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Seamus Heaney is an award-winning poet born in Northern Ireland. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 and received numerous other accolades throughout his career. He was raised as a Catholic on a farm and was the oldest of nine children.
North is a collection of poetry that is divided into two parts. The title is a reference to his home in the north of Ireland, his inspiration for this work.
Part 1 centers around the history of Northern Ireland, particularly the little-known history of the bog people. The bog preserved the bodies of it’s victims for hundreds of years. People considered to be criminals during the Viking age would be killed and cast into the bog’s watery grave, not even given the honor of a burial place. Heaney uses his knowledge of the bodies of these victims and the research that has been done about them to create stories about these people and bring them to life. One poem that does this is “Punishment�. A body was found and believed to be a young girl. He tells a story of adultery and shame for this girl whom is likely falsely accused and mistreated. “Little adulteress,/before they punished you/you were flaxen-haired,/undernourished, and your/tar-black face was beautiful�. Heaney also gives commentary on the way that these people are exploited for their pain by people today, even by him: “I am the artful voyeur/of your brain’s exposed/and darkened combs�. He fills this first part full of the history of the Irish landscape and the people who inhabited it.
Part 2 pays particular attention to the political conflict that is constantly prevalent in Northern Ireland between the Protestant and Catholic communities. The Catholics want to secede from the United Kingdom and become assimilated into the Republic of Ireland, whereas the Protestants wish to remain within the U.K.; and this issue manifests itself through the constant presence of guerilla warfare within the communities. These titles of Protestant and Catholic have become a cultural label of the people’s political views more than a religious association.
“Whatever You Say Say Nothing� is the main poem that discusses this conflict. Heaney begins this poem with “I’m writing this just after an encounter/With an English journalist in search of ‘views/On the Irish Thing�.� implying that this civil war of sorts has been going on for such an extended period of time that it has become a piece of Irish culture. Heaney implies that it has morphed into just that, “The gelignite’s a common sound effect�. Heaney truly shows how it is to live amidst this conflict that it has become almost old enough for people to forget what they are fighting about. They are as the Capulets and Montagues in fair Verona. The title of this poem is a line from the poem and implies that to save yourself socially you must not let others know which side you associate with, “Where to be saved you only must save face/And whatever you say, you say nothing.� because you have no idea what enemies you might be making otherwise. Heaney uses Part 2 to emphasize the difficulty of living within these circumstances and how it can affect the people socially and politically.
In short, North is a beautifully fascinating read, particularly for anyone interested in learning more about the history and culture of Northern Ireland. Heaney does a beautiful job of arranging words in a way that makes the stories flow like music into the reader’s imaginations.