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Seamus Heaney
QUESTIONS
Q. No. 1- Critical Appreciation of Exposure
___________Critical Appreciation_____________
“EXPOSURE”
Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)
Outline:
1- Introduction to the Poet
2- Introduction to the Poem
3- Literary Devices in the Poem
4- Setting and Tone of the Poem
5- Style and Structure of the Poem
6- Themes in the Poem
7- Analysis of the Poem
8- Conclusion

Introduction to the Poet :

 Seam Heaney (1939-2013) as an Irish poet, playwright and
translator. He is the foremost poet in the English-speaking world.
He has produced thirteen collections of poetry spanning the years
1966 to 2010.
 Seamus Heaney was a modern contemporary poet. He's a follower
and representative of the Irish ancestry. His model poet was Yeats.
He worked as lecturer abroad. Heaney was brought up in a country
of divisions.
Divisions is a keyword for him:
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1. Geographical division, he lived in Mossbawn county which is in the border line

where the right side of it is the place for the English and the other is for the Irish.
2. In religion, the Catholics and the Protestants.
3. Division in the cultural background and in the language. There's the Celtic
language which is the original language of Ireland. But the English demolished it,
they pulled the Irish out of their roots, their history, civilisation, and language.
Heaney learned the Celtic language to read the old history, the folktales, and the
Irish mythology.
4. Division of loyalty. Heaney is loyal for both sides. He was brought up by
English teachers, they taught him proper poetry, and his role models were English
poets. He felt gratitude and loyalty towards them since he didn't have a reason to
consider them as enemies. He showed this gratitude in his collection of essays
Preoccupations.
5. Division between his personal attachment to his tribe, to his family and his job
as a poet. Poetry became his profession,
Introduction to the Poem :
 ‘Exposure’ by Seamus Heaney discusses the poet’s role in a society that is
tearing itself apart and how he might contribute helpfully to the discourse of
the time.
 ‘Exposure’ by Seamus Heaney is was written in 1975 and included in the
poet’s volume, North. It is a ten stanza poem that is separated into sets of
four, also known as quatrains.
The poem begins with the speaker describing the weather in Wicklow. This was the
Irish town that Heaney chose to move to. It was a self-imposed exile that he later
compared to Ovid’s exile from Rome. Together these two poets were trying to work
from afar to influence their homes. The speaker moves through different layers of
doubt in his own ability touches on moments of heroism and finally concludes with
a determination to do what he can to improve the situation his people are in
Ireland.
SETTING OF THE POEM : The poem begins with the speaker
describing the weather in Wicklow. This was the Irish town that Heaney chose to
move to.
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TONE OF THE POEM : It is solemn, and in parts, truly depressing.

This poem displays elements of:
Hope, stress, anxiety, retreat, regret, contemplation, risk, paradox and self-
awareness, pain, hurt, tranquility, lack of vision.

