The Forge

1. The Forge Seamus Heaney

2. The form of the poem • This poem is a Petrarchan sonnet. A very formal type of poem with rigid rules of rhythm and structure. • In other words, it is a type of poem requiring great skill and technique. (like a blacksmith) • This makes it the perfect form for a poem that revolves around ideas of skill and creativity. • The octet focuses on the forge • The sestet describes the blacksmith himself.

3. The forge as a metaphor • Heaney uses the forge as a metaphor for the creative process….. • The blacksmith uses his skill to work on his raw mateials – iron - until it finally assumes the shape he intends. • The poet uses his skill and craft (with words) to shape poems from the raw material of his own experience. • So the poet and the blacksmith are both craftsmen working their raw material to create something new

4. 1 - 8 The poem opens with a sense of humility and deep mystery. • “AllI know is a door into the dark”. (note the alliteration and long ‘o’ sounds which evoke a sense of awe and expectation) • The image of the darkened door suggests that all creativity emerges from the hidden core of the soul. • It also suggests both past and future as sources of inspiration. • Heaney creates a contrast • Outside, where ugly common things lie rusting. • Inside, where the almost sacred and mysterious, creative process happens.

5. 1 - 8 • The rusting items outside represent the things a modern society casts aside because they are judged to be of little value. • But in the hands of the blacksmith they can be transformed into something new. • Just as experiences, memories, emotions – good and bad - etc, can all be transformed into something profound in the hands of a poet. • Note the sounds and the images as Heaney takes us inside….. • The “short pitched ring” of the anvil being struck by the hammer….”the hiss when a new shoe toughens in water”… • The “the unpredictable fantail of sparks”….the mysterious, altar-like anvil “horned as a unicorn, at one end square”. • These sounds and images engage our senses and imaginations.

6. 1 - 8 • The anvil itself, the heart of the creative drama, is still mysterious to the young Heaney as he thinks that “the anvil must be somewhere in the centre”. • The mysterious and almost sacred nature of the creative process is beautifully captured in the reference to the “unicorn” and the “altar”. • Heaney also describes the anvil as “immovable” which suggest the enduring nature of art. (this applies to all kinds of art)

7. 9 - 14 • The blacksmith is an almost priest-like figure. At the “altar” of the anvil he “expends himself in shape and music”. This language suggests an almost religious ritual. • The anvil-as-altar also suggests to the reader that there is no art, no poetry, nothing of beauty without great effort and sacrifice…..either through the pyhsical skill of the blacksmith, or the “wordcraft” of the poet. • The same can also be said of any real art form……music, painting, dance, sculpture, etc. • Note his appearance is a bit rough and ready….he is ”leather aproned, hairs in his nose”, he “grunts”. Not very flattering! • However, just as the old axles and iron hoops are are transformed by the blacksmiths craft, so too, the man himself is more than he seems. Inside the forge, the place of his creativity, he becomes a priest-like figure working at an “altar”.

8. 9 - 14 Note the importance of sound effects here. • The onomatopoeia of “the clatter of hoofs” recalling a bygone age of horses and carts. • The “slam and flick” as the smith returns to “beat real iron out, to work the bellows”. He does not seem nostalgic for a bygone era. Indeed, his reaction is dismissive and he returns to the forge to once again “expend himself in shape and music”.

9. Other possible themes in this poem • The forge, can also be read as a lament for a way of life that was fading fast in Heaney’s childhood. • The traditional important role of the blacksmith was gradually being replaced by the “traffic” of the modern world. • The blacksmith only “recalls” the sound of horses hooves as he takes a break from his labourbefore going back to “beat real iron out, to work the bellows”.