retreat- Heaney (1 Viewer)

[devi]

all right, so who wants to explain to me what the hell Seamus Heaney's poetry has to do with RFTG??? im freaking out here, because i DO NOT GET IT! aaaah...

 

[~k8t~]

i dont know if this will help, but SH retreats metaphysically into the past to find answers to the present, he kinda takes a liberal humanist approach in then revealing that the problems of the present hav occurred in the past and will occur in the future because of human nature...eg. war
also... he shows RFTG in defying the forms of poetry like McLeod doesnt follow the norms of post modern linear structures...
ummm....is any of this helping?...wat poems r u doing and i mite b able 2 give egs. and explain things better...

 

[devi]

digging, blackberry picking, personal helicon, requiem for the croppies, the tollund man, funeral rites and punishment.

i just find it all quite strange because RTFG is supposed to revolve around the time-frame of the eighties onward, well the idea of globalisation really had an impact... like i can see the connections of heaney looking into his past, and his sense of place to analyse problems, i just think its a little far-fetched in comparison to the shipping news and the castle... i would just omit it, but i'd really rather do the poems than the shipping news. novels are my weak point. gah!!

 

[*10#]

Could someone plz explain punishment?????

 

[devi]

i think perhaps, he is talking about wanting to be different from the norm, wanting to have the power to do something against the grain. Like speak out for this girl, yet he can't cos he's too firmly embedded and at one with the crowd... even though he doesnt agree with the side representing the global, he doesnt feel like he has the power to do anything?? i dont know, im just rambling...

 

[~k8t~]

Originally posted by devi
digging, blackberry picking, personal helicon, requiem for the croppies, the tollund man, funeral rites and punishment.

U doing the HSC this yr? if so ur not doing all of the poems r u? iv pickd the 2 that best support my related texts.... Punishment and Requiem.

I relate Punishment to Ben Okri (poet) in terms of looking at the local and their cultural identity without prejudice. works in well with Michel de montaigne "what do i know?" If we cannot be certain that our values are God-given, then we have no right to impose them by force on others.

Also embraces the glocal in terms of showing his anger as a member of the global 'civilised' community, yet he also realises and acknowledges the locals culture and need for this "intimate revenge"...

is this helping or no not really....not sure if im waffling on or making things clear??

 

[~k8t~]

Originally posted by devi
i think perhaps, he is talking about wanting to be different from the norm, wanting to have the power to do something against the grain.

to me his poetry is his way of speaking out and going against the grain...
just a thought

 

[devi]

Originally posted by ~k8t~
to me his poetry is his way of speaking out and going against the grain...
just a thought

yeah, like in digging.. its kind of like a manifesto... it comes at the very beginning of the 'Selected Poems', so its kind of like a statement of his intent... he's going to use poetry to uncover his past, and to help provide for his country, like his father and gradfather did in a more literal sense.

 

[~k8t~]

yeah...couldn't hav put it better myself!

 

[devi]

i think im actually starting to get it... i think my thesis is going to be something about how RFTG is actually about finding a sense of place in a world that doesnt allow for grass-roots values....

 

[devi]

or in the case of the castle, defending that place....


it works for one of my supps too, cos im using fight club, and that can be about creating a place for yourself.