Seamus Heaney - "The Haw Lantern" (1987) Quiz

Answer: The experience of being stopped by armed police at a checkpoint.

"From the Frontier of Writing" does indeed describe the frightening experience of being stopped by armed police at a checkpoint. As Heaney's "car stops in the road", and "the troops inspect its make and number", the fear is palpable. Everything "is pure interrogation", as even the innocent are questioned and made to feel ill at ease. Even when the "rifle motions" to signify clearance, Heaney describes himself as "a little emptier", and "a little spent". For even he has experienced a little doubt, and a "quiver in the self", which makes him feel like a prisoner on trial, who has been freed. Arraigned "yet freed", he is only too aware of the fact that everyone is under suspicion in this state.

It is also possible to compare the waiting for clearance at a checkpoint with the poet's anticipation of critical clearance.

Answer: An honest man.

Legend has it that Diogenes, (sometimes referred to as 'Diogenes the Cynic'), roamed the streets of Athens searching for an honest man, in what he deemed to be a corrupt society. In the title poem of this collection, "The Haw Lantern", Heaney uses the image of Diogenes to emphasise the fact that there is little hope of finding such a man in Northern Ireland, due to its dismal political climate.

Answer: True

"Alphabets" is split into three parts, signifying different stages of development. In Part I, language is imagined through the eyes of a child, who at first, "draws smoke with chalk", before eventually making "the 2 he can see now as well as say". During Part II, the understanding of language is seen to develop, as Heaney makes the transition from primary to secondary education.

It is here that Heaney realises the beauty of language. "The poet's dream stole over him like sunlight", and he becomes "the scribe/ Who drove a team of quills on his white field". Finally, Part III shows us the child as an adult. "Time has bulldozed the school", and the child has become an adult. Yet he continues to show understanding through comparisons, only now they are considerably more academic, for he now "alludes to Shakespeare" and "to Graves".

Answer: A silvery spoon-like metal attached to bait in order to attract fish.

In "The Spoonbait", Heaney does indeed seem to compare the soul with bait used to catch fish. Spoon bait is a silvery spoon-like metal attached to bait in order to attract fish, and is bright and more attractive than usual bait. In the poem, the spoon bait is described as a child's treasure, hidden beneath "the sliding lid of a pencil case". Similarly, the soul is a treasure which is kept within the "safe" confines of the body. "Risen and free", the soul cannot be pinned down, like the relative freedom of the spoon bait as it is cast across the water.

The soul is full of contradictions, and is sometimes a reward and sometimes a curse, as it "flees him" and " burns him all at once".

Answer: Yes

In the poem, "The Stone Verdict", the Greek god, Hermes, is mentioned. Hermes was (among many other things), responsible for leading the dead into the Underworld, and was also tried for killing the dog Argos. In fact, it is Hermes' trial for the murder of Argos which seems to have inspired Heaney's approach to this particular poem. For Hermes' fate was not decided by words, but rather through the casting of stones, which piled "up around him/ Until he stood waist deep in the cairn/ Of his apotheosis".

Answer: His mother.

"Clearances" is a series of sonnets written in memory of Heaney's mother. The title hints at the theme of the poems; they are are poems in which Heaney comes to terms with, or tidies up the relationship between himself and his mother. He also deals with the space in his life left empty by his mother's death.

Answer: Peeling potatoes.

In "Clearances - 3", Heaney has purposely stayed home from Mass in order to spend time with his mother. His need for her love is clear as he writes "I was all hers". Their awkward relationship is highlighted here, as it is the potatoes which break the silence, by creating "little splashes".

The second part of this sonnet deals with the death of Heaney's mother, and whilst others find solace in religion, Heaney describes the last rites as being said "hammer and tongs". Rather than finding solace in religion here, Heaney is comforted by the memory of himself and his mother peeling potatoes, unified in chores.

Answer: A chestnut tree.

In "Clearances - 8", Heaney uses the image of a chestnut tree to represent his mother, and the idea of a space cleared and emptiness is explored. The cutting down of the tree is precise, as death is "accurate", and the sense of longing and pain is suggested by the "crack" and "sigh" of the falling tree.

The death is described as "wreckage", and the tree and his mother's soul are frighteningly "forever/ Silent, beyond silence listened for".

Answer: Trustworthy loneliness and dishonest satisfaction.

In "Terminus", Heaney describes himself as having grown up "in between"; he could mean in between town or country, or in between two social or political beliefs. It seems as though Heaney himself is the scale, and is weighing up information in an attempt to come to his own decision.

Born on county lines, where "Baronies, parishes met", he belonged to one county's school and to another's church, and often hints at a feeling of not really belonging anywhere.

Answer: She makes him hide his talent.

Heaney's mother certainly seems to have been a formidable character. Ironically, in "Clearances - 4" she takes pride in appearing uneducated. She chooses to "affect/ Inadequacy", rather than "betray/ The hampered and inadequate by too/ Well-adjusted a vocabulary".

Moreover Heaney himself must also pretend inadequacy, despite knowing better, which results in keeping he and his mother "allied", but also "at bay".