Samus Heany by Saqib Janjua

7/29/2019 Samus Heany by Saqib Janjua

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Notes and study guidance by: M.A SAQIB JANJUA M.A ENG & B.Ed 0333-5697103

Notes and study guidance by : M.A SAQIB JANJUA M.A ENG & B.Ed 0333-5697103

SeamuS HeaneyS ProSe Style

Heaney is a poet, critic and accomplished prose writer. Without any hesitation, he is

the most prolific writer of the modern era. He presents his views with great force andrigorous logical style. He is very much clear in his thoughts and this makes his style

lucid and charming. He has a great store of knowledge also that makes him clear

headed and honest in his opinions. He is a teacher of English literature and a poet

himself that has greatly served his prose style. AsWilliam Logom asserts;

Heaney has the most flexible and beautiful lyric voice of our age. And his prose

often answers his poetry in a run of subtle and subtly resonant phrasing.

The success of a prose writer depends on the skill,patience and experience of

handling language. In this regard, Heaneys prose style has the precision and

consciousness of a mathematician. His vast knowledge, immense reading and spirit

to know more also aided him greatly. In The Redress of Poetry he follows the

scientific outlook and has used exact words with great care. He avoids ambiguities

and where he thinks fit clarifies his point further. He uses the words with the greatest

possible economy and avoids the meaningless empty talk. So, for Heaneyproper

words, in a proper place is true end of his writings. There are certain statements inthe text of The Redress of Poetry that prove this point. As;

The movement is from delight to wisdom and not vice versa.

At another point he comments about poetry;

Poetry cannot afford to lose its fundamentally self-delighting inventiveness.

Commenting on the significance of poetry he writes;

I want to profess the surprise of poetry as well as its reliability.

Heaneys arguments base upon his own thinking as well as views of other great

writers. We find views of T.S. Eliot, Havel,and Pinsky,references from Hardy, Herbert,

Sydney, Borges, Plato, and Aristotle and so on. No doubt, at one hand this shows

Heaneys learning and reading of the ancient and the modern great writer, at the

same time, it also makehis case more forceful and worth pondering. Almost all his

writings, including The Redress of Poetry bear the high seriousness of his


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approach. In fact,his supreme intellectual outlook, broadmindedness and impersonal

attitude and commitment with the purpose give him the title of a Serious Writer.

Heaneyquotes the noble writers whose views are not easy to be ignored and this

adds strength to his defense of poetry. Poetry for Seamus Heaneyis not a pack of

liesbut something that creates nobility in life. To make his argument more forceful

he gives Borges remarks:

The taste of the apple lies in the contact of the fruit with the palate, not the fruit

itself.

Heaneys style is just a suitable medium for the expression of his thoughts. He avoids

all literary artificial devicesand writes in an unconscious effortless manner. This use

of easy and simple language and appropriate words enables him to convey his

meanings effectively. Hisarguments are lucid, rational and to the point.

Heaney uses a language of comparison which also makes him very popular. He uses

the contradictory terms and the antitheses like the heaven and earth, graceand guilt,

virtue and sin, imagination and reality, popular and common and above all the truth

and the popular notions. In the same way, he compares poetry with both Philosophy

and History. Even the views of the two great philosophers Platoand Aristotle are

compared, giving his writings a power of analysis. This ability of arguments and the

counter arguments establish his reputation as a Classic Prose Analystmuch in the

line of Francis Bacon.

But a strange mixture of romanticism is not absent from his writings. This saves his

prose from being dull. Like the romantics, he has a firm faith in Intuition and the

power of nature to light the world. This all gives Heaneys prose a kind of vitality

hardly found in any other writer of his age .

To sum up we can say that Seamus Heaneyis the master of versatile prose style.

There is a smooth unobstructed flow in Heaneys language. His choice of concrete

and meaningful words helps him in conveying his sense properly. There is no beating

about the bush, nor is there heap of unnecessary details. He tries to convey his

thoughts and meanings through appropriate language and words and avoids all

superfluous and vague expressions. Moreover, he combines the scientific, the

imaginative, the romantic and the classic expressions.


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Accusations against Poetry

Or

Why did Heaneyfeel the need to

defend poetry?

Over the year, as a form of art poetry has been greatly criticized. Many have rejected

it calling it a foolish form of escapism and a pack of lies.Some are not even ready to

accept it a suitable subject to be read and taught. This attack on poetry is something

that has continued over the years and is done even today. This propaganda against

poetry seems to be subjective, highly biased, and unreasonable. Let us now go

through some of the accusations against poetry that forced Heaneyto defend it.

