 'Sunlit absence' is a contradictory phrase (how- explain further) creating an underlying tone of meloncholy.
 * Description of minute details (examples?) creates a still yet powerful picture in the readers' mind.
 * 'Here is a space' connotes the abscence of love he currently feels heightening the feeling of nostalgia.
 * Use of simple past tense and free verse shows the desire to go back into the past creating a free flowing image in the readers' mind.
 * Enjambment in the second stanza shows the flow of thought as the memory is being re-lived and for conveying the idea of the long afternoon.
 * Ticking of the two clocks- the oven timer and the clock.

Theme 2: Movements and actions within the house:
 * Inaction outside the house is juxtaposed with the actions of movements inside the house (link with previous theme).
 * 'Now' acts as a temporal connective, seeming like he has almost transported himself in the past and is intently observing his aunt bake.
 * Transition in tense helps the readers' connect with his feelings of longing.
 * Kitchen/domestic imagery through detailed descriptions of 'bakeboard and stove' creates an image that he is present there and is fascinated by the insignificant and mundane activities, just like a child.

Theme 3: Preservation of childhood memories:
 * 'Each long afternoon' shows how he wants his memories to be everlasting.
 * 'Meal-bin' depicts how he wishes to capture his childhood memories and the love he felt then

Theme 4: Imagery used to create a laid-back, calm and warm setting:
 * Celebration of country life and all the positive connotations he has associated with his childgood years.
 * Rural and agricultural atmoshpere created by the 'pump' and 'bucket'.
 * Use of the personification 'helmeted pump' and simile 'sun stood like a griddle' idealizes the natural setting showing his imaginative involvement with nature. Griddle imagery foreshadows the baking activity.
 * 'Water honeyed' uses colour imagery to create a pleasant atmosphere. In Heaney's other poems the 'h' alliteration or sound connotes harshness and oppression but here it is used contrastingly, making the readers' feel the wave of warm air.
 * Sibilance used in the second stanza creates a casual setting complementing the feeling of longing and nostalgia.

Theme 5: Love and affection is portrayed through the act of baking:
 * 'Plaque of heat' depicts the transmission of love creating a strong bond between him and his aunt.
 * Characterisation of Mary Heaney: 'Broad-lapped' shows the aunt's maternal, warm and loving nature.
 * His appreciation for the fact that true love exists in small and simple gestures like that of baking.
 * Need a more detailed explanation of the last stanza- imagery?

Conclusion:
 * Not only does Heaney succeed in writing about his childhood memories, but also evokes similar emotions in the readers.
 * Explicit celebration of the natural and rural life he led in Ireland.
 * Themes such as sensous and natural imagery, great extent of emotional involvement and time shifts overlap with his other poems.
 * But this poem is different in the sense it has a relatively light and simple mood, depicting one constant and simple emotion of love and longing. Other of his poems like //Digging// and //Death of a Naturalist// deal with complex and conflicting emotions, where the persona undergoes a sudden realization, but in this poem no such technique is used.
 * Could talk about the cinematic technique he used throughout. Opens with a long shot of the yard and then zooms in to the kitchen.