Montague and Heaney Both Write About Their Childhood Memories. Compare and Contrast Two Poems, One by Each Poet, Taking Into Account the Methods (the Situation and Tones of the Speakers, and the Form, Structure and

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The poems ‘The Barn’ by Seamus Heaney and ‘Like Dolmens Round my Childhood’ by John Montague both explore a similar theme, childhood memories. The two poems are about the poets own childhood experiences and how as they grow older they view the events differently compared to when they were a child. The poem ‘The Barn’ is from Irish poet Seamus Heaney’s poetry anthology ‘Death of a Naturalist, 1966’ in which Heaney wrote many poems about his childhood experiences. The poem describes a barn, what it looks and smells like, and how when Heaney as a child was so terrified when entering it that this fear was realised in his dreams. On the other hand, the poem ‘Like Dolmens Round my Childhood’ is from John Montague’s anthology ‘The Rough Field, 1972’ which was written at the beginning of The Troubles. This particular anthology is the Irish translation for ‘Garvaghey’ where Montague lived after moving to Ireland from America when he was a young boy. Montague was very fond of the dinnseanchas tradition involving the origins of place names and traditions concerning events/characters associated with places and this link to mythology was highlighted in many of his poems. The poem describes a person or family from his childhood in each stanza, Montague gives his childhood perspective first before giving a contradicting view as an adult and how these people are now linked to Ancient Ireland. The simile in title of Montague’s poem tells the reader that the poem is about Montague being surrounded by various people as a child just like the standing stones ‘dolmens’. On the other hand, the short and simple title used in Heaney’s poem ‘The Barn’ simply tells the reader that the poem will be about a particular barn. The two poems have a similar mood as ‘Dolmans’ is quite bleak with a certain awe and ‘The Barn’ is quite ominous and becomes more threatening towards the end of the poem.

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