Settings xiii

  The ‘Settings’ sequence presents a chain of backdrops against which personal events and dramas were played out. Within the dynamic of Seeing Things Heaney  deliberately swooped on anything that stimulated memory or association (DOD 320),  willingly transported back by the poems that ‘came on’ to the sites, sensations and moments of primary experience, whence he sets out to give the  marvels that emerged the credit-rating they failed to achieve first time round. The rich tapestry of Heaney’s upbringing and his subsequent career and relationships are particularly suggestive of the decorative mountings into which priceless gemstones and rich memories are set both as invaluable personal items and poems of beauty.  Settings xiii unfolds within a setting of sun-drenched languor: hints […]