Analysis of Exposure
Every Seamus Heaney poem carries a certain weight and gravity, thick and heavy
like the boglands of his childhood in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Heaney
was something like a speaker for the dead, not just human life but he seemed to
channel the sentiment of plant life, he was an utter empath at his core. Heaney
used nature not just as an aesthetic embellishment in his poems but as keys to
defining and understanding human emotion and evolution. In this way, Heaney also
cleverly uses nature as a soft barrier, mask, blockade or filter to make implicit some
of his deeper doubts and fears. Heaney’s expressions are unique, dense, and
intricately layered just as the peat and turf Heaney’s grandfather and father dug.
Heaney’s style is magnetic, historic and therapeutic, he exercises a confident
command of language yet softness in expressing heavy topics and questions. The
poem Exposure, is one of the most vivid reflections of Heaney, a confessional, a
vulnerable offering he gives us, an open window into his inner-ethereal wanderings
and soul.
In 1972 Heaney had resigned from his lecturing position in Belfast to move to the
countryside of County Wicklow, South of Dublin. In his audiobook Stepping
Stones Heaney states,
“Exposure…grew out of the hopes and the stresses which were attendant upon
that move. Hopes… that a poetry which was adequate to the events of the times
could be written, and anxieties about whether a withdraw like this to the woods
or the wilderness was the right way to proceed towards this work.”
Heaney proceeds toward the work, telling us what it is; his vulnerable account and
exposure. Heaney is exposed to danger in his solitary nature walk, but it is his own
introspection that preys and stalks upon his consciousness and nature is his
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covering, mirror and dictionary. Exposure is a taste of the poet’s burden, especially
in tremendously difficult times of social division. Heaney’s psyche reflects this
division and we get a doubtful and wandering work of art. Heaney is between two
worlds and trying to be a voice of cohesion, but he feels he is being pulled apart.
He is shouldering the load of a hero and the poem’s imagery and language is
astronomical. Heaney is painting in large emotional strokes, sometimes dramatic
but always precise and concentrated, he is unsure but brave enough to follow his
doubts to their end and allow us into this process.
Exposure is messy and beautiful, it’s honest, raw and heavy, yet intricate and
artful as is Heaney’s signature style.
He starts by setting the tone of the poem in line one stanza one, “It is December in
Wicklow: Alders dripping ”, a sort of indication to prepare ourselves for
the weather of the worst kind, cold and raining. The “birches” are “inheriting the
last light”, revealing that things are growing a bit darker, a reflection, as the sun
sets outside and inside of Heaney. He is closing off one chapter of his life, embracing
risk and wandering into the wilderness uncharted.
In the last line of the first stanza he describes the ash tree “cold to look at”, artfully
capturing the utterly barren and ashy state of the tree. In lines one and two of the
second stanza he states, “A comet that was lost, should be visible at sunset”,
Heaney is the comet, and here he starts the self-reflection and personification. He
identifies with the lost comet, the father and husband that should return back to
the cottage with his family soon, and the public spectacle to return back into the
world of poetry with a new publication. It can be assumed Heaney was prone to
taking these solo walks, just as he was eager as a child to get to the wells. Nature is
the solace and sanctuary of Heaney’s child-like soul.
He continues to speak of the comet as, “those million tons of light, Like a glimmer
of haws and rose hips”, in doing this he is weaving himself between the cosmic and
natural world, a mediator by moral obligation, a reporter for two sides and realities.
Heaney consistently walks on tightropes through this poem as mentioned before
and he has a subtle way of using nature to lull the reader into the art and imagery
of his work as a means to mask his confession. You could say nature is a therapist
Heaney artfully confides in.
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In stanza three line one, “And I sometimes see a falling star”, Heaney is referencing
“fallen stars” in his personal poetic cosmos. A fallen star to him is a peer or
esteemed poets who never quite “made it” in the poetry world as he did. Heaney
is also self-aware that he could someday be a “falling star.” However, he follows
this with a hopeful imagination of himself, “If I could come on meteorite!”, if I were
bigger, brighter, more self-confident, “Instead…” Heaney’s exposure here is his
pestering and persistent doubt of himself as well as his perception of how others
see him and what they demand of him. He struggles with ideals of his autonomy
versus his awareness to be some rock-like and stable reporter for the events of his
times.
Heaney never demands praise for his ego but for his empathy, his capacity to be a
diplomat of the Troubles in Northern Ireland as well as a victim. While Heaney’s
poetry can be forceful and authoritative his personality was not as such, he seemed
stand-offish, objectively observant and in his head, therefore detached from
garnering attention and being the life of the party. But, if he could “come on
meteorite”, and share courageously with confidence he wouldn’t be so burdened
as a social reporter, “…Instead”, back to reality, “I walk through damp leaves,
husks, the spent flukes of autumn.”
