Seamus Heaney- Opened Ground

Seamus Heaney would be a master story teller if he hadn't been a poet. A lot of his poems read like a good story. They have a nice steady pace with interesting language and a lot of plot development, (for a poem anyway.) Much of the rhythm he creates is within his language, all of which sounds Irish somehow. That really boggles my mind actually. How do you make something written sound like it has an accent? I'm not really sure how he does it, but it works. I think it has a lot to do with his word choice.

"Nightly, naturally/swimming towards the lure/Of warm lit-up places,/the blurred mesh and murmur/Drifting among glasses/In the gregarious smoke."
This selection from Casualty is a good example of what I'm talking about. He has these short matter-of-fact statements that wonderfully describe the path of a drunk to a pub rather than a fish to the line. Maybe it only sounds Irish since it's talking about drinking, but I can kind of just hear the lyrical quality of the language shining through. The word "gregarious" really stands out to me. Not a "big" word but not a small one either. It doesn't sound like elevated language, because to me that would imply arrogance. Instead it sounds educated and approachable especially in the context it's being used.

I think that's what I like most about his poetry. It's a) very good and b) sounds conversational. It's like I could meet a guy in a pub that would talk like this, and over a few pints of Guinness we might have the most interesting conversation I've ever had with a stranger.

Another thing about his poetry I'd like to touch on is that his subject matter is so multi-faceted. I like the way he blends political, social, and even archaeological history with metaphor. In the Tollund Man he compares the ancient motives for execution with the modern ones and finds them equally pointless. His writing reflects his unease about the political situation as well as his attempts to reconcile his beliefs with his torrential upbringing. It makes for good drama. That poem in particular paints an ugly picture of humanity's seedy underbelly, while at the same time eloquently describing the distress that an individual might feel against the insurmountable quality of the situation.