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Casualty Questions and Answers
by Seamus Heaney
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September 2, 2022 by BROJEN DAS
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Casualty Questions and Answers by Seamus
Heaney
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1. Bring out the significance of the title ‘Casualty’ of the poem.
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The poem Casualty’ of Seamus Heaney is one of the longer poems from
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him. It belongs to the collection called Field Work (1979). Heaney was an
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Irish poet, a prolific writer and a ‘painter with words’. He talks about a
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man in this poem, who is alcoholic and an individualist, to another level of
being. We would be introduced to the man through ‘Heaney’s gestures
and hints.
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Heaney has two selves here-as a poet and as an Irishman. He talks about
the absences, gaps and gigs of life. The in-betweenness of neither being
Irish nor British is the tentative art of Heaney. (Then Add) An Analytical
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Conclusion: The title itself represents the namelessness of the subject of
the poem, as the speaker describes the personal habits and shortfalls of a
man, who was not involved politically. And yet, the fisherman is a victim of
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Bloody Sunday
(when the Insurance
British Military fired on the Irish people).
his own habitual need to have a pint in a pub, but only because of a
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The poem takes place in 1972, soon after the British paratroopers openly
fired on a group of protesters, killing thirteen. Heaney does not chide the
subject of the poem because he can relate to the man’s ambivalence
toward remaining steadfast in his allegiance to his tribe by only
patronising Catholic pubs. Thus, His ‘Casualty’ takes a more complex and
realistic approach being the title of the poem. Heaney utilizes the
fisherman, a victim of the chaotic ramifications of political terror, in his
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poem in order to set an example of the arbitrary nature of death in the
troubles:
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2. Critically appreciate Heaney’s poem ‘Casualty’.
Or,
How Heaney uses his memory-past and present-as an explicate in the
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poem ‘Casualty’? Discuss.
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Seamus Heaney’s ‘Casualty’ is an elegy for a fisherman in tender iambic
trimeter, that reflects not only the implications of tribal or societal
obligations and subsequent political affiliations, but ultimately questions –
Is it worth to act on a moral imperative?
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The poem follows the uneventful life of an anonymous and unassuming
“dole-kept breadwinner” who, according to the speaker, frequents two
very different kinds of “haunts”. The fisherman’s rightful place is on the
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although that liquid will be his demise. However, nocturnal drinking will
not literally kill the fisherman, but it will cause the fisherman to patronize
a bar in an Unionist neighbourhood for the Bloody Sunday curfew, and
consequently the Catholic fisherman’s moral ambiguity will result to his
death.
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Heaney divides ‘Casualty’ into three parts – the first two having three
stanzas and the last having only two, with the final being a truncated
triplet. As the narrative is shifted back in time, once the speaker mentions
the death of the fisherman in a bombing at the end of the first section, the
poem’s development seems somewhat confusing or at least non-linear.
The rhyme-scheme remains relatively uneven although slipping into ab ab
at certain points when Heaney wants to highlight the significance of the
passage.
The next two sections shift from the funerals for the Bloody Sunday
victims and the fisherman’s solitary funeral, to the quiet scene of the
speaker going out to fish instead of being at his friend’s funeral. However,
the speaker visualizes the man coming back from the dead through the
light on the ‘indolent’ waves, and desires for the ghost to ask him again
the extent of their duty to their “tribe”.
In this connection, a comparison between Yeats and Heaney could be
established. Heaney’s ‘Casualty’ is less politically ambitious than Yeats’s
‘The Fisherman’. With its emphasis on questioning and on thought as an
experience of difficulty rather than of release –
“You’re supposed to be
An educated man.”
-‘Casualty’ is also less didactic than its Yeatsian predecessor.
Nevertheless, Heaney’s poem may be instructively read as a critical
companion piece to Yeats’s, particularly in its Yeatsian tendency to seek
redemption in nature for what society manifestly disdains to supply.
Heaney questions the worth in pursuing a categorical imperative if the
end result will so often become extremist. Thus, Heaney departs from
Yeats’ romanticized battle against the English through the arbitrary death
portrayed in ‘Casualty’.