We hear more reflection and a bit of spite in the words “the spent flukes of
autumn”, which brings us back to earth after his cosmic imaginings of coming on a
meteorite. Here we can see this inner dialogue of hopes and fears of grandeur,
doubt and anger in full display. We can hear Heaney’s inner dialogue asking, am I a
fluke?, him questioning his status as a mare mishap or chance accident that
happens once in a lifetime. All of this weight aforementioned is Heaney’s burden
and “responsible tristia” slowly bursting at the seams and eroding his self-
confidence.
After comparing himself to “spent flukes of autumn”, he is back
to “Imagining”, and what exactly is he imagining?, a hero. Specifically, he
is “imagining a hero on some muddy compound.” Heaney imagines himself as the
hero as he’s walking his muddy compound in the frosted rain of Winter in Wicklow.
We are on a rollercoaster ride inside the forested landscape of Heaney’s psyche.
He is the lowly hero who has the hearts of the people, waging war against larger
than life opponents such as; his doubts, fears, fame, art, responsibilities and moral
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convictions. He knows that his fame has made him a sort of hero for the Catholic
minority he represents in Northern Ireland. So, like the biblical account of David
and Goliath, Heaney feels responsible to use his poetic gift “as a slingstone whirled
for the desperate”, stanza four lines three and four. He is personifying himself again
as a rock, now in the sling of David, a hope.
Heaney is speaking the voice of the oppressed through the diplomacy of his artistic
pen, or at least he feels he is trying, but he may only have one shot. Heaney is
burdened with this reality of a sling-bearer for his community in N. Ireland(his
tribe), a united Ireland as well as the culture and justice of humanity. He feels a
miss could be detrimental to his image and that of his tribe, so he is truly between
a rock and a hard place; his doubt and the doubt of others. Exposure is Heaney
exposing his doubt and obsession to speak for the desperate and dying of his tribe,
while existing in a literary world of his tribe’s oppressors.
Heaney doubts if he can truly tell the stories he needs to tell and convey the
emotions he feels without alienating or causing more damage to the social divides
of his time. He is overwhelmed and hard-pressed so he seeks asylum in the
seclusion of County Wicklow where he wonders, “how did I end up like this?”, line
one stanza five.
We can imagine Heaney here reflecting on the ease of his childhood, or the ease of
writing some of his earlier publications compared to the weight he feels now. The
following two lines he shares the memory of being counselled by his friends,
describing the advice as beautifully prismatic, which we can assume to be uplifting,
colorful and full of life. This is a break from Heaney’s skepticism however in the
following line he is back to the heaviness of doubt considering his hard-headed
critics and naysayers whom he describes as having, “anvil brains” and hating him.
While Heaney’s hard-headed critics criticize him in loudspeaker-volume in his mind
he sits “weighing and weighing” his “responsible tristia.” Heaney is referencing
the famous Roman poet Ovid who was exiled to a small town off of the Black Sea
by the first Roman Emperor, Augustus. Ovid who is considered to be a poet of
canonical proportions was convicted (under ambiguous pretense) by Emperor
Augustus, Augustus charging Ovid for impropriety concerning his publication Ars
Amatoria (Art of Love). Tristia is Ovid’s apology and hopeful plea for exoneration
by Augustus. Heaney draws a relation between himself and Ovid, which has more
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to do with exile as a poet than it does his fear of offending hegemonic power,
although the latter can be argued. Heaney is empathizing with Ovid, as a fellow
poet in exile, although Heaney’s exile is self-imposed. Nonetheless, Heaney still
feels the weight of trying to please the unflinching giant of public expectation, just
as Ovid was taking a shot in the dark to win the favor of Augustus, hoping to be
restored to his home.
Heaney is hoping his pen will not fail him as Ovid’s did, he is in an odd and mourning
state imagining his pen missing the mark to write about the events of the times.
Ovid was unable to win the favor of Augustus through his Tristia or lamentation, he
never regained Roman citizenship and died in Exile. Yet, here is Heaney comparing
his anguish to Ovid’s, trying to do the impossible as he feels, so he questions in the
following line three of the sixth stanza, “For what? For the ear? For the people?
For what is said behind backs?”
He is questioning for what reason and why he must carry this hero’s burden.
Heaney would not win the Nobel Prize in Literature until 1995, twenty-five years
later from his decision to resign and move to County Wicklow. Heaney is very well
aware of his stardom and the power of his digging pen, but he is still torn and
always constantly conscious of his responsibility ; “for the ears” of his poetic
peers, “for the people” and their approval and absolution of his work and “for what
is said behind backs”, his literary critics. This stanza reveals an open lamentation,
it is as Heaney said it would be, his exposure.
Heaney’s burden fills every space of his body through his conscious awareness, so
he tries to focus on how the “rain comes down through the alders.” No sooner as
he acknowledges the rain’s contact with the alders, he is self-reflecting again and
the rain is personified and speaking to him in “low conducive voices” muttering to
him “about let-downs and erosions.” Heaney is blinded and drowning in his
