Unseen poetry 2014 higher

2014 Unseen Poetry (Higher).

 

1(a)

Seamus Heaney recommends driving “all around the peninsula” for a number of reasons.
       
Firstly, he sees it as a good alternative to talking. “When you have nothing more to say” a long drive around this beautiful coastal area will act as words. Conversation will not be needed as you drive home because “now you will uncode all landscapes/By this..”
        
It is patently clear that the peninsula is an area of great natural beauty. Stanza three conveys a number of images that the poet feels one will “recall” after the journey. These images of birds and rugged landscape have much to recommend them.

 

 

1.    (b)

The first image that appeals to me is
   “At dusk, horizons drink down sea and hill,
    The ploughed field swallows the the whitewashed gable
     And you're in the dark again”.

I think this is a beautiful image of how nightfall happens in an area like this. The poet cleverly uses personification to convey the dramatic nature of how the darkness comes and “swallows” up the landscape. It is a vivid and clever image