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Casualty' by famous Irish poet Seamus Heaney is a fiercely political, touchingly personal, and deeply religious elegy. It is part of his later work, published as part of his 5th collection ' 'Field Work'. The poem was written about and anonymous party originally, but a time after releasing 'Casualty' Heaney revealed, in an interview, that he had written it for a friend, farmer and eel fisherman named Louis O'Neill. In this essay I aim to closely analyse 'Casualty' with reference to three of Heaney's other elegies -'Clearances', 'The Strand at Lough Beg' and 'The Harvest Bow'
Heaney immediately personalises the poem by making the first 20 line stanza a description of Louis O'Neill. He shows a clear understanding of O'Neill himself, and also shows that others understood him, for example the bar-man whom knew in a single move what O'Neill wanted however it states that 'he would drink by himself'. Heaney makes it clear that O'Neill was a close friend, and someone whom he looked up to;
'I loved his whole manner'
Heaney uses the powerful word 'love' illustrating he was very close to O'Neill, and goes on to say 'whole manner' suggesting that O'Neill was someone who was pure good. Heaney uses this line to show the personal connection from him to O'Neill, and how he felt towards the man. In other elegies by Heaney he also personalises parts, showing his personal thoughts of feelings for the dedicatee of the elegy. In sonnet three of the elegy 'Clearances', dedicated to his mother, Heaney looks back on a moment of reflection while he was at his mother's bedside whilst she was unwell;
'I remembered her head bent towards my head,
Her breath in mine, our fluent dipping knives- -
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Feelings that once were hidden Are now expressed to you. Days that once were stormy Are now the brightest blue Times that once were lonely Are now filled with pleasure. All that once was mine alone Are now things we both treasure Nights that once were cold Are now comforting and warm. Fears that once were very real Are now gone with the storm A...
Joe Trev February 6th, 2021 Thoughts on "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost I read this poem in high school and found it very eerie; I didn't understand it at the time; therefore, it overlooked why the poem is so great. To me, the poem symbolizes the amount of self-destruction that haunts people every day. In the poem, fire represents desire, and I fin...
The seventeenth-century poet John Donne has gone down in the history of popular culture for three lines: 'No man is an island,' 'Ask not for whom the bell tolls -- it tolls for thee', and the opening of a poem called 'Death be not proud'. This last came from a collection of Donne's poems which came to be called the 'Holy Sonnets.' The name is possi...
I loved playing, Always having fun, We'd all laugh with joy, Until the day is done, When the long day was over, I held my mum tight, She'd tighten up the covers, And bid me goodnight, When the morning came and I awoke, With my morning glee, I'd feel my face shine over, As I ran and played so free, My teachers helped me with my prayers, I learnt s...
The epic poem of 'Beowulf' presents the characteristics of two heroes, Beowulf and Hrothgar. During this Anglo-Saxon time period, Hrothgar rules as the king of his Danish lands. However, this king faces many problems due to the disturbances of a monster known as Grendel. As an Anglo-Saxon warrior of the time, Beowulf hears of this creature and j...
Le film Moi moche et m?chant dirige pour Pierre Coffin et Chris Renaud est un film d'animation pour un publique familial. Ce film est ? propos d'un sc?l?rat qui vouloir voler la lune pour ?tre reconnu comme le meilleur sc?l?rat dans le monde. Cela toujours ?t? un r?ve de Gru (le personnage principal), mais il a un ennemi qui veut atteindre le m?m...
Love is like a path, and although you know where it will end up, you don't know how you will get there. It might take a circle and take you back to the start. It might turn right and the left and get you so confused that you don't where you are, but you will always find yourself. Love can make you dizzy, happy, sad, angry, repulsed, disgusted, or e...
Stevie Smith's "Not Waving but Drowning" and Adrienne Rich's "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" are similar in that both poems' characters have lived their lives with regret and sorrow. Neither of their lives were lived to the fullest and as death approaches, the question of, "what could have been?" remains forever unanswered. Upon first reading, Stevie...
The Personification and Criticism of Death in John Donne's "Death Be Not "No poem of John Donne's is more widely read or more directly associated with Donne than the tenth of the Holy Sonnets, 'Death, be not proud.'" (Dr. Gerald McDaniel, lecture). In this sonnet, Donne personifies death in two ways, as rescuer and as punisher of even the most nob...
McAvley's purpose in "Merry-Go-Round" is to show the innocent beliefs of children viewed by a cynical adult. It portrays children caught up in the magical, surreal world of childhood before thrown into reality and the discordant life of adulthood. He employs specific stylistic devices such as imagery and diction, structure and tone to reveal this t...
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as thought of hemlock I had drunk or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minnute past, and lethe-wards had sunk: 'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thine happiness- That thou, light--winged Dryad of the trees, In some melodious plot Of beechen green, and shadow...
When I first read the poem, it was kind of confusing and hard to understand. It wasn't until I read it the second time that I figured out that Oliver Holmes was actually writing about a sea creature, or, at least I think that's what he's writing about. What convinces me that he's writing about a sea creature is the fact that the setting for the p...
All the world's a party And the people are merely guests They all have their ups and downs And the host can play many types of music Hoping that the guests will enjoy it The girls that think they're all that Are trying to get attention while faking intoxication While the jocks with their leather jackets Play beer pong while being loud and obno...
i push myself forward trying to escape but my both feet are immobile both strapped in rusty chains i struggle trying to free myself from the monster that held me captive i cannot feel the pain although i see myself all wounded,looking helpless i heard something move did i woke it up?! i struggled more but i can smell it getting near heartbeat start...