emotions, yet in the last line of stanza seven and into the first line of stanza 8 he
states, “And yet each drop recalls, The diamond absolutes.” This is the hero spirit
of Heaney, this is the spirit of his father’s father, a true Irish fighter who could
outwork any other man cutting turf in all of Toner’s bog. His grandfather taught his
father the same boot-to-lug-tenacity that put food on the table for his family, hence
he must write, he must dig. In accepting his fate Heaney acknowledges how the
pressure of his most trying moments have produced “the diamond absolutes.” He
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is recognizing the lineage he proceeded from and how he has risen to every
occasion presented to him and though hard, he has overcome. Each drop of social
pressure and conflict creates these diamond absolutes.
Heaney grows confidence in the moment and declares in the following line two of
the seventh stanza, “I am neither internee nor informer.” This is Heaney being bold
and taking it upon himself to define who he is with his own words. In this line, “I
am neither internee” Heaney is referring to a prisoner of war or someone held
hostage for political reasons. He is neither a prisoner of war “nor informant” for
the “other side.” Heaney is bothered by his tribes expectation of his poetry to have
a blatant and strong message and side in the political and violent confrontation of
his time. Therefore, he is neither of both aforementioned, but himself,
a thoughtful, long-haired, inner immigrant, digging, rummaging and battling this
internal conflict of being a voice for the people.
Heaney struggles with pursuing his selfish desire to simply write for the art and
wonder of writing, while still carrying his responsibility to the tribe. He considers
the task and remembers the deaths, he is convinced and convicted once again that
he must accept his fate, why? Heaney must accept his fate because he is “a wood-
kerne escaped from the massacre.” This is the voice of Heaney’s survivor’s guilt.
Heaney knew of bombings and riots, murder and death of those close to him. The
noun wood-kerne has a double-meaning, being indicative of a literal piece of wood
that has escaped the massacre of the flames as well as a reference to guerilla
combatants and foot soldiers also known as Rapparee or wood-kernes. Heaney
here is revealing his privilege or his fortune, being one who has escaped and
is “taking protective colouring from bole and bark”, stanza nine lines two and
three. The image Heaney paints here in stanza nine is of a wood-kerne soldier
lighting fire to Torie property and fleeing to the safety of the woods to watch
behind the protective bole and bark of the large trees. However for Heaney, he is
neither a soldier nor informant, he is still figuring himself out and desiring to
explore the boglands of his own conscious awareness. Nonetheless, this doesn’t
mean he is unfeeling towards “every wind that blows” from the conflict.
In stanza ten, the last stanza Heaney exemplifies the paradox of being a part of
political struggle, in essence being birthed within the struggle of the conflict, yet
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moving outside of the front lines into a more protective life, including County
Wicklow.
However, Heaney is adamant he is “neither internee nor informer” by his own
admission, however he is undoubtedly an Irishman by blood, and a fighter by
default. Heaney knows his fight and struggle, hence this is why he has given
us Exposure, as a testament to the burden he carries. His war is that of his
experience and knowledge coupled with his sling-stoned gift that the desperate are
hoping on to save them.
Exposure is an open-chest display of a hero’s burden, the fear, doubt and
responsibility they feel to use their gift to meet outside expectations. Heaney is
carrying the expectation of being a responsible writer with a praised pen while
simultaneously being true to his past experiences as well as his evolution and alone
time to practice self-discovery. Here in the last stanza we also feel a sense of
bitterness from Heaney, he gripes with the people, his people, they’ve placed such
heavy expectations on him weighted down by their desperation. Heaney’s tribe are
the ones “blowing up these sparks for their meager heat” stanza ten lines one and
two. There is an important image here to note, the phrasal verb blowing up is both
of explosions from the war by the wood-kernes and in the same desperation,
Heaney has been blown up as a famous writer to bring justice with his pen.
Nonetheless, He is still upset with the people because their desperation has blinded
them.
Exposure is Heaney’s responsible tristia, this is his plea to be given some space and
time to explore himself, rest from the noise and fighting, please he asks. He reminds
the people that they are so shell-shocked they’ve failed to see they are making
progress, and he is a product of that progress. He is saying to the people, “if you
would just look up from the fire you are so desperately blowing up for meager heat,
you would see you’ve created a comet, a spectacle.” He wants the people to see he
is a product and a symbol of their hope, inevitably bound to their cause, he is;
the “once-in-a-lifetime portent”, he is the rock in David’s sling, he is “the comet’s
pulsing rose” red and raising the alarm for justice. He is also just a writer of prose
admittedly, just an “inner immigrant, grown long-haired and
thoughtful” wandering the woods, burdened. Yet, taking cover from the protective
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colouring of words, he is trying to convince himself he is not the hero he knows he

