A Hagging Match

In a love poem sequel to Tate’s Avenue Heaney demonstrates how to say ‘I’m stuck on you’ in twenty words. Let us imagine that the Heaneys are in Glanmore on an autumn afternoon – one of them is thinking ahead to winter and the comfort of an open fire; the other is at his work-desk, composing the poem that is taking shape in his head as he follows the sounds of physical labour. There are two protagonists (ostensibly anonymous but we know darned well who they are!), an I and a you – a ‘match’ is possible in all its senses. What the poet hears but cannot see conjures up associations in the poetic mind: the familiar sounds of axe […]