Bogland

We have no prairiesTo slice a big sun at evening - Everywhere the eye concedes toEncroaching horizon,Is wooed into the cyclops' eyeOf a tarn. Our unfenced countryIs bog that keeps crustingBetween the sights of the sun.They've taken the skeletonOf the Great Irish ElkOut of the peat, set it upAn astounding crate full of air.Butter sunk underMore than a hundred yearsWas recovered salty and white.The ground itself is kind, black butterMelting and opening underfoot, Missing its last definitionBy millions of years.They'll never dig coal here,Only the waterlogged trunksOf great firs, soft as pulp.Our pioneers keep strikingInwards and downwards,Every layer they stripSeems camped on before.The bogholes might be Atlantic seepage.The wet centre is bottomless.

National Identity'We have no prairies''Our unfenced countryIs bog that keeps crustingBetween the sights of the sun''Our pioneers keep strikingInwards and downwards''The wet centre is bottomless'

Symbolism'The ground itself is kind, black butter''Missing its last definitionBy millions of years.''Every layer they stripSeems camped on before'

Imagery' We have no prairiesTo slice a big sun at evening''.... bog that keeps crustingBetween the sights of the sun''Melting and opening underfoot''The wet centre is bottomless'

Time'...bog that keeps crusting Between the sights of the sun''Butter sunk underMore than a hundred yearsWas recovered salty and white''Missing its last definitionBy millions of years''Every layer they strip Seems camped on before'

bog - motif for Heaney        (recurring symbol)

Green = metaphor

Bogs change just as identity changes.

Bog is a repositry of history (physical lik to memory/ the past)

 Orange = sensory

Never stops forming

Irish identity is down and inward.DEEP IRISHNESS

Passage of time

Identity has no beginning or end.

Bogland

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