Lightenings iii
Heaney offered his reader a clue as to how to ‘enter’ the ‘Squarings’ poems: You could think of every poem ( ) as the peg at the end of a tent-rope reaching up into the airy structure, but still with purchase on something earthier and more obscure (DOD 320). So long for air to brighten, said Fosterling, Time to be dazzled and the heart to lighten. Heaney offers a master-class in describing, in the closest detail imaginable, what it takes to be a successful marble-shooter. Viewed through the lens of time a first order experience takes on new significance. Heaney runs through the infinite modulations of a childhood game played in the road outside Mossbawn farm, weighing up (squarings) […]