18 pages 36 minutes read

Seamus Heaney

North

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1985

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Literary Devices

Meter and Form

“North” consists of ten unrhymed quatrains—stanzas of four lines—without a consistent meter. The poem shares some elements with the ode, which is a type of lyric poetry directed toward the appreciation or celebration of a particular person, place, or object. Odes have no specific formal requirements and are defined by their subject matter and tone. However, while “North” echoes odes like Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” it has a much more passive and fleeting relationship with its subject matter. For instance, the poem begins with the speaker’s view of “the Atlantic thundering” before the raiders “suddenly” appear (Lines 4, 8), occasioning a mediation on historical artifacts—a mutability of subject that is uncharacteristic of traditional odes.

Heaney’s poem, then, is best understood as free verse, or poetry without any traditional formal restrictions. Instead, “North” relies on Heaney’s careful use of vowel and consonant sounds to give the poem a spoken rhythm that plays with the sounds of Old English alliterative verse. Heaney’s partial engagement with this antiquated form, structured around the quality of a word’s sound rather than its stresses, reinforces the poem’s messages about the value of oral poetry traditions.

Related Titles

By Seamus Heaney

Study Guide

logo

Act of Union

Seamus Heaney

Act of Union

Seamus Heaney

Study Guide

logo

Blackberry Picking

Seamus Heaney

Blackberry Picking

Seamus Heaney

Plot Summary

logo

Death of a Naturalist

Seamus Heaney

Death of a Naturalist

Seamus Heaney

Study Guide

logo

Mid-Term Break

Seamus Heaney

Mid-Term Break

Seamus Heaney

Study Guide

logo

Punishment

Seamus Heaney

Punishment

Seamus Heaney

Study Guide

logo

Scaffolding

Seamus Heaney

Scaffolding

Seamus Heaney

Plot Summary

logo

Seeing Things

Seamus Heaney

Seeing Things

Seamus Heaney

Study Guide

logo

Two Lorries

Seamus Heaney

Two Lorries

Seamus Heaney

Study Guide

logo

Whatever You Say, Say Nothing

Seamus Heaney

Whatever You Say, Say Nothing

Seamus Heaney