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The Watchman's War - Coggle Diagram
The Watchman's War
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Context
- written in reaction to Northern Ireland Politics & the IRA ceasefire in 1994
- Heaney was angry of the deaths & violence over the past 25 years
- How violence affects individuals & society
- The watchman is a bystander & a chorus
Connections
Act of Union
'To slip and flood: a bog-burst, / A gash breaking open the ferny bed'
- Plosive alliteration 'b'
- There is no time for Ireland to experience any premonitions, Britain arrive & invade Ireland's space which is a nightmare for Heaney
- Instead of being asleep and 'forgotten' about, Ireland is kept awake
Toome Road
'One morning early I met armoured cars / In convoy, warbling along on powerful tyres'
- Heaney deviates from syntactical restraints -> place emphasis on consonance & the inflammatory of British troops entering NI
- 'I met armoured cars'
- First person, past tense narrative, personal poem -> verb choice sounds amiable
- Pre-modifies 'armoured' & 'powerful', British troops were threatening & intimidating to NI farmers
- semantic field of military connotes war & conflict
- 'Warbling' -> trilling birds singing in rapid modulations.
- Repetitive sound in nature used to modify cars as having consistent movements, the troops took over NI agriculture & Heaney's space
- All of these events which Heaney can't remember has been pointless in his eyes due to the ceasefire which may put the cycle of murder & violence to an end, & without gaining anything from the conflict
Structure
- Heroic couplets emphasise the idea of epic
- Poem narrates deed & adventure of heroic , legendary figures
- Suggests that Heaney felt the opposite
- Shocking to Heaney, conscious of the cycle of murder & revenge that would emerge from avenge
'Some people wept, and not for sorrow - joy'
- Rule of 3, 'killing-fest the life -warp & world -wrong', the compound phrases indicates Heaney's speed & desire for revenge
- War affects everyone, the world is distorted when at war
'like tattered meat'
- Simile highlights violence & destruction
- Readers question whether the watchman is having nightmares of premonitions
- Watchman is asleep, leaving his duties derelect
'I'd dream of blood in bright webs in a ford, of bodies raining down like tattered meat'
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- The watchman was loyal to Agamemnon, until he was tongue tied whenever he was tempted to speak out
- Watchman wasn't able to make a sound like a 'gong'. He felt the endured percussive reverberation of conflict, bloodlust fighting men, distorted existence of those caught up in it
- Watchman feels distressed, he is aware of wars consequence but is a bystander of it
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- Coming back to their own death
- There must be death in order to gain victory
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- Loyal & have moral duty
- The watchman had to continue his duty, even though he could sense the consequences
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- What he saw & heard would effect him for a long time
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- Watchman is the ideal choice for 'strong beam' caught as he was between conflicting matters
- Only the fall of Troy would show the outcome
- Premonition that he 'saw it coming'
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- Simile suggests Agamemnon's actions if he discovered the truth
- Infers agony of Ireland when British troops arrived
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