"A Call," by Seamus Heaney
Author: Seamus Heaney
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‘Hold on,’ she said, ‘I’ll just run out and get him.
The weather here’s so good, he took the chance
To do a bit of weeding.’
So I saw him
Down on his hands and knees beside the leek rig,
Touching, inspecting, separating one
Stalk from the other, gently pulling up
Everything not tapered, frail and leafless,
Pleased to feel each little weed-root break,
But rueful also…
The speaker makes this dramatic by starting it with a incomplete sentence. The first line makes the reader even more interested in what the poem could mean or what the poem is talking about. At the end it leaves the reader in a cliffhanger by not finishing the sentence and just ending it with a … which is a continuation.
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I’m the Tech Liaison for the New York City Writing Project. I… (more)
I’m the Tech Liaison for the New York City Writing Project. I… (more)
When I wrote this passage, I wanted to capture the emotion and the attention to detail that a farmer has when they are tending to their crops. I wanted to show how dedicated and careful farmers are to making sure that only the best crops reach the public. I want the reader to feel the juxtaposition of this man’s joy and sorrow as he focuses on the task with precision and care.
To end the passage on a bit of a cliffhanger, I wrote these lines: “But rueful also…”. Through this phrase, I am hoping to convey the farmer’s bittersweet feeling of uprooting less-than-perfect crops from the land as part of the life cycle of farming.
At the beginning of the passage, I wrote “Down on his hands and knees” to show the farmer’s humility and the arduous task he faces every day. As great effort is put into even the most mundane of tasks, I wrote, “Touching, inspecting, separating one/ Stalk from the other, gently pulling up/ Everything not tapered, frail, and leafless”. All of these words come together to show the precision with which the farmer does his job.
From this passage, I want readers to understand the respect and admiration that should be given to those who work hard in farming communities—not just for the food they provide but for the dedication and passion they have for their craft.
Now that I have told you what this passage means to me, I’d love to hear what you make of it. What other connections can you draw from it? What images does this passage bring to your mind? I’d love to hear about your thoughts!
I’m the Tech Liaison for the New York City Writing Project. I… (more)
I’m the Tech Liaison for the New York City Writing Project. I… (more)
Without knowing anything else about the context of the text, I would have to say my best guess is that the narrator thinks farming is b) noble. The narrator is described as being “pleased to feel each little weed-root break,” showing a sense of appreciation towards farming, so I believe that they view it as being a noble undertaking. At the same time, they also mention feeling “rueful” which could indicate a certain sense of difficulty or burden associated with farming, but I believe this would be outweighed by the sense of nobility.
by the way the speaker describes the anonymous “him”, we, the readers can learn little details about him, like how he is thorough and detail oriented since he is touching, observing and seperating every single stalk, instead of just randomly pulling out plants like a careless person would
This paragraph also makes me wonder who this person is and what the relationship they have with the speaker. The reader doesn’t know nothing about this anonymous “him”.
I think the speaker thinks of him as gentle because even when imagining him, she sees him doing things gently
Then found myself listening to
The amplified grave ticking of hall clocks
Where the phone lay unattended in a calm
Of mirror glass and sunstruck pendulums…
The speaker seems to be in a bubble of calm right before he, whoever he is answers
And found myself then thinking: if it were nowadays,
This is how Death would summon Everyman.
Next thing he spoke and I nearly said I loved him.
The speaker is in love with this man, from what I can tell and is scared of it slipping out, but maybe she subconsciously wants him to know, which is why she called him, and why she almost said she loved him
Throughout the whole poem the speaker describes this man they is calling. The speaker is thinking about what the man’s reaction would be while waiting for him to pick up. Then when he does pick up the speaker realizes how she really had this instinct to tell him how he/she feels about him.
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