Key Facts

• • Poet: Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)
  • Full Title: Requiem for the Croppies
  • Written: 1966
  • Collection: The poem is collected in Heaney's 1969 poetry collection Door into the Dark
  • Form: Sonnet (14 lines)
  • Meter: The poem uses iambic pentameter, the typical meter for a sonnet. It means the lines have five iambs or ten syllables, where an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable. However, there are some variations.
  • Rhyme Scheme: The Poet's rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEFEF. The octave/opening quatrains follow the pattern of a Shakespearean sonnet, while the sestet looks like a Petrarchan sonnet. Note, too, that many of these end rhymes are decidedly slant (not exact match): "barley"/"country," "day"/"infantry," and "thrown"/"cannon"/"coffin."
  • Tone: Sad, respectful, and patriotic
  • Setting: Ireland during the 1798 Irish Rebellion, especially the Battle of Vinegar Hill
  • Speaker: A croppy (Irish rebel) who speaks as one of the dead soldiers

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