The final poem in Seamus Heaney’s book The Spirit Level, published in 1996, is a favourite. It makes reference to September and evokes images of two divergent landscapes. On one side of the road is the glittering sea and on the other side, the swans are placidly grazing or resting. The writer is caught in the middle between these two worlds.
Postscript
And some time make the time to drive out west
Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,
In September or October, when the wind
And the light are working off each other
So that the ocean on one side is wild
With foam and glitter, and inland among stones
The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit
By the earthed lightening of a flock of swans,
Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,
Their fully-grown headstrong-looking heads
Tucked or cresting or busy underwater.
Useless to think you'll park or capture it
More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,
A hurry through which known and strange things pass
As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways
And catch the heart off guard and blow it open
The best part about poetry is that it can be read and rediscovered over and over again, just like a favourite song, or a favourite novel. One reading or hearing is not enough!
And some time make the time to drive out west
Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,
In September or October, when the wind
And the light are working off each other
So that the ocean on one side is wild
With foam and glitter, and inland among stones
The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit
By the earthed lightening of a flock of swans,
Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,
Their fully-grown headstrong-looking heads
Tucked or cresting or busy underwater.
Useless to think you'll park or capture it
More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,
A hurry through which known and strange things pass
As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways
And catch the heart off guard and blow it open
The best part about poetry is that it can be read and rediscovered over and over again, just like a favourite song, or a favourite novel. One reading or hearing is not enough!