Key Facts

• Poet: Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)
• Full Title: The Skunk
• First Published: 1979 in Heaney’s poetry collection Field Work
• Form: The poem has 6 quatrains (4-line stanzas)
• Total Lines: 24
• Rhyme Scheme and Meter: The poem is written in Free verse, meaning no strict meter or rhyme scheme.
• Tone: Romantic, nostalgic, and tender
• Setting: California (where Heaney was staying, away from his wife in Ireland)
• Speaker: The poet himself (Heaney)
• Main Characters: The poet and his wife (symbolically linked with the skunk)