truly is.

Stanza One
It is December in Wicklow:
(…)
The ash tree cold to look at.
In the first lines of ‘Exposure’ the speaker begins by stating that the setting is
“Wicklow” in the month of December. Wicklow is a county to the south of Dublin,
Ireland. The speaker is outside, looking around at the way the cold season is
impacting the various plants and trees. Just from these first lines, the tone is set for
the rest of the poem. It is solemn, and in parts, truly depressing. The scenery is
gloomy, covered in the frosts of winter, and it leeches from the plants into Heaney.
The world seems to be against him.
Generally, Heaney is considered to be the speaker of this piece. This is due to its
setting (Ireland) and to the turmoil described in the text and how it mirror’s
Heaney’s own life.

Stanza Two
A comet that was lost
(…)
Like a glimmer of haws and rose-hips,
In the second line, the speaker describes a lost comet. It is likely that Heaney saw
himself as this comet, sent off course. Through the next lines he describes how he
is a part of the wider world, but is still trying to stand out. He is the comet, and it
feels like time for him to be “visible at sunset.” This is only the first of a number
of contrasts and conflicting opinions of the self that will crop up in the text. Heaney
makes clear through the unclear depictions of his own self-image how undecided
he was about the role he was playing.
The speaker explains that at “sunset” at the end of his time in exile, he will be seen
as “million tons of light.” His personal power as a human being, specifically as a
writer, will help him light up the natural scene he is simply living in at this point.
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About Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney was born in April of 1939 in Castledawson, Northern Ireland. He
was the oldest of nine children, born to parents Patrick and Margaret. His father
was a farmer and cattle dealer who was also born into a large family.

Stanza Three
And I sometimes see a falling star.
(…)
Husks, the spent flukes of autumn,
In the third stanza of ‘Exposure’ the speaker reveals what it is he is seeking from
these lines of verse. The speaker describes how sometimes when he is wandering
through his life in Wicklow he sees a “falling star.” This is not something to be
relished. The following lines make clear that the speaker knows full well that he too
could become one of these falling stars at any moment. This is part of the reason
that so much doubt comes into the poem later on.
All that being said, Heaney still hasn’t risen to his full height. In fact, the move to
Wicklow has only decreased his confidence. He states that he is a part of the “spent
flukes of autumn” very close to the “falling stars” This is the first real piece of
information that the reader gets about the speaker. It immediately makes one
expect that this person sees himself as being better than the average person. This
idea will shift and develop in the next stanzas.

