This morning as I listened to Radio 4, they announced there was a programme on this coming Sunday about Seamus Heaney and his life. When I first started this blog I was in love with his poetry, especially 'North' I had managed to get a copy from Bath library and wrote down some of the poems. You will find them in the links below. Heaney had done an archaeological course at Queen's Universities of Ireland, same as my archaeologist husband.
So the poems from 'North were archaeology based, deep and rather miserable I suppose you would say. Brooding on the death of the 'bog' Queen - a fascinating story. Read it here. Heaney, as Jennie said at the time was influenced by one of his set books probably - 'The Bog People' by Glob.
If you have ever encountered a desiccated body from way back in time, the picture will remain with you for ever. Mine is from the British Museum when I was a child, when we encountered an orange coloured corpse that had come from a desert somewhere. It lay in its incongruous surroundings on a patch of sand, my first encounter with death.
He is the only poet I know that took in every aspect of the prehistoric era and blended them into words. It was through poetry that Paul and I came together, he collected it on a well known site and also on a blog here.
What barbaric people we used to be, and still only a short step from it as world events show. Our generation has been so fortunate.
ReplyDeleteYes we have lived, in this country at least, through a fairly peaceful period. The cruelty in the past in punishing people is unimaginable but torture still goes on. Religion though also played its part, all to do with subjection in the pursuit of power.
ReplyDeleteYes that corpse with its shrivelled orangey/brown colour is, I would guess, a lot of childrens' first encounter with death. I have been with both husbands at their point of death and although I am a Humanist and believe that this is our only life as it is with all others in the animal kingdom - at the point of death something leaves in that instant - I don't know what it is - I suppose one could call it spirit. But whatever it is - it goes. That body in the museum is just that - the remains of a person long dead. What remains is in our memory to treasure until we too pass that way.
ReplyDeleteI can't say I have got much from Heaney's poetry - I shall have another read of it. Now that I have sorted out my bookshelves I should be able to put my hand on his book in an instant.
I think Heaney's poetry is very dramatic, written for impact. I don't actually like the subject matter with its closeness to death.
ReplyDeleteAll I can remember of that London trip was the museum visit and Madam Tussaud's with even grislier little cameos, one of Doctor Crippen and the other of a gibbet hanging from the castle wall. I shall have to turn to a more pleasant subject I think.