シェイマス・ヒーニー--ポリフォニーの中の実在

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Seamus Heaney makes extensive use of language from Anglo-Saxon literature to his indigenous Irish culture so that his poems can be made into the art of polyphonic resonance. In this article I would like to explore the characteristics and core ideas of his poetry. Concerning the poem titled "Digging," which seems to be the mani-festo of his literary career, people may consider that the word "gun" isn't well connected to the imagery of the rest of the poem, which describes the work on the potato field and the bogland. Yet, in fact, his father uses a tool which he refers to as "the bright edge" and his grandfather is seen "nicking and slicing" with "the curt cuts of an edge,/Through living roots." Giving a unifying imagery to the poem, these tools are symbolic of the weapons they wield for livelihood, and in the eyes of Heaney as a small boy his father and grandfather were identified as semi-heroes. Using the "pen" as his means to make a living and to articulate in society, the grown-up poet lives his life in different circumstances from those familiar to his ancestors. Although using different implements, the poet hopes to achieve something heroic by digging the field of literature in order that he may live up to the models,i.e. his father and grandfather whom he used to find heroic in his early days. As in this work, the word "bogland" presents us with a key to understand another poem called "Act of Union." The poet gives us a picture of Ireland's situation after the law (Act of Union) was introduced in 1800 by England. Not only topographically but politically he depicts the stormy landscape, which gives us an insight into the agony of the Irish people. We can note that his use of language is sensuous, in portraying the political predicament of his home country in a kind of sexual metaphor. In connection with politics the elegy "The Strand at Lough Beg" claims our particular attention in the way it deals with death in daily life involving the political conflicts. Like Milton's Lycidas this poem asks a question about God's will and justice, and finally leads to the rebirth of hope and life. However, in `Part VIII' of "Station Island" in Station Island his late cousin Colum McCartney's ghost calls in question the value of the conventional elegy, accusing the poet for the way he composed "The Strand at Lough Beg." It reminds us of the comments about Milton's Lycidas by Dr. Johnson, who blamed him for creating fiction and lacking in grief. Considering the above, one can see that Heaney debates within himself and combines the vernacular with the English language. In this way he attempts to redress the imbalance of the actual world, which culminates in the polyphonic use of the language and reveals reality in accordance with "auditory imagination."

シェイマス・ヒーニー--ポリフォニーの中の実在

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