Stanza Four
Imagining a hero
(…)
Whirled for the desperate.
In order for the reader to better understand the place Heaney sees for himself in
the world, these lines ask that one imagine a “hero” who is on “some muddy
compound.” The muddy compound is likely Heaney’s own surrounding landscape
and the “hero,” Heaney himself. He is suffering and desperately fighting for that
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which he believes in. These lines present an interesting contrast with the rest. He
is somehow able to see himself as both the sufferer, capable of nothing good and
the hero whose whole life is devoted to helping others.
It is very important, for himself and for those represented by the falling stars that
he does not fail to take a voice in his poetry. The “desperate” throw of the stone
makes an immediate connection to the story of David and Goliath and therefore a
feeling of hope at overcoming great obstacles.
The following lines reveal the speaker is much more doubtful of his role in the world
than he initially wanted to admit. Heaney questions how he got to this point in his
life.

Stanza Five
How did I end up like this?
(…)
And the anvil brains of some who hate me
The speaker expresses his sorrow over his position in the fifth line. He asks the
reader a rhetorical question, wondering why he ended up “like this?” These lines
refer to his physical, mental, and social position in Wicklow as an exiled poet. He
is not yet the person he wants to be due to the constraints of the time.
In these moments of anger and disappointment, the speaker thinks of his friends.
He misses them and thinks back on those happier times when beautiful, colorful,
and well-developed people were there to help him. There were also those with
“anvil brains” who hated him. This takes one back to Heaney’s own self-doubt.
These people he references could be critics, those who do not believe in his
potential as a poet.
This second group who had “anvil brains” were considered to be ignorant in some
way. Perhaps of how to live in the world or who the speaker is as a person. But
these are facts that the speaker himself is still dealing with in ‘Exposure.’

Stanza Six
As I sit weighing and weighing
(…)
For what is said behind-backs?
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In the sixth stanza, the speaker reveals that his days are often spent “weighing and
weighing” his worth. These lines also include a reference to his “responsible trisita.”
This unusual word describes a collection of elegiac, poetic lines. They were
composed by Ovid while he was exiled from Rome and contained his pleas to return
to his home. This addition to ‘Exposure’ forces a comparison between the speaker
and Ovid. They are both at a distance from their homes, although Heaney’s exile to
Wicklow was self-imposed.

Stanza Seven
Rain comes down through the alders,
(…)
And yet each drop recalls
In the seventh stanza, the speaker leaves his own head for a moment and returns
to the environment which was discussed in detail in the first few stanzas. He takes
note of the “Rain” that “comes down through the alders” and how it seems to speak
as it hits the landscape around him. Its “voices” were “low” and “conductive.”
These lines clarify the previous. Informing a reader conclusively that it is raining
and that is why the alders are dripping. There seems to have been some kind of a
change in the way the speaker is seeing and understanding the land.
That being said, he is still attributing his own emotions to what he sees. This keeps
the tone in the same solemn place it was from the start. The rain brings to his mind
all the times that he let himself down, it also reminds him of better times though.
The fourth line is enjambed, forcing a reader quickly down to the eighth stanza.

Stanza Eight
The diamond absolutes.
(…)
And thoughtful; a wood-kerne
The speaker explains in the eighth stanza of ‘Exposure’ that he was reminded of
“The diamond absolutes” of his life. These appear to be things that are much more
uplifting, those that cannot change depending on the political or social
environment. Perhaps they are successes that he had previously and that cannot
Faisal Sharif 14

be taken away from him. The main “absolute” that the speaker, and perhaps
Heaney himself, is concerned with is his ability to speak.
He states that he is not “internee nor informer.” This means that he is not anyone’s
prisoner nor is he a reporter on the times. Heaney state that he is only who he is.
A writer, an “йmigrй,” meaning immigrant and someone who is “thoughtful.” His
life is fuelled and directed towards his goal of being a real voice for his people in
Ireland.