Plato, the great Greek philosopher attacked poetry saying: All poetical imitations

are ruinous to the understanding of the hearers. To him every poet is an imitator,

and therefore, like all other imitators, he is twice away from the truth. Platoattacked

poetry on intellectual, ethical and emotional grounds. On the intellectual side, he

says, the poets have no knowledge of truth, since they imitate only appearances. It isonly the reflection or shadow of the ideal world. Thus poetry can tell us nothing

about this world of reality. The moral or ethical objection of Platoagainst poetry was

the telling of lies. It can only please the vices and senses of the people by providing

them what they like on emotional grounds. According to Plato; poetry feeds those

emotions which should be starved. It makes the emotions control uswhen we might

have controlled them. In the emotional poetry, reason isdominated by emotions.

Besides it gives encouragement to unworthy emotionsas well.

Another objection usually raised against poetry is its illogical and irrational approach.

The poets with their emotional craziness and lack of moral restraint cannot guide the

masses. When we analyze Platos observation with reference to our age, we will

findthat heaps of objections are still there. In modern times, it is usually propagated

that the poetry is impractical for common people. Poetry deals with anideal world

and the ideal value of the things. The world of the poetry is theworld of escapism.

Where no one groans, no one cries for the need of daily utility. It takes the reader to


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a world of addiction and illusions. Half asleep and tranquil a reader becomes unfit to

face the practical challenges of routine life.

Poetry whether it be romantic or classic is based upon theoretical concepts. This fact

diminishes the range and scope of poetry as compared to the other subjects.

In The Redress of Poetry, Heaneymentions the heckler who will want poetry to be

more than an imagined response to the conditionsin the world.

For the political activists what is use of imagining an order which is a complete set

of events but cannot produce new events. Even if we accept the ideal presented by

the poetry and the noble conception of human

nature, what help would it give practically to the society. If a poet has a soul stirringand mind enlightening experience, he has no magicto transfer it in his readers. The

process of education and learning in poetry is subjective and might prove a help to

the poet not the readers. Hence, images and dreams, no matter how inventive or

original will remain just images to satisfy the aesthetic demands of the readers.

Poetry over the years has been criticized for the fault of diction. Poets use far-fetched

words and images, confusing the readersinstead of giving them clarity of vision. The

poets use a specialized vocabulary for the composition of poetry. Great poets likeAlexander Pope, Dryden, Brown, and Addison etc. have been found culprit of

complex and deliberately subtle poetic diction. Hence, instead of solving the

problems of the society, poetry becomes a mere juggling of the words whose only

pleasure is the dictionand not the idea. The poets write in an ornate pompous

style which instead of clarifying, bewilder and confuse the reader. It neither

convinces nor persuades.

To conclude we may say that the poetry has been severely criticized. It has beencalled a useless knowledge and a waste of time. It has been said that there are other

more fruitful knowledge and a man may better spend his time in them than poetry.

Being twice removed from reality, it is the mother of lies.Poetry produces desire in

man to indulge in fancy and day dreaming. These all are the reasons that compelled

Platoto banish poets from Republic. Seamus Heaneyan ardent professor, critic and

a famous poet could not hold a silent tongue and decided to defend poetry. No

doubt, he has done it in a commendable way.


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HeaneyS DeFenCe oF Poetry.

OR

HOW HAS HEANEYDEFENDED POETRY HIS

REDRESSOF POETRY.

Seamus Heaney, an Irish poet and writer, was born in 1939 and awarded the Noble

Prize in 1995. He is the most prolific writer of the modern era. He presents his views

with great force and rigorous logical style. In The Redress of Poetryhe has tried to

defend poetry as a literary form, its function and its practicality in the real world. By

Redress Heaney means:

Reparation of satisfaction or compensation for, a wrong sustained or the loss

resulting from this.Over the year, as a form of art poetry has been greatly criticized.

