‘Bye-child’
Seamus Heaney
Background
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Seamus Heaney’s poem, ‘Bye-child’, is based on a real-life case of a
boy who was apparently locked in a henhouse in Co. Down, Ireland in
1956.
The first report on the solitary confinement of the boy appeared in The
Belfast Telegraph on 11th of October, 1956.
The mother was described as a deviant from a social norm in the
newspapers which affected the process of influencing public opinion,
and maintaining the social idealism of motherhood at that time.
Seamus Heaney wrote his poem, `Bye-Child’, inspired by the publicity
of the "henhouse boy" case.
"Bye-Child" is an amazing encapsulation of the thoughts and feelings
that Seamus Heaney has towards mistreated and abused children.
The Title – ‘Bye-child’
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In Ireland, children who were at risk of neglect
were the illegitimate. These children were referred
to as, bye-children. (Ireland’s Children, Thomas E. Jordan)
Definition of ‘illegitimate’:
1. not authorized by the law; not in accordance
with accepted standards or rules.
2. (of a child) born of parents not lawfully married
to each other.
We can infer that the boy is born out of wed-lock
as only the mother is mentioned in the poem and
newspaper articles.
Narration
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One of the striking aspects of the poem is, however, the
lack of moral judgment against the mother. Heaney added
his own short statement about the mother and her son (‘He
was discovered in the henhouse where she had confined
him. He was incapable of saying anything’).
In the poem, the poet plainly described her routine activity
("She put through your trapdoor/ Morning and evening.")
Heaney avoided giving any moral values or criticism in
these lines. By so doing, the poet produced the impression
that he is disinterested in moral effects of the mother, and
he is free from any desire to judge her ethically.
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In `Bye-Child', Heaney omitted any descriptive
adjectives or adverbs for the mother, who had
been surrounded by nationwide adverse publicity
generated by the press, and, by so doing, he
redeemed her out of the arena of moral and
ethical judgments.
This sense of distance not only made it possible for
the reader to attend to impartial features of the
mother, but also allowed the poet to avoid being
trapped into imaginative surmise that had been
generated by malicious publicity that surrounded
the mother.
Imagery
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When the poet described the boy as a "little henhouse boy,
/ sharp-faced as new moons / remembered, your photo still
/ glimpsed like a rodent / on the floor" and as a “little
moon man … luminous", Heaney may have been
inspired by the photos which were issued by newspapers of
the day, to describe the boy, using imagery techniques.
In the photo, the boy is stretching his distorted arms for a
rubber ball, and his crescent face, in striking contrast to
the full moon shape of the ball, stands out clear against a
relatively dark wall and floor probably because of the use
of magnesium flare.
Word Choice
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In contrast to his deliberate psychical distance from me
mother, Heaney lavished empathic descriptions upon the
boy. Heaney's identification with the confined child he
displayed in his poem is so strong that he seems to enter
into the physical motions and sensations of the child.
When a lamp lit up in the main building, “the child in the
outhouse / put his eye to chink", and his `frail shape,
luminous / weightless, is stirring…dry smells from scraps /
she [his mother] put through your (his) trapdoor / morning
and evening." After the mother left the henhouse, and
after those footsteps, silence; / vigils, solitudes, fast, /
unchristened tears, / a puzzled love of the light."
Word Choice
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Heaney uses descriptive words which demonstrate
the suffering and neglect of the boy. ‘frail shape’,
‘weightless’
the ‘henhouse boy’ with ‘a puzzled love of the
light’ gets a tantalizing glimpse of ‘the lamp
glowing’ in the main building, where he would like
to return but is not allowed.
Again, this demonstrates Heaney’s empathy for
the boy. The boy pursues his dreams of finding
light and has nothing to look forward to.
Connotations of animal
characteristics
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Heaney's use of words, such as "henhouse",
"rodent", "cobwebs", "droppings", and
"roosts“. He may have been influenced by
original newspaper articles, where one of
their aimed effects was to impress the
reader by underscoring the animality of the
"hen house" boy and the idea of
deterioration.
Final Stanza
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The final stanza in 'Bye-Child' concentrates on the
discovery of the child. Heaney mentions that he
'speaks with a remote mime'. This illustrates the
his cruel neglect, and the fact that he can't talk
proves this.
The effect of his neglect is also evident in the
bodily image of the young child upon his
discovery. His existence is with 'something beyond
patience', which shows the awful extent of his
suffering, as no one can understand his situation,
his 'gaping wordless proof' a true reflection of the
lack of love shown to him.
Final Stanza cont.
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Heaney also mentions the 'lunar distances'
faced by the boy, which shows the reader
that he does not believe in God and that he
worships the moon, which is ironic as it is
God and religion that has placed him in this
neglectful situation in the first place.
The moon imagery also is a suggestion that
maybe he doesn't belong on earth, as he was
born illegitimately and is unbaptised.
Theme – isolation/alienation
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The boy has been ept in solitary confinement for years.
And after years of solitary confinement: ‘But now you
speak at last With a remote mime Of something beyond
patience, Your gaping wordless proof Of lunar distances
Travelled beyond love.’
These last lines of the poem show Heaney's empathic
temperament. Thus Heaney speaks, as the boy in the
henhouse does, "at last with a remote mime" on gross
alienation and profound loneliness. In his absorbed
contemplation, the poet took part in the boy's life both
external and internal.
Theme – social norms/conflicts and tensions within
the small rural communities
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The child and mother are trifled with cruelly by social and religious
mores. He is illegitimate in that he does not fit the social norms of the
Irish community.
the boy in "unchristened tears in "Bye-Child" had to travel "lunar
distances" that were "beyond love“
The "little henhouse boy", a deviant from the accepted social/religious
mores, cannot avoid being put out of the social framework, a fate
which may well gravely affect the emotional life of his mother.
Seamus Heaney explores oppression of both women and illegitimate
children, in a time where religion was most prominent and people were
confined to the guidelines of the church and it’s community, as it was
the ruling power.
Due to the strict and uncompromising Catholic community, the boy is
forced into a life of deprivation and suffering.
Theme - suffering
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Heaney focuses on describing the ‘henhouse’ boy’s thoughts, actions, living
conditions and physical appearance.
Heaney shows empathy for the boy’s
suffering mentally and physically, and also
that of being isolated from society.
Pain and suffering is apparent right from
the beginning, as Heaney mentions words
such as 'confined' and 'incapable'.
Structure and Rhyme
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Each stanza consists of 5 lines but have no
rhyme scheme, which shows that the social
and religious attitudes in Ireland, at the
time, were spiralling out of control.