''North'' (1975) is a collection of poems written by

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

, who received the 1995

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

. It was the first of his works that directly dealt with

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, and it looks frequently to the past for images and symbols relevant to the violence and political unrest of that time. Heaney has been recorded reading this collection on the ''

Seamus Heaney Collected Poems ''Collected Poems'' is a spoken-word recording of the Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney reading his own work. It was released by RTÉ to mark his 70th birthday, which occurred on 13 April 2009. The fifteen-CD box set, boxed set * * * * ...

'' album. The collection is divided into two parts of which the first is more symbolic, dealing with themes such as the Greek myth of

Antaeus Antaeus (; Ancient Greek: Ἀνταῖος ''Antaîos'', "opponent", derived from , ''antao'' – 'I face, I oppose'), known to the Berbers as Anti, was a figure in Berber and Greek mythology. He was famed for his defeat by Heracles as part o ...

, the bog bodies of Northern Europe,

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

, and other historical figures. The second, shorter part contains poems that deal more specifically with life in Northern Ireland during The Troubles and contains dedicatory poems to

Michael McLaverty Michael McLaverty (5 July 1904 – 22 March 1992) was an Irish writer of novels and short stories.Seamus Deane Seamus Francis Deane (9 February 194012 May 2021) was an Irish poet, novelist, critic, and intellectual historian. He was noted for his debut novel, ''Reading in the Dark'', which won several literary awards and was nominated for the Booker Pri ...

. The title of the volume may come from a poem in the volume; however, while the manuscript drafts reveal other titles Heaney considered for the poem, no evidence exists that he ever considered a different title for the volume. Rand Brandes writes, "North was always North". The poem "North" invokes one of the volume's primary symbols—the Viking raiders who invaded Ireland between 795 and 980. The volume title also suggests these northern raiders, the bog bodies found in Northern Europe, and most significantly, the North of Ireland.

Mossbawn: Two Poems in Dedication to Mary Heaney * 1. Sunlight * 2. The Seed Cutters Part 1 * Antaeus * Belderg * Funeral Rites * North * Viking Dublin: Trial Pieces * The Digging Skeleton * Bone Dreams * Come to the Bower * Bog Queen * The Grauballe Man * Punishment * Strange Fruit * Kinship * Ocean's Love to Ireland * Aisling * Act of Union * The Betrothal of Cavehill * Hercules and Antaeus Part 2 * The Unacknowledged Legislator's Dream * Whatever You Say Say Nothing * Freedman * Singing School * 1. The Ministry of Fear * 2. A Constable Calls * 3. Orange Drums, Tyrone, 1966 * 4. Summer 1969 * 5. Fosterage * 6. Exposure

Bog body poems

Bog bodies inspire four poems in this volume: "Bog Queen", "The Grauballe Man", "Punishment", and "Strange Fruit". In his previous volume, ''

Wintering Out ''Wintering Out'' (1972) is a poetry collection by Seamus Heaney, who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Importance of Place California/Liberation The volume contains poems written between 1969 and 1971. Heaney wrote much of the c ...

'', Heaney published the first of his bog-body poems, "Tollund Man". Heaney was inspired to write these poems after reading PV Glob's book, ''

The Bog People ''The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved'' is an archaeology, archaeological study of the bog bodies of Northern Europe written by the Danish archaeologist Peter Glob, P.V. Glob. First published in 1965 by Gyldendal under the Danish title of ''Mo ...

'', an archeological study of Iron-Age bodies discovered in the bogs of Northern Europe. In his essay "Feeling Into Words", Heaney explains that he found this book during a time when writing poetry had shifted for him "from being simply a matter of achieving the satisfactory verbal icon to being a search for images and symbols adequate to our predicament". The bog bodies of Glob's book became such symbols for Heaney, who writes, "And the unforgettable photographs of these victims blended in my mind with photographs of atrocities, past and present, in the long rites of Irish political and religious struggles". In these poems, Heaney draws connections between the past and present.

Bog Queen

"Bog Queen" is about the decomposition of an unidentified queen of the bog. In the poem, the decomposing queen comes to represent life cycles, as the queen both generates and takes away life. Heaney uses the feminine character to create sensuality, intuition and physicality that is typical of Heaney's female characters. This is significant because Heaney does not distance himself from the bog queen as he does with the other Bog Poems. He speaks as the bog queen herself rather than as an outside observer.

Grauballe Man

"The Grauballe Man" is a response to a photograph seen of the real

Grauballe Man The Grauballe Man is a bog body that was uncovered in 1952 from a peat bog near the village of Grauballe in Jutland, Denmark. The body is that of a man dating from the late 3rd century BC, during the early Germanic Iron Age. Based on the evide ...

