A Call

relationship poem
Heaney and his dad
clear sections
opens talking to his mom- Heaney imagines his dad out weeding - sense of regret not all can make it but must be weeded, "but rueful also ..." -> ellipsis
"amplified grave ticking of hall clocks" ageing time passing, inevitable death?
"and i found myself then thinking: if it were nowadays this is how Death would summon Everyman" - nowadays people would make a call to inform people of a death -impersonal, sad, effective image
"next thing he spoke and i nearly said i loved him" - unspoken love, wanted to tell his father he loved him, not that type of open relationship, he is momentarily overcome by emotion
family - father and son - difficulty expressing the love they feel - father gentle and sensitive man - regrets removing the weeds, careful and deliberate, very fond of his dad.
death and the passage of time - medieval story of death and everyman ( story that Death appeared at the door of a character called Everyman in order to summon him to the next world) time constantly passing - clocks ticking, grave sound, world grave brings to mind the notion of death, also brought about by the regretful picking of weeds.
fathers close relationship w the land

	Created by niamhmoynagh over 11 years ago

Seamus Heaney Note on A Call, created by niamhmoynagh on 26/05/2013.

A Call