Explore the importance of memories within Seamus Heaney’s work.
...evoked in ‘Mid term break’, a poem which finds Heaney remembering the death of his younger brother. Heaney’s father is usually depicted as a strong man in his younger years, particularly in the poems ‘Digging’ and ‘Follower’. However, on the day of the tragedy, Heaney is collected from school by his neighbours, and is met at the door by his ‘father crying’. Heaney describes his father as always taking grief ‘in his stride’ and so finds his father’s emotional reaction out of character. Although Heaney’s first book, Death of a Naturalist, explores his personal relationships in great detail, it is noticeable how memories of tradition have also inspired his work. In ‘Follower’ Heaney remembers his childhood desire to pursue the family tradition of ‘ploughing’. However, ‘Digging’ focuses on Heaney’s realisation that writing is his particular skill, despite his farming heritage and the customary path to ‘follow men like them’, referring to his ancestors. Heaney does not have a spade in his hand he has a different tool, his ‘squat pen’ with which can ‘dig’. Here Heaney shows how he views his change of direction, away from the tradition of becoming a physical labourer. He can use his pen to preserve the memories and traditions through his writing. Although ‘Follower’’is based on ploughing, the underlying theme is Heaney’s high regard and great sense of pride in his father .His words ‘sometimes he rode me on his back Dipping and rising to his plod’ recall memories of the strength and size of his father at that time compared to his own childish stature. Seamus Heaney not only moved away from family tradition, he also relocated from rural life in County Derry to the inner city of. ? Perhaps it was this dramatic change in scenery and lifestyle, which roused such vivid memories of nature and routine, detailed in the highly imaginative poem ‘Blackberry Picking’. Heaney remembers in ‘late August, given heavy rain and sun for a full week, the blackberries would ripen.’ implying this was an annual occurrence. This vivid memory is highlighted in the line ‘you ate the first one, and its flesh was sweet’, Heaney’s precise recollection of the pleasurable taste of the succulent fruit. That he was not alone, ‘Blackberry picking’, is apparent in ‘that hunger that sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam pots’ and ‘we trekked and picked until the cans we...