OPENED
GROUND
ALSO
BY
SEA\1US
HEA;EY
POETRY
Death f a .Vaturalist
Door into e Dark
Wintering Out
North
Field Work
Poems 1965-1975
Sweeney Astray: A Version om the Irish
Station Island
The Haw Lanten
Selected Poems 1966-1987
Seeing Things
Sweeney's Flght (with photographs by Rachel Gese)
The Spiit Level
CRITICISVI
Preoccupations: Selected Pose 1968-1978
Te Gove ent f the Tongue
The Redress f Poety
PLAYS
The Cure at Toy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes
Seamus Heaney
Opened Ground
Selected Poems
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
New York
for Marie
Author's Note
This book contains a greater number of poems than would usually
appear in a Selected Poems, fewer than would make up a Collected: it
belongs somewhere between the two categories.
I have taken the opportunity to include a very few poems not
printed in previous volumes and made a short sequence of extracts
from The Cure at Toy (1990), my version of Sophocles' Philoctetes.
In similar fashion, 'Sweeney in Flight' is made up of sections from
Sweeney Astray (1983), a translation of the medie,·al Irish work Buile
Suibhne, which tells of the penitential life led by Sweeney after he
was cursed and tuned into a wild flying creature by St Ronan at the
Battle of Moira.
Stations was published as a pamphlet by Ulsterman Publications
in '975· The irst pieces were written in Berkeley in 1970.
'Station Island' is a sequence of dream encounters set on an
island in County Donegal where, since medieval times, pilgrims have
gone to perform the prescribed penitential exercises (or 'stations').
'Villanelle for an Anniversary' was written to commemorate the
35oth anniversary of the founding of Harvard College in 1636. 'Al
phabets' was the Phi Beta Kappa poem at Harvard in 1984.
I ha,·e included 'Crediting Poetry' as an Afterword. This seemed
to make sense, since the ground covered in the lecture is ground orig­
inally opened by the poems which here precede it.
S.H.
Contents
from Death of a Naturalist
(I966)
Digging, 3
Death of a Naturalist, 5
The Bam, 6
Blackbey-Picking, 7
Chuning Day, 8
Follower, IO
Mid- Tem Break, II
The Divine, I2
Poem, IJ
Personal Helicon, I4
Antaeus (I966), I5
from Door into the Dark
(I969)
The Outlaw, I9
The Forge, 20
Thatche, 2I
The Peninsula, 22
Requiem for the Crappies, 2J
Undine, 24
The Wfe's Tale, 25
Night Drive, 2 7
Relic of Memory, 28
A Lough Neagh Sequence, 29
The Given Note, ;6
hinlands, J 7
The Plantation, ;8
Bann Clay, 40
Boglan, 4I
from
Wintering Out
(I972)
Fodder, 45
Bog Oak, 46
Anahorish, 47
Sevant Boy, 48
Land, 49
Gts f Rain, p
Toome, 54
Broagh, 55
Oracle, 56
The Backward Look, 57
A New Song, 58
The Other Side, 59
Tinder (from A Northen Hoard), 6I
The Tollund Man, 62
Nerthus, 64
Wedding Day, 65
Mother of the Groom, 66
Summer Home, 67
Serenades, 69
Shore Woman, 70
Limbo, 72
Bye- Chil, 73
Good-night, 74
Fireside, 75
Westering, 76
from
Stations
(1975)
Nesting-Groun, I
July, 82
Englands Dfculty, 8;
Visitant, 84
Trial Runs, 8 5
The Wanderer, 86
Cloistere, 87
The Stations of the West, 88
Incertus, 89
from
North
(1975)
Mossbawn: Two Poems in Dedication, 93
1. Sunlight, 9J
2. The Seed Cutters, 94
Funeral Rites, 95
North, 98
Viking Dublin: rial Pieces, wo
Bone Dreams, 10 4
Bog Queen, 10 8
The Grauballe Man, no
Punishment, II2
Strange Fruit, n4
Kinship, n5
Act f Union, 120
Hercules and Antaeus, 121
from hatever You Say Say Nothing, 12J
Singing School, 126
1. The Ministy of Fear, 126
2. A Constable Calls, 129
J.
4·
5·
6.