Although styled in a different form, with different stanza lengths, the
narrator continued to use rhyme to tell a story. Hence, the storyline of this
poem Casualty-is very interesting, albeit the thoughts jumped from
section to section and the narrator’s emotion could also be understood
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clearly and potentially.
3. Can a comparison be made between the two Irish poets – Seamus
Heaney and W. B. Yeats? Give references from the poem ‘Casualty’.
Or,
Describe Heaney’s artistry as a modern Irish poet with references to the
text. Establish a comparison with W. B. Yeats, another renowned Irish
writer.
Students and lovers of Irish poetry will find many intriguing echoes
between Seamus Heaney’s ‘Casualty’ and William Butter Yeats’s ‘The
Fisherman’: Whereas Yeats makes a strong case for the fisherman as the
embodiment of cultural integrity based on personal distinctiveness,
Heaney’s lyric is much more quiescent in tone as it befits the personal
tenor of this elegy.
Heaney can be further alienated from his Irish predecessor, W. B. Yeats, in
that the latter poet’s ‘Easter, 1916’, he romanticizes the struggle to oust
England from Ireland, while Heaney’s ‘Casualty’ takes a more complex and
realistic approach. Heaney’s form in ‘Casualty’ also serves to be
antithetical to Yeats’ because it is in the same elegiac trimeter form as
‘Easter, 1916’, but with the infrequent rhyme-scheme, as opposed to
Yeats’s conventional rhyming.
2. Critical Appreciation (paragraphs 5 and 6).
The speaker of the poem ‘Casualty’ desires to get away from the political
violence that was tearing his countrymen apart. At his closing remarks,
Heaney makes a sudden shift from speaking of the fisherman in the third
person into the second person, so as to bring the subject nearer and show
the conjoining of their ambivalence. This three-part poem is highly
emotive in the description of the loss of a much-admired companion.
Furthermore, through the descriptions, the poet is able to convey his
political message-the tension between the Irish Protestants and Catholics
can only lead to further pain.
4. Elucidate the poetic structure of ‘Casualty’.
Casualty is an elegy written by the Irish poet and writer Seamus Heaney. It
is broken up into three distinct sections. The poem has no definite metric
or rhyme structure, instead, assonance and rhyme are used only
sometimes within the poem in order to emphasize certain lines and
phrases, and Heaney also uses parallelism throughout this poem. To
Set in Ireland, during the time of the Irish and British troubles, each
section of the poem, all of similar length, depicts a different scene
narrating the story of a fisherman (presumably Heaney’s friend)-who was
killed as a result of the violence arising from the ethno-political conflict
between the nationalists (Roman Catholic) and the unionists (mainly
Protestants), shortly after Bloody Sunday (also known as ‘Bogside
Massacre’) which took place in Derry, Northern Ireland. The title of the
poem puts the focus upon the nameless victim, making him the subject
within the poem. The deliberate sense of anonymity evoked by the
unnamed casualty in the title is reflective of the way such senseless
violence affects even the trivial, unidentified, innocent commoners. The
people, for example, like the casualty involved in the violence itself.
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The first section of the poem is written in an intimate tone, full of
observations of the speaker’s fisherman friend-his manners and actions as
he drinks in a typical Irish pub. Beginning the poem with a pronoun on the
opening line of the first stanza
He would drink by himself
And raise a weathered Thumb
Towards the high shelf,
Calling another rum
And blackcurrant…..
– Heaney immediately introduces the subject of the poem-the lone
fisherman, whose thumb is weathered from his work, and sets the scene,
as he orders a typical drink in the convivial atmosphere and familiar
environment of the Irish pub. The first image portrayed in the poem is,
however, one of solitude.
We can almost see how the coffins would monotonously float one after the
other on a sea of people formed by the crowd-“Like blossoms on slow
water.” This is creating a solemn feeling that is projected to the audience.
