Nationality: Irish (born in Castledawson, Co. Derry) Fact:
Seamus Heaney won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995.
READ
This poem is a section of a longer poem called ‘Clearances’. There are eight sections in total in ‘Clearances’, and every section has fourteen lines, often divided into eight lines grouped together followed by another six lines (like a sonnet, which you will learn about later).
When all the others were away at Mass by Seamus Heaney
When all the others were away at Mass I was all hers as we peeled potatoes. They broke the silence, let fall one by one Like solder weeping off the soldering iron: Cold comforts set between us, things to share Gleaming in a bucket of clean water. And again let fall. Little pleasant splashes From each other’s work would bring us to our senses.
So while the parish priest at her bedside Went hammer and tongs at the prayers for the dying And some were responding and some crying I remembered her head bent towards my head, Her breath in mine, our fluent dipping knives– Never closer the whole rest of our lives.
