Clearances 7

• Poet


  Seamus Heaney
• Background of poem


  as published in his collection "the haw lantern" in memoriam to his mother
• Title


  "Clearances"

  refers to unburdening. Clarity and vision is a motif in his poems. Shared understanding of those present at death. Physical act of death is less important than spiritual consequences left behind
• Voice


  First person narrative, Heaney is with his siblings at his mother's deathbed (assumed)
• Form


  This is sonnet 7 out of 8 in an elegiac sequence of sonnets about his mother. Strict parameters prompt reflection and resolution. Typically controlled with decasyllabic lines
• Style


  Not the typical structure of a petrarchan or shakespearean sonnet. It is blank with no formal rhyme. Control contrasts the intense personal emotion
• General language


  Language is simple and not figurative. Simplicity creates a poignant tone
• "said more to her/Almost than in all their life together"


  Hyperbolesuggests the father is comforting himself.Honestyin these linesshocks. Parents had atraditionalrelationship and this final display ofintimacycontrasts hisexpressivenesswith the poets family's silences.
• "You'll be in new Row on monday night...isnt that right?"

  Onlydirectspeech addsrealismas the father undergoes acatharticexperience. He was a man of few words, perhaps this is why the speaker says "We were overjoyed"
• "She could not hear"


  Poignant ironythat the father does share this emotional memory after a lifetime of saying little then she dies.
• "Then she was dead,"


  Line8broken by acaesuraintroduces finality in theabrupt clause.
• "The searching for a pulsebeat was abandoned"


  Showsacceptanceof death the brutal reality. No hope
• "We all knew one thing by being there"

  Inclusivepronoun creates a sense ofunityas they realise the death has occurred. Theplural first person is used.
• "Good and girl"


  Alliterationemphasises these associations ofyouthand remind us that the mother and father were once young too. Death is universal(MEMENTO MORI)- reminds us of our own mortality
• "Penetrated"


  Forceful verbshows the mother is nothing more than amemory
• "been emptied into us to keep"


  the mother will always make an impression on their lives even though she died
• last 2 lines


  Perhaps there is the idea that the poem is acelebrationof theimpactof her as well as being alamentabout her death
• "he""she""we"


  no names used in whole poe turns personal private moment into one withuniversal resonance. It could be any family standing by
• "into us to keep,"

  enjambment illustrates transitionbetween life and death but also the relief of the children of uncertainty to the joyful knowledge that they canmournwithout regret
• "a pure change happened"


  relief and joy pour through and there is a sense of cleansing
• "space/emptied/pure/change"


  All aresynonymouswith grief and joy
• "High cries were felled and a pure change happened"


  State of fluxis expected after a life changing event. Cries are associated with intense sadness which is replaced by something so peaceful like a "pure change."Biblical connotationsof moving from darkness into light and fromdoubt into certainty, from despair into hope.