Gendered Spaces in Contemporary Irish Poetry

Crossings

Andrew Murphy writes that seesawing between realms, refusing a
definitive programme and providing ëcrossingsí between different
perspectives is the task of every poet: ëThe fundamental point of
poetry is not to effect an arrival but to facilitate the possibility of
ìcrossingsî ñ further interrelation of the world of possibility and
materiality.í^70 This relates closely to Heaneyís description of Robert
Frostís poetry in his essay excluded from The Redress of Poetry
entitled ëAbove the Brim: On Robert Frostí. It is strange that such an
important essay should be excluded from Heaneyís publication of the
Oxford Lectures since Heaneyís reading of Frost can be viewed
alongside his own poetry whereby Frost is a prime motivator for the
oscillation between what Murphy terms ëthe world of possibility and
materialityí.
Heaney analyzes Frostís poem ëBirchesí from where he takes the
phrase ëabove the brimí as the title for his lecture. Frostís poem
describes a boyís joyful and expert ascent to the top of a slender birch
tree.^71 The boy

always kept his poise

To the top branches, climbing carefully

With the same pains you use to fill a cup

Up to the brim, and even above the brim

Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,

Kicking his way down through the air to the ground

Frost imagines the boy going ëabove the brimí beyond what can be
contained and this metaphor is accompanied by images of flight.
Heaney says: ëIíd like to get away from earth awhile/ And then come
back to it and begin over.í Frostís notion of flying away from earth in
a moment of excess is not foreign to Heaney. Heaney describes the
poem as ëairy vernal daring, an overbrimming of inventioní and likens

70 Murphy, Seamus Heaney, p.85.
71 Heaney, ëAbove the Brim: On Robert Frostí, Salmagundi, No.s 88ñ9, Fall 1990
ñ Winter 1991, p.283.