Stanza Nine
Escaped from the massacre,
(…)
Every wind that blows;
In the ninth stanza, the speaker remembers the terrible events that have occurred
around him. Many of these seem to be connected to people he knew. This has
resulted in survivors’ guilt. He has escaped from the “massacre” and found
sanctuary in the woods. It is interesting to note how the speaker states that he is
“Taking protective colouring / From bole and bark.” This is a reference to the bark
and trunk of a tree. These are the allies who in the end, in moments of terror, he
clung to.

Stanza Ten
Who, blowing up these sparks
(…)
The comet’s pulsing rose.
In the final four lines, the speaker concludes the text and reemphasizes the
importance of his role. He is meant to be a kind of arbitrator within his people. The
lines, and the idea of blowing up “sparks’ and missing the “once-in-a-lifetime
portent / The…pulsing rose” of the comet speak to the still present separation
between the speaker and his ideal self, as well as those he wants to help.

_______________________________________
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COMMENTARY :

 ‘Exposure’ was written in 1975 and significantly is the last poem in the poet’s
volume, North. Not only that, but ‘Exposure’ is the final poem in a six poem
sequence grouped under the title The Singing School, a phrase borrowed
from W. B. Yeats’ famous poem ‘Sailing to Byzantium’, which concludes that
great collection. The poem itself is, to an extent, a reflective self-analysis, as
Heaney takes stock of his life and poses a series of questions about his role
and function as a poet.

 The poem depicts Heaney’s anxiety and discomfort with his position in
society and with his role as a poet. The poem explores Heaney’s dilemma as
‘The Troubles’ detonate and resonate and invade his artistic space. He has
removed himself from the North and like his friend Michael Longley, who
had already moved to Carrigskeewaun in Mayo, he has thus acquired a new
perspective from his cottage in Glanmore in County Wicklow. He is,
however, troubled by self-doubt and uncertainty and hurt by the whispers,
the innuendo, the charge that he hasn’t taken sides, that he has abandoned
his people and taken the English ‘shilling’.
It is a ten stanza poem that is separated into quatrains. The lines do not follow a
specific rhyme scheme. They are composed in free verse, meaning there is no
pattern of rhyme or rhythm. The poem opens, ‘It is December in Wicklow.’
December is deep winter in Ireland, characterised by its cold bracing wet weather,
it is also the end of a year. This sets up a peaceful and tranquil scene providing time
for self-reflection and a chance to reappraise his situation. This time affords him an
opportunity to analyse his obvious anxiety and discomfort and the horrible tension
that has arisen between his private persona and his very public career as a poet. It
is a rainy, wintry month, the ‘alders [are] dripping,’ the ‘birches’ are fighting for the
‘last light,’ and ‘the ash tree’ is bare, too cold ‘to look at.’
Faisal Sharif 16

 It is obvious that his main source of frustration is that he feels that he is being
dragged unwillingly into the current fraught political situation in his own
native place. His former neighbours in Bellaghy have all been forced by
circumstances to take sides and here, Bellaghy’s most famous son is seen to
be ambivalent and non-committal. Earlier on in North, in the poem
‘Whatever You Say, Say Nothing’, he has made the famous statement:

