The Toome Road - Seamus Heaney
Context
Structure
Religious references
Annotations + Quotes
This poem describes the poet's feelings about the military occupation of his home as a result of the conflict known as the Northern Ireland Troubles. The resentment and helplessness are made clear.
Seamus Heaney sketches theme of fear in his poems. In fact, it is his favourite theme. He belongs to Ireland and is well aware with its past. Indeed, his past is fearful. His people suffered. They sacrificed their lives for their fellow men. It is possible that Seamus Heaney knows the impact of war too. He identifies fear on the faces of people and illustrates them through his poems. Undoubtedly, he is a talented poet and can convey any message. Further, he has the ability to convert emotions into words. “Toome Road” is a poem of Seamus Heaney in which he does critical analysis of war and fear and vividly illustrate them. He illustrates fear and impact of war on people living in countryside.
The poem is one stanza and this makes it almost a monologue.
The poem is written in first person with a past tense narrative which suggests it being a personal poem
'Omphalos' A religious stone/artifact representing the centre of the earth - headstone
'One morning early I met armoured cars, In convoy, Warbling along on powerful tyres, All camouflage, with broken alder branches, And how headphoned soldiers standing up in turrets' .
In this poem Heaney really emphasizes the presents of military power and how it affects people he does this by using a semantic field of military through the entirety of the poem
Semantic field of military. 'Armored' and 'Powerful' emphasizes the semantic field of strong military
'Convoy' - Noun, in great number, for protection, formidible force and threat.
'Alder' - native to Ireland, the idea of it being broken is symbolic of a broken Ireland.
'All' - are a collective not seen as individuals.
'How long were they approaching down my roads, As if they owned them? The whole country was sleeping.'
'Soldiers' - only seen as soldiers = a lack of humanity
'My' - personal pronoun = shows he is possessive and is defensive over his road - the road symbolises Ireland
Rhetorical question is emotive as it encourages the reader to empathise with Heaney
'I had rights-of-way, fields, cattle in my keeping, Tractors hitched to buckrakes in open sheds, Silos, chill gates, wetslades, the greens and reds, Of outhouse roods.'
'Silos, chill gates, wet slates' - internal rhyme combined with an extensive list.
'tractors','bikerakes','sheds','reds' - Semantic field of nature escape from the semantic field of war/ military = peaceful.
''Who should I run to tell among all of those with their back doors on the latch, For the bringer of bad news, that small-hours visitant.'
'run' = desperation
They lived in a safe community so they didn't need to lock their doors but now they do and feel vulnerable
'for the bringer of bad news, that small-hours visitiant' Cesuras - emphasizing the possible distress the Heaney is experiencing.