SEAMUS HEANEY'S PATERNAL WELLSPRING: THE FATHER AS AESTHETIC SOURCE

Abstract

From the very beginning of his writing career, Seamus Heaney has turned to his memories and impressions of his father as a source for poetic expression. Past readings of Seamus Heaney's poetry have missed this complex relationship between the poet's father and his imagination and creative expression. Critics limit their understanding of the father's place in Heaney's work because they approach Heaney's writing in ways that obscure the father's underlying role. Throughout the years Heaney's father has been a recurring poetic element. Heaney turns to his father again and again as source for creative image and creative inspiration, and uses the father image as both poetic object and subject. This recurring and varied use of the father points to the father's foundational role in Heaney's creative mindscape. A close examination of Heaney's use of the father image within his poetry further reveals the poet's conscious understanding of the father's central placement within his creative mind.