The famous
Northern reticence, the tight gag of place
And times: yes, yes. Of the ‘wee six’ I sing
Where to be saved you only must save face
And whatever you say, say nothing.
In ‘Exposure’, then, we see the poet is under pressure from all sides to say
something and he feels that he is being used by all sides for their own political ends.
How then can he solve this dilemma? He tries to wrestle with this dilemma in his
solitary walk in the Wicklow hills. He considers the inherent differences between a
comet and a meteorite. A comet is predictable and appears after sunset on a set
date once every four years or four hundred years. A ‘falling star’ or meteorite is
totally unpredictable and appears randomly in the evening sky. The comet ‘visible
at sunset’ is expected, it ‘should’ appear. Yet, the ‘falling star’ only ‘sometimes’
appears. Heaney himself admires the meteorite, the ‘falling star’. This is shown
through the use of the exclamation mark. Unlike the comet which typically follows
a cycle, a meteorite is free, it does not need to keep to a designated orbit. Rather,
it is able to float and fall whenever and wherever it wishes. Here, Heaney is making
the metaphorical comparison between the comet and the meteorite and his own
role as a poet. He wishes to be able to express himself freely yet the political
circumstances in Northern Ireland do not allow for such, it forces him to choose
sides, and tries to drag him into the conflict. Here, Heaney poses an important
question – is he to be simply another insignificant individual pushed around by
politics or is he to be an independent figure able to freely voice his own thoughts?
In the next two stanzas, Heaney further ponders his role as a poet. He plaintively
asks ‘How did I end up like this?’ There is a certain degree of torment shown
through this as he sits, ‘weighing and weighing’ his worth. This repetition places
Faisal Sharif 17

emphasis on his vulnerable psychological state. He identifies two opposing groups:

the rational ones with their ‘beautiful prismatic counselling’ and his enemies with
their impenetrable ‘anvil brains’. He feels isolated from all groups and becomes an
‘inner émigré’ as he is unable to satisfy the demands of one, without conflicting
with the others. Heaney is frustrated that he is unable to change the perceptions
of those people, close-minded and devoted to their own beliefs. Once again, he
questions his role as a poet; he questions himself as to who he is to please, who
should he be serving – the minority, the various political groups or society as a
whole?
This poem helps him resolve his dilemma and therefore it is a seminal poem in
which he takes his lonely stand as an artist and refuses to be drawn in and forced
to take sides – he will be his own man – the epiphany comes like Austin Clarke’s
‘The Lost Heifer’ appearing out of the mist. He clarifies the reference to ‘the alders’
in stanza one and this time the image is clearer and more definite:
Rain comes down through the alders,
Its low conductive voices
Mutter about let-downs and erosions
And yet each drop recalls
The diamond absolutes.
This is more hopeful as Heaney gradually comes to terms with himself. He realises,
despite the rain causing ‘let-downs and erosions,’ it is able to ‘(recall) the diamond
absolutes.’ Through his self-imposed ‘exile’ in Wicklow, he has ‘grown long-haired
and thoughtful.’ He repudiates both extremes – the fanaticism of ‘the internee’
languishing ‘on some muddy compound’ in Long Kesk and the despicable betrayal
of ‘the informer’. He emphatically states that ‘I am neither’. Instead, he has gained
wisdom and realised that like the ‘wood-kerne,’ the Irish soldiers of old who having
lost the battle retreat to the woods to regroup, he is able to use his writing as a way
of controlling and fighting for his voice in society. His solitary trek through the
winter woods has given him a deeper insight into his role as a poet in a society
devastated by violence and divisions.
 In ‘Exposure’, Heaney reflects on his changed circumstances and on his
present situation living and writing in the quiet backwater of Glanmore in
County Wicklow. He reflects on the great expectations being placed on him
Faisal Sharif 18

as a poet of standing. This marks a drastically different approach to that seen

in earlier collections such as Death of a Naturalist. In this final poem of The
Singing School sequence and the final poem in the collection, North, Heaney
wonders whether his move South will have any effect. Will it give him the
perspective he craves or will he be exposed to ridicule like the emperor
without clothes in the children’s fable. He knows he is taking a risk and giving
his critics and the ‘anvil brains’ ammunition to mortally wound him. What if
after all the brouhaha he only produces the odd spark to illuminate the daily
atrocities taking place further North when what the situation really needs is
the arrival of a ‘comet’s pulsing rose’?

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