territory, providing only ëpap for the dispossessedí. On the other hand,
Heaneyís imagining of a ëTownland of Peaceí connects with the ideal
of a fifth province or healed mind for Ireland, and this can be
understood in terms of the hopes of Irish nationalists. This is an
idealism that attempts to suture a schizophrenic past of dividedness
that is problematized in ëMaking Strangeí and ëThe Other Sideí, and
which remains testimony to the violence of colonial imposition.
It is noticeable that although the imagery of ëTollundí has
become ëfootlooseí, Heaney draws upon a restricting poetic form with
tight rhythms and rhymes that are found less in the ëTollund Maní.
Although ëTollundí attempts to be ëfootlooseí the poem is still
informed by a strict form. This tension between a proposed escape
from ideological and territorial constraints, and adherence to poetic
structures further emphasizes the oscillation in Heaneyís work
between the roles of iconoclast and achiever of an artful balance.
ëThreshold and Floorí (2000) describes how translating Dante led to a
plainer style: ëA step away from the province into opener pathways
[Ö] My head did tell me that the safety of language had been
threatened [Ö] Gravity had been kicked, after all [Ö]í.^103 In spite of
this, there continues to be a tussle in the poetry between the demands
of gravity and levity.
Heaneyís bi-focal perspective from ëThe Tollund Maní to
ëTollundí subtly explores the epistemic and territorial limits inscribed
by both a colonial and nationalist inheritance. Resituating pre-
occupations with representing the Irish landscape and an Irish past,
Heaneyís poetry is post-colonial and post-nationalist in its vision, and
less aligned with hopes for an authentic model of Irish national
consciousness. Heaneyís later poetry dwells less with the dead of
North as Seeing Things celebrates the visionary aspects of poetry. This
movement towards the visionary can be explored further with
discussion of Tom Paulinís Walking a Line. Does Paulinís poetry also
go ëabove the brimí, walk a line or ëwrite a bare wireí, and what are
the aesthetic and political implications of such a move?^104
103 Heaney, ëThreshold and Floorí, Metre, 7/8, Spring ñ Summer 2000, p.267.
104 Corcoran, Seamus Heaney, ëWriting a Bare Wire: Station Island (1984)í,
pp.110–34.