From+the+Frontier+of+Writing

Listen to Heaney reading: [] __**FROM THE FRONTIER OF WRITING**__ //Notes by Maniti Modi// __**Summary:**__ 

“From The Frontier Of Writing” is a poem from Seamus Heaney’s anthology Haw Lantern. During the late 1960s, while teaching at Queens University, Heaney—a constitutional nationalist—became involved in the civil-rights movement for Catholic equality in Northern Ireland. He later moved his family from Belfast to Glanmore Cottage in County Wicklow in 1972. While in Wicklow, Heaney worked as a freelance journalist and published his most highly regarded book, //North,// in 1975. //North// was Heaney's most profound historical and mythological exploration of the violence in Northern Ireland. The Heaneys relocated in 1976 to Dublin, where they still reside. During the 1980s Heaney began teaching at Harvard University and helped to launch the Derry-based multicultural art alliance Field Day Theatre Company. Ancient Irish poetry as well as writers as diverse as Wordsworth and Dante and James Joyce and Patrick Kavanagh informed Heaney's //Field Work// (1979), //Sweeney Astray// (1983), and //Station Island// (1984). **//The Haw Lantern// (1989)** revealed the influence of contemporary eastern European writers and the increasing internationalization of Heaney's work. Ref. Source: [] 
 * // Background Information: //**

//**The main idea: **// Heaney uses images of war to develop the conceit of comparing the process of a writer getting his or her work critiqued and accepted by someone else to the frontier of a war battlefield.  //**Context: **// //· ////Civil war between North and South Ireland // //· ////Catholics and Protestants // //· ////Heaney does not seem very happy about the idea of talking purely for political agenda // //· ////Heaney is a self conscious writer // //**Themes: **// <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Process of writing is like crossing a frontier (use of war imagery) <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Role of the media and paparazzi <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Talks about his experience as a writer and Voices the universal fear of writing //**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The Title: **// <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  Frontier – Probably shows that he is at the verge of publishing his writing <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  Connotations of war

<span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-themecolor: text1; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore; msothemecolor: text1;">·  He uses the image of someone driving through or past the frontier to represent how he feels when his work is being read. He says "when the car stops in the road, the troops inspect its make and number and, as one bends his face towards your window," which is a metaphor to how the reader reads the work. The reader gets the work and looks closely at it to pick it apart and finding literal and metaphoric meanings, as do the troops at the frontier of a battlefield when passersby come about. <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-themecolor: text1; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore; msothemecolor: text1;">·  He also uses the image of hawks when he says, "the marksman training down out of the sun upon you like a hawk." This quotation compares critics to hawks, which implies that critics are feared creatures who swoop down and kill their prey, which are poems and writers. <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-themecolor: text1; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore; msothemecolor: text1;">·  Critics interrogate a work as frontier troops interrogate those passing through <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-themecolor: text1; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore; msothemecolor: text1;">·  Use of adjectives like bare, barren and oppressive relate to the war imagery and it can be compared to the writer’s blank page. The enjambment in the first stanza makes it seem tense and stifling like a war. <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-themecolor: text1; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore; msothemecolor: text1;">·  The caesura at the end of the third stanza heightens the tension but also marks a change in the tone. <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-themecolor: text1; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore; msothemecolor: text1;">·  ‘Cradled Guns’ oxymoron – cradled has connotations of vivid images of nurturing and child care but cradled guns emphasizes the images of sweltering tension as a writer’s work is going to be published. <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  Second stanza he refers to the critics. <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  Use of word ‘Your’ and ‘You’ – readers are made more empathetic, he is directly addressing them to explain the general public the whole process. <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  There is a sense of apprehension; the fear is built up while the writer is waiting to be scrutinized. <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  ‘Pure interrogation’ – explicitly he is describing the watchfulness of the area in war but implicitly he is referring to the interviews where writers have to justify opinions etc. to the media. <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  ‘guarded unconcerned’ - oxymoron – he speaks of how he must portray a feign and unconcerned image to the media showing that he is able to handle the nonchalance. <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  ‘subjugated’ – even though he is a writer he is waiting for creative acclaim from the critics and the public <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  …like a hawk – simile – comparison to a hawk, depicts the detailed scrutiny and inspection of paparazzi and thus shows the sense of discomfort the writer feels. <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·   Voices the universal fear of writing <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  Plosives in the last stanza – breaking away from the answers he needs to provide <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  Although, he still has to follow the convections of writing <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  Weary process – description is neither pleasant nor enthusiastic <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  Wants the freedom of writing – image of a waterfall – waterfall is like a frontier once you pass it you have the freedom <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontstyle: italic; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  Reflective tone after the caesura //<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The structure of the poem is in two parts – // //<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">1) comparing the process of writing to crossing a frontier // //<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">2) reflecting on his emotions and experiences as a writer //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Process of writing is like crossing a frontier: __**
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Role of the media and paparazzi: __**
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Talks about his experience as a writer: __**
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Structure: __**

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> 1.To Digging – in both there is a sense of apprehension: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">- In digging he talks about how he will be received as a writer <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">- In frontier of writing he talks about how he will face criticism 2. Absence of rural childhood memories predominant in his earlier poems
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Cross Reference: __**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">