Planting the alder

A sonnet celebrating a tree that flourished in the riverbank landscape of Heaney’s upbringing and later life. Alders abounded along the banks and damp conditions of the river Moyola. The poet’s tribute will lead to an urgent appeal, albeit an instruction, echoed in the title, to ensure that the tree’s particular beauty is ever renewed. The poet takes on the challenge of describing colours and textures in a lyrical version of what might be found in a botanical handbook of trees, citing compelling reasons for planting the alder. He raises a glass to each of its drumroll of qualities. For the alder’s upper-crust heraldic bark of dulled argent interspersed with lighter patches (pigeon collared). For its leaves as they inter-react […]