The Early Purges by Seamus Heaney
The Early Purges by Seamus Heaney.
What the poem is about:
'The Early Purges' by Seamus Heaney focuses on the traumas of childhood, and how impressionable we are when we are young. The poem is sad: it is about a child who sees kittens drowning, along with many other animals being killed in various methods on a farm. At the time the child is terrified, but by the end of the poem the fully-grown child is doing all the deeds he was so scared of when he was young. The poem is about how we lose innocence.
Theme:
The main theme of the poem is all about how we change when we grow up. There is direct contrast between the first and last lines:
'I was six when I first saw kittens drown'
And the last line;
'On well run farms pests have to be kept down'.
Poetic techniques used:
Similie- The kittens are compared to “wet gloves”/ comparing the dead kittens bodies to being “crisp as summer dung.”
Onomatopoeia- “sickening tug” of the hens’ necks.
Alliteration- “soft paws scraping” “...soon soused” “slung on the snout.”
War poem, “Base details” by Siedfried Sassoon.
Background to the poem:
Siegfried Sassoon was a soldier who fought in World War I. He witnessed the horrendous slaughter of thousands of young soliders on the battlefield. Much of this killing was totally senseless and was a result of poor planning and incorrect strategies employed by the majors. This angered the poet so much that he was driven to write this angry poem.
He imagines himself being a major and sarcastically suggests that he would be:
"Fierce, bald and short of breath,"
And he would send young soldiers, or "glum heroes," to their deaths, while remaining far from the battlefield himself.
"Guzzling and gulping in the best hotels."
He imagines himself reading a book containing the names of the dead soldiers and pretending to express some sympathy. "Poor young chap,"
When the war is over the major would die, not heroically on the battlefield,
What the poem is about:
'The Early Purges' by Seamus Heaney focuses on the traumas of childhood, and how impressionable we are when we are young. The poem is sad: it is about a child who sees kittens drowning, along with many other animals being killed in various methods on a farm. At the time the child is terrified, but by the end of the poem the fully-grown child is doing all the deeds he was so scared of when he was young. The poem is about how we lose innocence.
Theme:
The main theme of the poem is all about how we change when we grow up. There is direct contrast between the first and last lines:
'I was six when I first saw kittens drown'
And the last line;
'On well run farms pests have to be kept down'.
Poetic techniques used:
Similie- The kittens are compared to “wet gloves”/ comparing the dead kittens bodies to being “crisp as summer dung.”
Onomatopoeia- “sickening tug” of the hens’ necks.
Alliteration- “soft paws scraping” “...soon soused” “slung on the snout.”
War poem, “Base details” by Siedfried Sassoon.
Background to the poem:
Siegfried Sassoon was a soldier who fought in World War I. He witnessed the horrendous slaughter of thousands of young soliders on the battlefield. Much of this killing was totally senseless and was a result of poor planning and incorrect strategies employed by the majors. This angered the poet so much that he was driven to write this angry poem.
He imagines himself being a major and sarcastically suggests that he would be:
"Fierce, bald and short of breath,"
And he would send young soldiers, or "glum heroes," to their deaths, while remaining far from the battlefield himself.
"Guzzling and gulping in the best hotels."
He imagines himself reading a book containing the names of the dead soldiers and pretending to express some sympathy. "Poor young chap,"
When the war is over the major would die, not heroically on the battlefield,