Bone Dreams by Seamus Heaney Essay -- English Literature

Bone Dreams by Seamus Heaney – An Analysis Bone Dreams is an obscure and difficult poem to understand. In all my searching on the internet, I found very little to help me in my analysis of this poem and so the ideas are basically my own. I might be wide of the mark, but for anybody struggling to understand this poem, it might at least give you some ideas of your own. I make no apology for asking questions or for sounding vague or even muddled in places. I hope that this essay is of help to somebody, somewhere. The poem begins in a thoughtful mood; the voice is relaxed, â€Å"White bone found/on the grazing† suggesting that the speaker is walking in the countryside when he discovers a piece of bone in the grass. He uses tactile imagery to describe his find, the bone is â€Å"rough, porous† and has â€Å"the language of touch†. This image would be powerful if not for the mildness of the language, which conveys a musing quality in its passivity, for example, â€Å"found† and â€Å"grazing† - these words have nothing of a hurry about them and suggest a peacefulness of mind in the opening stanzas. He continues to describe the piece of bone, making comparisons with a â€Å"ship-burial† and notes the impressions in the grass as â€Å"yellowing, ribbed†. The word â€Å"ribbed† is suggestive, with its subject matter of bone, to a rib-cage. The bone takes on a significance which is greater than its intrinsic worth – which is nothing – because the speaker equates it with treasure; it is, â€Å"flint-find†, a â€Å"nugget of chalk†, the word nugget being quite often associated with gold, and therefore he says it has a value in itself. â€Å"Flint† suggests history, a link to the stone-age and the find is, in fact, described as being, â€Å"as dead as stone†. So here ... ... little points were the eyes†, as if to say that he had never really seen anything. Furthermore, if he is â€Å"identifying† with the English (if he is the mole) then this poem could be about trying to see through the eyes of the invader and coming to a new understanding through this identification process. The closing lines are highly optimistic, as if the sun has come out from being behind a very large, black cloud; â€Å"I touched small distant Pennines, /a pelt of grass and grain/running south†. The final section as a whole is highly suggestive of discovery or of realisation, of altered perception and of forgiveness for past sins. The poem begins in Ireland with a piece of yellowing bone, but ends in England with a dead mole. The bone found on Irish grass has taken him through a series of thoughts and memories. At the end he seems altered by the experience.