Sophie Hollitt; August 2008
Poetry Essay: Blue Light, Clear Atoms
Topic: How did the poets you studied use the experiences of individuals to illustrate
aspects of life that matter to us all?
The anthology Blue Light, Clear Atoms presents a wide variety of poems, but those by Robert Frost,
Seamus Heaney, Gwen Harwood and Geoff Goodfellow in particular use a number of techniques in
their various poems to show important aspects of life. Though the approach that each poet uses varies,
all the poems share a common ground in using the experiences of the individual as well dynamic
tension between attitudes, moods or characters to effectively illustrate these aspects of life which
matter to us all: namely, the impact of relationships on our lives and the reality of death. The theme of
memory is also important, used to reflect on significant events and experiences of the central characters
of each poem.
In both “Blackberry Picking” and “Death of a Naturalist” by Seamus Heaney, a central character is
used to explore a particular situation and the idea that life consists of a binary between positive and
negative, bright and threatening. The individual’s positive experiences in the first stanza of each poem
are counteracted by negative experiences in the second, presenting the idea that life consists of both
positive and negative aspects. “Death of a Naturalist” also addresses the role of perspective in life: that
similar situations can be presented in a different emotional light and change from idyllic or childlike to
threatening. A shift in language from neutrally negative (‘festered’, ‘sweltered’, ‘clotted water’) to
more explicitly negative with elements of danger (‘obscene threats’, ‘mud grenades’) indicates the
change as childhood innocence gives way to the realities of life. Similarly so in “Blackberry Picking”,
where the ‘thickened wine’ flavour of eaten blackberries becomes fermented and sour with a ‘rat-grey
fungus’ after time has passed, indicating that good things cannot last forever. Additionally, the
character’s experiences picking blackberries are used as a metaphor for the changing nature of life: that
nothing lasts forever no matter how much you wish it would, ‘Every year I hoped they’d keep/ I knew
they would not.”
Alternatively, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost addresses life’s regrets and hopes through a
character’s experiences, with the roads diverging in a wood used as metaphor for the choices we make
in life. Like “Death of a Naturalist”, the title presents the idea of a heroic protagonist while the poem
itself instead reveals a dreamer fleeing when confronted with life’s mysteries. The nature of the last
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stanza leaves the conclusion of the poem somewhat obscured, most readers believing the character has
taken ‘the road less travelled by’ when in fact the character is imagining looking back on this moment
from ‘somewhere ages and ages hence’. In fact, the second stanza indicates that both paths are worn
‘about the same’ while the third implies that the character has chosen the brighter path, keeping the
overgrown first path ‘for another day’, thus making the poem less about life’s choices and more about
the role of romanticism and idealism in memory, presenting life as an adventure.
Robert Frost uses a similar premise in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, creating an idyllic
atmosphere based on a dreamer’s viewpoint. The role of the central character as a dreamer and
romanticist is indicated not only by the use of rhyme in the poem, but also through reference to the
character’s horse: ‘My little horse must think it queer/ To stop without a farmhouse near.’ Unlike
“Death of a Naturalist” and “Blackberry Picking” by Seamus Heaney, Robert Frost instead focuses on
the idyllic side of memory without the negative twist. The woods are described as ‘lovely, dark and
deep’ and while it is the ‘darkest evening of the year’ the poem nonetheless remains positive, if slightly
melancholic due to the fact that the moment must end. The repetition of ‘And miles to go before I
sleep’ concludes the poem, breaking free from the memory-like state observing the woods and
returning to reality and ‘promises to keep’.
Conversely, Seamus Heaney’s “Digging” indicates the role of family in life, as well as male roles in
society. The central character’s experience of watching his father digging in the garden brings
memories of an earlier experience with his grandfather, creating the sense of a family legacy through
digging. The poem’s beginning implies that the central character, a writer, ‘looks down’ on his father
for working in the garden while he writes, though by the end of the poem he has developed a respect
for the traditional hardworking roles played by his father and grandfather, describing the grandfather
‘nicking and slicing neatly’ as opposed to the description of his father ‘straining’ in the flowerbeds.
Another key aspect is that of memory and reflection, the everyday experience of watching another
through the window becoming more meaningful through recall of past interactions with family, the
‘living roots awakening’ in the mind of the writer.