. The first half of the poem is a description of each part of the bog body. Heaney uses dark imagery in conjunction with distinctly human qualities to give the man a spiritual persistence. The poem then speculates on his past life and ends with him shedding the memories of his past.

Punishment

"Punishment" is a bog poem written to

Windeby I Windeby I is the name given to the bog body found preserved in a peat bog near Windeby, Northern Germany, in 1952. Until recently, the body was also called the ''Windeby Girl'', since an archeologist believed it to be the body of a 14-year-old g ...

. Heaney voice is one of a voyeur, imagining the past life of a girl who was hung for adultery. After a description that enlivens the bog body, the poem culminates with Heaney addressing the paralyzing emotional experience of being a voyeur to such "tribal, intimate revenge".

Strange Fruit

Unlike the other poems, the descriptions in "Strange Fruit" do not evoke the body's past life and describe it as a bog body. Heaney describes the body as it has been preserved and how this body gradually moves into the "Murdered, forgotten, nameless, terrible." The body takes on a new ethos as something that forgets whatever past life of the body. It is a testament to the terrible legacy created because of war.

Reception

The reception of ''North'' has varied since its publication. It is Heaney's most controversial volume. A number of critics have received the volume positively. Helen Vendler, for example, labeled it "One of the few unforgettable single volumes published in English since the modernist era" and later as "one of the crucial poetic intervention of the twentieth century".

Conor Cruise O'Brien Donal Conor David Dermot Donat Cruise O'Brien (3 November 1917 – 18 December 2008), often nicknamed "The Cruiser", was an Irish diplomat, politician, writer, historian and academic, who served as Minister for Posts and Telegraphs from 1973 ...

wrote, "I had the uncanny feeling, reading these poems, of listening to the thing itself, the actual substance of historical agony and dissolution, the tragedy of a people in a place: the Catholics of Northern Ireland".

Seamus Deane Seamus Francis Deane (9 February 194012 May 2021) was an Irish poet, novelist, critic, and intellectual historian. He was noted for his debut novel, ''Reading in the Dark'', which won several literary awards and was nominated for the Booker Pri ...

also responded positively to the volume, finding that the poems "interrogate the quality of the relationship between the poet and his mixed political and literary tradition". For Deane, this volume is less about politics than it is about the relationship of the poet to politics and the demand placed on Heaney for a political commitment. Other critics, however, have been less comfortable with Heaney's approach to violence and politics.

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin (; born 1942) is an Irish poet and academic. She was the Ireland Professor of Poetry (2016–19). Biography Ní Chuilleanáin was born in Cork in 1942. She is the daughter of Eilís Dillon and Professor Cormac Ó Cuil ...

noted, relatively benignly, a "lack of ironic awareness" in North, identifying that lack as a limitation of the volume. Others leveled harsher criticism at Heaney's use of violent images from the past as metaphors for contemporary political violence. Notably,

Ciaran Carson Ciaran Gerard Carson (9 October 1948 – 6 October 2019) was a Northern Ireland-born poet and novelist. Biography Ciaran Carson was born in Belfast into an Irish-speaking family. His father, William, was a postman and his mother, Mary, w ...

dismissed the volume and its positive reviews. In his review, he writes, "Everyone was anxious that North should be a great book; when it turned out it wasn't, it was treated as one anyway, and made into an Ulster '75 Exhibition of the Good that can come out of Troubled Times." Carson's primary critique is Heaney's blending of past and present, noting that "the real difference between our society and that of Jutland in some vague past are glossed over". Because of this, Carson saw Heaney in this volume as "the laureate of violence--a mythmaker, an anthropologist of ritual killing, an apologist for 'the situation,' in the last resort, a mystifier". In agreement with Carson, Edna Longley saw the volume as a misguided foray into

political poetry Political poetry brings together politics and poetry. According to "The Politics of Poetry"by David Orr (journalist), David Orr, poetry and politics connect through expression and feeling, although both of them are matters of persuasion. Political ...

. She writes, "North does not give the impression of the urgent 'mater of Ireland' bursting through the confines of 'the well-made poem'. Heaney's most 'artful' book, it stylises and distances what was immediate and painful in Wintering Out". She goes on to suggest that in the volume, Heaney "pluck the heart out of his mystery and serve it up as a quasi-political mystique". North has continued to receive positive and negative criticism, and it remains among Heaney's most important volumes. After Heaney's death in 2013, ''The Telegraph'' published an article listing Heaney's ten best poems, selecting three poems from North for the list, and scholarship continues to be published with a focus on this volume.

References

External links

Seamus Heaney on NobelPrize.org
{{Seamus Heaney 1975 poetry books Irish poetry collections Poetry by Seamus Heaney Faber and Faber books

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