The Irish Poetry And Postcolonialism

Ireland was a British colony for more than seven centuries, for this time it was hidden their native identity, as well as their language. The British colonizers imposed not only their language but also their culture. In 1922, it was signed the Treaty in which Ireland was considered a free state.

As and introduction to Heaney poems, I will use a poem of Yeats, who is the poet that starts to talk about postcolonial themes. Maybe Yeats was one the most important figures in the reconstruction of the Irish identity. He represents the relationship between Ireland and Britain in his poem "Leda and the Swan". The first publication of this poem was in the radical magazine "To-morrow" in 1923. Some years later it was republished in the newspaper "The Tower" in 1928. However, this second time the author made some changes in it . In this poem Leda represents to Ireland while Swam represents the British colonizers. In the line 4 we see a metaphor of situation of Ireland during the colonization, which is;

"He holds her helpless breast upon his breast"

Ireland could not do anything, it felt helpless, and it was ruled by the British. If we think about the text as a whole metaphor, we should come back to the Greek myth. In the mythology we can see as Clitemestra was born as a consequence of the rape. And later, she was who killed to Agamenon. In the poem line 11 "And Agamenon dead" means the retreat of England and as a result the Liberation of Ireland from the colonizers. From my point of view this is a quiet significant poem with a political meaning. However it reflects the oppression of Ireland in that moment, and also the desire of the Irish people of living in a country without the British domination, as in the social life like in the religious.

In spite of this poem, not all the critics consider him as a postcolonial author. Seamus Deane defines his poetry as "a strong cultural nationalist, but just as often he accuses Yeats of writing out of reductive visions of Ireland" . "

Another of the important author who is interested on the political identity of Ireland is Seamus Heaney. "Bloom identifies a crucial theme in Heaney's work, and one which indeed organizes his preoccupation with the establishment of poetic identity" Heaney emphasizes the national consciousness as a consequence of the colonization. However, he does not use a direct style to talk about the Irish identity, but he uses the metaphors to talk about that. An example is his poem entitled "Digging" in which he talks about his past which is related to the past of Ireland. The beginning of the poem is a little bit violent, when the poet declares his powerful with the stanza "snug as a gun", but this violence changes at the end the poem when author says:

"Between my finger and my thumb

the squat pen rests

I'll dig with it"

What the poet means it is that his weapon to dig is his pen. Searching for the metaphorical meaning of these stanzas, we can realize that what the poet wants to say it is that he is ready to look for his roots, to fight for his past the past of Ireland. In fact, this is the only way in which he can dig, because as he states throughout the poem, he does not think than he could be able to dig, moreover, he does not think that he could be able to do that kind of work at old age like his father or his grandfather.

Also the poem shows how the young Heaney look up to his ancestors who are digging the land (line 3-9):

" Under my window, a clean rasping sound

when the spade sinks into gravely ground

My father digging. I look down.

Till his straining rump along the flowerbeds

Bends low, comes up twenty years away

Stooping in the rhythm through potato drills

Where he was digging."

In the postcolonialism people is more deep-rooted to the land, which in the poem means Ireland. Therefore, the poet pretends it is to get back to his roots, as it is showed in line 15-16.

By God, the old man could handle a spade

Just like his old man.

Both his father and his grandfather are working the land, that land which has a special meaning to the Irish identity because it is the place were they were born and it was free of the British control. The "new potatoes" in the poem represent the new expectation to Ireland.

However, the Irish identity is not the only interpretation of poem. It is also represented the opposition between the cultural life and the life of hard work in the land. Heaney does not think he will be able to use "the spade" like his and his grandfather, that means he is not going to dig with a spade but he is going to dig into the historical present of Ireland with his pen which is the weapon that he uses against the British colonization.

In his poem "A Northern hoard" he talks about the Irish Great Famine of 1845 , in which many Irish died and many other had to leave the country. In the first part of the poem we can see which is entitled "Roots" makes reference to the "old Gomorrah" which the town that was punished by God. This town was devastated for the Flood like Ireland was devastated by the plague. In these four poems the author always uses the first person narrator who gives a sense more personal of the poem. The poet is talking about his own experience.

"Maighdean Mara " is a poem whose title is written in Irish; the meaning is "mermaid". "But the dedication for Sean O hEocha", suggests some identified event on which the poem is based." This poem talks about a girl that was down. As we can see in the poem "she sleeps now, her cold breast/ dandled by undertow". From my point of view, the most important fact in this poem it is the title which recalls once again to the Irish identity, using the Irish language, and the sound of waves are reproduced by the use of the "sibilants and sonorants."