A similar tension between father and son is examined in “Don’t Call Me Lad” by Geoff Goodfellow,
though this tension is explored more explicitly as an unresolved conflict between the characters.
Goodfellow uses colloquial language and repetition of the word ‘dad’ to show the relationship between
James, a young adult, and his father. The son’s predominantly negative experiences throughout the
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poem (unemployment, drugs, the death of friends) are directed at the father as a sign of the son’s
‘growing up’, breaking free of the father’s influence. The repetition of ‘dad’ also makes the son seem
angry and somewhat patronising as he speaks to his father, the son’s perspective during the argument
illustrating the change in their relationship as the son becomes a man instead of a ‘lad’.
Like “Don’t Call Me Lad” and “Digging”, Gwen Harwood’s “Father and Son” addresses the bond
between a father and his son, albeit in a different manner once again. The relationship between father
and son is established in the opening two stanzas of “Barn Owl”, but it is in the final two stanzas that
this relationship comes to life: though the ‘no-sayer’ father object’s to the child’s desire to shoot the
owl, he is nonetheless there to support his son when faced with the gruesome sight of the ‘wrecked
thing’. The use of a long sentence linking the third and fourth stanzas in the description of the injured
owl heightens the retelling of the boy’s experiences, drawing out the fall of the injured owl to
emphasise the mistake the son had made. With his father’s guidance, the son learns the consequences
of his actions and the harsh reality of death.
The second poem in the “Father and Son” pair, “Nightfall” reverses the roles of parent and child, the
son now guiding his aging father. As in “Barn Owl”, the bond between father and son is used not only
as a theme in itself, but also to show the nature of death as a part of life. Rather than the violent death
of the owl, however, “Nightfall” shows the slow passing of the old as they ‘pick their last fruits of the
temporal’. This reference to natural imagery is used throughout the poem, with the passage of time and
lives being described as both a ‘season’ and a ‘land’, though the most moving image is that of the walk
itself. As in “Digging”, reverie is used as a way of exploring the links between generations, though
“Nightfall” instead has a greater focus on the father’s last moments and the memories shared: ‘birds,
flowers, shivery-grass – I name them as we pass’.
“Out, Out-” by Robert Frost also presents relationships and death, but also the innocence of youth. The
title is a reference to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in which the character Macbeth responds to his wife’s
death with the phrase ‘Out, out, brief candle – life is but a shadow.’ This not only indicates the
suddenness of death and the fleeting nature of life, but shows the impact of a loss of life on others:
whereas in Macbeth Lady Macbeth is a queen, as the unnamed boy in the poem passes the bystanders
‘turned to their affairs’. The first eight lines of “Out, Out-” are used to set an idyllic scene, the
mountain ranges and sunset creating an impression of quiet contrasted with the saw which ‘snarled and
rattled’. The saw is then later personified as leaping toward the boy’s hand ‘as if to prove saws knew
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what supper meant’, delaying the inevitable horror at the accident which had occurred. The brief
insight into the boy’s life is used to show the danger existing in all our lives, the easy way fatal
mistakes can occur. Robert Frost also illustrates two conflicting attitudes to death and injury in the
poem: the boy was somewhat hysterical at the prospect of the loss of his hand, telling his sister not to
let the doctor take it, but instead the greater loss of the boy’s life is practically ignored after the fact, as
the bystanders ‘were not the ones dead’.
“In the Park” also uses a central character to examine relationships, although in this case the focus is on
relationships other than that between father and son. The role of memory is also twisted: instead of the
pleasant memories of “Digging” and “Nightfall”, instead the memories of the past are a burden on the
woman who would rather ‘feign indifference’. Gwen Harwood uses rhyme to accelerate the pace of the
poem, while simultaneously using progressively longer sentences to create a sense of slowed time. This
once again makes the central character seem burdened and flustered by the polite small-talk as she tells
white lies about her family life. The woman’s plight is used to show the reality of relationships, her
claim that her children had ‘eaten her alive’ relating more to the father-son relationship in “Don’t Call
Me Lad” than to the almost idealised relationships in “Digging” and “Father and Son”.
Though each poem makes use of different techniques to explore important aspects of life such as
memory, relationships and the role of death, there is nonetheless common ground in that the
experiences of individuals are used to explore these aspects. The contrasts between different poems
also serve to emphasise these key aspects by illustrating a number of different perspectives through
which the aspects of life that matter to us all can be examined.
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