The following lines of the stanza convey the confinement of the Irish
Catholics under Protestant power. The line “Like brothers in a ring” further
emphasizes the point of togetherness like in the word “tightness”. The use
of the word “brother” conveys a common link between the people, the link
of being of one religion. The use of the word “ring” conveys the image of a
confining cage, and also conveys a sense of strength, as if the hardship
felt by the Irish Catholics has made them bond together to become
stronger. The next stanza of the second section commences with “he
would not be held”. This is juxtaposed with “his own crowd” whom, in the
face of such
horror, had been scared into hiding.
Anaphora is used in this poem in lines 16-17 of part II with the repetition
of the word “whatever” inWhatever threats were phoned
Whatever black flags waved.
The pronoun ‘his’ in “Everyone held / His breath and trembled”, as
opposed to the general ‘their’, is symbolic of how the whole town-not only
the poet-holds the same breath and grieves together in the same way for
the victims killed as the result of the senseless and unnecessary violence.
The assonance of the hollow vowel sounds (‘cold’, ‘raw’), the adjective
‘raw’ being almost onomatopoeic, evoke the feelings of emptiness,
stillness and painful emotion, in direct juxtaposition to the powerful and
intense images of the violence in the previous section. In the final stanza,
the fisherman’s work is described as a constant
rhythm
To get out early, haul
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Steadily off the bottom,
dispraise the catch, and smile
As you find a rhythm.
– It can be felt that the poet had a great admiration for the fisherman’s
work. An example of parallelism can be found in lines 2 and 3 of part III
with “quiet walkers and sideways talkers”. This phrase also interests one
because he or she may expect the adjectives to modify the opposite
nouns.
The poem concludes with a triplet of lines that reminisce the previous part
of the poem:
Dawn-sniffing revenant,
Plodder through midnight rain,
Question me again.
The description “Dawn-sniffing” refers to the early leave-wake of a
fisherman’s life, out early to get a good catch, sniffing like a dog to search
for the fish. “Plodder through midnight rain” refers to the man’s neverending need to quench his alcohol addiction, without car
ing for any time or weather. The poem concludes in a highly emotional
tone with the line-“Question me again”. Clearly, the poet missed the
fisherman’s companionship and presence.
This poem seemed to be one of Heaney’s longest poems. ‘Casualty-this
three-part poem is highly emotive in the depiction of the loss of a much
admired companion. Furthermore, through the descriptions of the
situations, the poet is able to convey his political message.
VERY SHORT QUESTIONS
1. From where has the poem ‘Casualty’ been taken?
Famous Irish poet Seamus Heaney’s phenomenal poem ‘Casualty’ has
been taken from the collection Field Work, published in 1979.
2. What is the meaning of the word ‘Casualty’? Who or what is the
‘casualty’ here of which the poet is talking?
The word ‘casualty’ means a fatal accident that causes someone to get
injured or killed or captured or missing (particularly in a military
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engagement).
Seamus Heaney’s ‘Casualty’ is an elegy for a fisherman that reflects not
only on the implications of tribal or societal obligations and subsequent
political affiliations, but ultimately questions whether it is worth to act on
a moral imperative.
3. What kind of a poem is Heaney’s
‘Casualty’? Seamus Heaney’s ‘Casualty’ is an elegy / a lament for the
unknown citizen, an anonymous victim not merely of the social violence of
the poet’s native province but also of those tribal attachments that make
the violence so difficult.
4. How has Heaney versified the structure of ‘Casualty‘?
Heaney divides, the poem ‘Casualty’ into three parts, the first having
three stanzas, the last having only two and the final being a truncated
triplet. The poem has no definite metric or rhyme structure.
5. Which political views Heaney talks about in the poem?
Heaney conveys some political views in the poem ‘Casualty’, very subtly
yet effectively, bringing forth the tension between the Irish Catholics and
Protestants..
6. “He would drink by himself.”-Explain.
The lines tell mainly about a drinker that the poet knew, but who was
killed when the pub he was drinking in, was bombed. The line conveys the
sense of loveliness, yet, at the same time, suggests secrecy and the
possible participation of the drinker (who is a fisherman) in something that
is prohibited.
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Casualty Questions and Answers by Seamus Heaney
Casualty Questions and Answers by Seamus Heaney
Casualty Questions and Answers by Seamus Heaney
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