Orange Drums, Tyone, I96, I JI
Summer I969, IJ2
Fosterage, IJ4
Exposure, IJ5
from
Field Work
(I979)
Oysters, IJ9
Triptych, qo
Ater a Killing, I 40
Sibyl, I 4I
At the Waters Edge, I42
The Toome Roa, I 4J
A Drink of Water, I44
The Strand at Lough Beg, I45
Casualty, I 47
Badgers, IJI
The Singer's House, I5J
The Guttural Muse, I55
Glanmore Sonnets, I56
An Aterwards, I66
The Otter, I 67
The Skunk, I 68
A Dream of Jealousy, I69
Field Work, I70
Song, I7J
Leavings, I74
The Havest Bow, I75
In Memoriam Fancis Ledwidge, I76
Ugolino, I78
from
Sweeney Astray
/98J)
Sweeney in Flight, 183
The Names of the Hare (r98r), 197
from
Station Island
(r98J
The Undergroun, 201
Sloe Gin, 202
Cheklzov on Sakhalin, 203
Sandstone Keepsake, 204
from Shelf Lfe, 205
Granite Chip, 205
Old Smoothing Iron, 206
Stone om Delplu� 207
JIaking Strange, 208
The Birthplace, 209
Changes, 2II
A Bat on the Roa, 213
A Hazel Stick for Catherzne Ann, 214
A Kite or vlichael and Christopher, 215
The Railway Children, 216
geon, 217
Sheelagh na Gig, 218
'Aye' (from The Loanin), 220
The King of the Ditchbacks, 221
Station Islan, 224
from Sweeney Redivivus, 247
The First Gloss, 247
Sweeney Redivivus, 248
In the Beech, 249
The First Kingdom, 250
The First Flight, 2;r
Drting f 253
The Cleric, 254
The Hennit, 255
The Maste, 2 56
The Scribes, 257
Holly, 258
An Artis, 259
The Old Icons, 26o
In Illo Tempore, 26I
On the Roa, 262
Villanelle for an Anniversay (I986), 265
rom
The Haw Lanten
(I987)
Alphabets, 269
Teninus, 272
From the Frontier of Writing, 274
The Haw Lante, 275
From the Republic of Conscience, 276
Hailstones, 278
The Stone Verdic, 280
The Spoonbait, 28I
Clearances, 282
The Milk Factory, 29I
The Wishing Tree, 292
Grotus and Coventina, 293
Wofe Tone, 294
From the Canton f Expectation, 295
The Mud Vision, 297
The Disappearing Islan, 299
The Riddle, JOO
from
The Cure at Troy
(1990 )
Voices rom Lemnos, JOJ
from
Seeing Things
(1991)
The Golden Bough, )11
Markings, JI 2
Man and Boy, JI4
Seeing Things, p6
An August Night, p8
Field f Vision, JI9
The Pitcfork, po
The Settle Bed, 3 21
from Glanmore Revisite, )22
A Pillowed Head, p6
A Royal Prospect, )27
heels within heels, J29
Fosterling, JJI
from Squarings, ))2
Lightenings, 3 3 2
Settings, 3 42
Crossings, 3 48
Squarings, 3 55
A Transgression (1994), 3 67
Spirit Level
i996)
from e
The Rain Stick, 371
Hint, 372
A Sfa Ln the Forties, J7J
Keeping Going, 375
o Lories, 378
Damson, ;8o
J7eighing , ;82
St Kevin and te Blackbir, ;84
from The Flight Path, ;85
Mycenae Lookou, ;87
The Gravel alks, )9 5
hitby-sur-Moyola, )97
'Poet's Chai,' 398
The Swing, 400
Two Stick Drawings, 402
A Cal, 40)
The Erran, 404
A Dog 7as Crying Tonight in J7icklow Also, 405
The Strand, 406
The l7alk, 407
At the J7ellhea, 408
At Banaghe, 409
Tollun, 410
Postscript, 411
Crediting Poetry
(!995)
Crediting Poeuy, 41J
Index of Titles, 4JJ
Index of First Lines, 4)7
FR OM
Death
fa
Naturalist
Digging
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
�1y father, digging. I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.
The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered fumly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.
By God, the old man could handl> a spade.
Just like his old man.
My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Kicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.
The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no spade to follow men like them.
}
Between my fmger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.
4
Death of a Naturalist
All year the flax-dam festered in the heart
Of the townland; green and heavy-headed
Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods.
Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun.
Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles
Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.
There were dragonflies, spotted butterflies,
But best of all was the warm thick slobber
Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water
In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring
I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied
Specks to range on window-sills at home,
On shelves at school, and wait and watch until
The fattening dots burst into nimblcs.,imming tadpoles. Miss VValls would tell us how
The daddy frog was called a bullfrog
And how he croaked and how the mammy frog
Laid hundreds of little eggs and his was
Frogspawn. You could tell the \Veather by frogs too
For they were yellow in the sun and brown
In rain.
Then one hot day when fields were rank
With cowdung in the grass the angry frogs
Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges
To a coarse roaking that I had not heard
Before. The air was thick with a bass chorus.
Right down the dam gross-bellied frogs were cocked
On sods; their loose necks pulsed like sails. Some hopped:
The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some sat
Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting.
I sickened, turned, and ran. The great slime kings
Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew
That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.
5
The Barn
Threshed con lay piled like grit of ivory
Or solid as cement in two-lugged sacks.
The musky dark hoarded an armoury
Of farmyard implements, haness, plough-socks.
The floor was mouse-grey, smooth, chilly concrete.
There were no windows, just two narrow shafts
Of gilded motes, crossing, from air-holes slit
High in each gable. The one door meant no draughts
All summer when the zinc buned like an oven.
A scythe's edge, a clean spade, a pitchfork's prongs:
Slowly bright objects formed when you went in.
Then you felt cobwebs clogging up your lungs
And scuttled fast into the sunlit yardAnd into nights when bats were on the wing
Over the rafters of sleep, where bright eyes stared
From piles of grain in corners, fierce, unblinking.
The dark gulfed like a roof-space. I was chaff
To be pecked up when birds shot through the air-slits.
I lay face-down to shun the fear above.
The two-lugged sacks moved in like great blind rats.
6