Write an essay on Seamus Heaney's treatment of nature. [2019, 2011] ✪✪✪  

Seamus Heaney (1939-2013), one of the greatest Irish poets, was deeply connected with the natural world. In his poems, nature becomes a background for showing love, respect, and human experience. Heaney grew up in the countryside of Northern Ireland. So, his love for soil, farming, and rural life is an important part of his poetry. Here, we will look at his major poems to discuss his treatment of nature.

Honest Work and Family Tradition: In “Digging” (1966), Heaney looks out of his window and sees his father working in the garden. The sound of the spade reminds him of his childhood. It was a time when his father used to dig potatoes and his grandfather used to cut turf. He sees both men as hardworking, strong, and skilled. But then Heaney realizes that he has “no spade” and cannot continue their kind of work. In the closing lines, he says:

“Between my finger and my thumb

e="text-align: center;">The squat pen rests.

I’ll dig with it.”

Love and Admiration: In “Follower” (1966), Heaney again celebrates his father’s work on the land. His father ploughs with great skill, and his shoulders are “globed like a full sail” of a ship. The image shows both the strength and skill of his father. The father is “an expert” who can guide the horse-drawn plow perfectly. It makes straight furrows in the land. The poet remembers how he tried to follow his father while he worked. But as a small boy, he often stumbled and fell. He wished to grow up and plow perfectly like his father.

“I wanted to grow up and plough.”

Beauty and Disappointment: In “Blackberry-Picking” (1966), Heaney uses nature to show how beauty and happiness fade with time. At the beginning of the poem, Heaney describes a child’s excitement at picking ripe blackberries. The berries are beautiful and sweet. The first ripe one was—

“...Sweet

Like thickened wine.”

“It wasn’t fair

That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.”

Loss of Childhood Innocence: In “Death of a Naturalist” (1966), Heaney shows how a child’s innocent love for nature turns into fear. As a boy, he loved to collect frogspawn. He loved to watch tadpoles grow. The smells and sounds of the flax-dam filled him with wonder. As he grows up, his relationship to nature changes. Instead of enjoying the natural world with innocent curiosity, he finds it threatening and disgusting. The frogs appear in large numbers, their “gross bellied” bodies and unknown threat terrify him. The same nature that once fascinated him now seems dangerous. This change shows the loss of childhood innocence and the realization that nature also has a wild, frightening side.

In conclusion, Seamus Heaney’s poems treat nature as a living force. Nature connects family generations through work and love. Nature also teaches about joy and loss. For Heaney, nature is not just scenery; it is the heart of human life.