Many have rejected it calling it a foolish form of escapism and a pack of lies.Plato,

the great Greek philosopher attacked poetry in hardest possible way. To him every

poet is an imitator, and therefore, like all other imitators, he is twice away from the

truth. Platoattacked poetry on intellectual, ethical and emotional grounds. On the

intellectual side, he says, the poets have no knowledge of truth, since they imitateonly appearances. Thus poetry can tell us nothing about this world of reality. The

moral or ethical objection of Platoagainst poetry was the telling of lies. According to

Plato; poetry feeds those emotions which should be starved. It makes the emotions

control us when we might have controlled them. In the emotional poetry, reason is

dominated by emotions.

ristotlewas the great disciple of Platowho tried to show that; Poetry was not only

pleasant but also useful, for man and society.Aristotle observes that poetry is notconcerned so much with what is but with what ought to be.

These were the controversial remarks about poetry that forced Heaney to defend it.

In Redress of Poetry Heaneyhas tried to defend poetry on practical grounds. In his

defense of poetry, he quotes gives personal views and refers to different poems as

well.

The first poem quoted in his book is George Herberts The Pulley. The subject

matter of the poem is the importance of eternity. Our earth is a reality of an open


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day light, but the existence of the nextworld is another type of reality. This is the

sixth sense present in the poetry that combines the two realities. It guides us how to

accept them and livethe life accordingly. The idea about the life after death can only

be given through poetry and not in any other subject.

Then Heaneygives the reference ofOde to Nightingalethe famous poem of JOHN

KEATS.In this poem, the journey from actual to the ideal is beautifully depicted. In

this Ode, the poet is bewitched by the world of nightingale . Actually, with the help of

this example, Heaney wants to tell his readers that though, poetry is a flight of

imagination yet its ultimate purpose is to give a moral lesson and to reveal the reality

in the best possible way.

Poetry gives moral with pleasure.

Before a detailed analysis of his defense of poetry, Heaneyquotes Robert Pinskyand

agrees that it resembles his own notion of theredress of poetry. Pinsky says that a

genuine poet never writes in compulsion because he always responds to the call of

his heart.

Moreover, Heaneyfurther tries to raise the status of poetry above philosophy and

History. Philosophy just give advises while history tells the facts. The aim of poetry is

to represent the particular through the universal. As Robert Frostgives the message:

Earths the right place for Love.

Seamus Heaneymoves ahead in his arguments with Classic Clarityand Romantic

Zeal. He agrees that the immediate aim of poetry is to give pleasure but it is not all.

The ultimate end of this pleasure is wisdom. Hence, poetry travels from delight to

knowledge.

As for as, the composition of poetry is concerned, it is neither simple nor emotionally

barren. Good poetry involves the interplay of the conscious and unconscious efforts

of the poet. Herbert Read tries to sum up the process of composition in an accurate

way. Goodpoetry is never an immediate reaction to the provided cause. The

sensations must be allowed to sink deep in our mind. In the process of imagination,

the sensations revive and with the unity of elements an expression is formed which is

called poetry. W. Words Worth, a famous poet defends poetry as: Poetry is the

spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling. It takes its origin from emotionsrecollected in tranquility.


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Another charge against poetry is that, what can be the function ofpoetry in a

depressed era? Can poetry play a practical part in our life?

According to Heaney, the use of poetry for practical and social reasons as, revolution,

war, politics and other government policies would narrow the scope of poetry. In

text, Heaneysays: if you want to make poetry practical, then it will not remain

poetry.

Poetry cannot bring political change. It tries to change the mind; it never gives

straight facts but inspires people to bring change. If poetry is used for political

purposes and practical necessities, it will not remain poetry but it would become a

kind of propaganda. Like Aristotle, Heaneytoo is of the view: It is not the function of

the poet to relate what has happened but what may happen.

Keats says: - Poet is not a teacher but a preacher.

Hence, poetry does not change life; it only tells what way of life is the best. Poetry

based on common experience.The function of the poetry and the approach of the

poet should be unbiased because a poet is the representative of humanity, talking to

men not nations or politicians. Words Worthcalled poetry:the most philosophical of

all writings, the breath and finer spirit of all writings.

In this regard, Heaneypraises W.B. Yeatswho was an Irish and remembers the Irish

people killed in 1916 Easter Rising. But he also talks of the English men who were

killed and this grief for humanity had to be responded by poetry. So poetry is not

weakened by force nor it is misguided by false notions, it offers comfort in affliction

and tries to perpetuate the happiness.

In the final stages of his arguments, Seamus Heaneygives the reference of

Herbertsmost celebrated poem The Collar.The theme of this poem is that Godloves the sinner and man gets closer to God because of his sins. This is the reality of

human life and presented beautifully by the poet.

Samus Heany by Saqib Janjua

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