Thursday, January 15, 2009
"A Call"
"A Call" by Seamus Heaney is a poem about death. The overall tone this poem is somber. I believe that Heaney himself is the speaker in the poem. He is telling a story of himself calling his parents, who are now growing old. Heaney uses imagery of his father weeding, which may be a symbol of death. I believe that when he uses the words "frail and leafless" it has reference to his father growing older. The "grave ticking of hall clocks" symbolizes the time that his father has left. I find it interesting that Heaney uses death as a noun as if it were a person.
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I felt similarly about this poem.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I didn't get that the weeding was a symbol of death.
That's really interesting.
Maybe an expansion on the would be good.
I would read it, anyway.
-Rvr
I agree with you that this poem deals with death, but I kind of feel like it's also dealing about cherishing the time left.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons I get that feeling is the last line in the poem where he says the he almost told his father he loved him. A great post.
I like your take on death as a character, acting as a person. Why do you think Heaney did that?
ReplyDeleteMaybe the weeding symbolizes death was far out there. I kind of thought it was like out with the old, in with the new almost. Usually weeding means that someone will plant new things, or making way for other things..I'm trying to search my brain and make it sound like what I'm thinking. It's kind of hard. Sort of like how his parents prepared him for growth..making way for growth. The old get plucked out to make way for a new generation. I'm probably way off but maybe you can see where I'm coming from?
ReplyDeleteI agree that the poem is about death, but i'm not so sure you can say that his father weeding directly symbolizes death.
ReplyDelete