Comments on naijablog: Heaney for beginners

Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tag...

2008-09-23T10:10:00.000+01:00

Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore, a poet, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer. He became Asia's first Nobel Laureate when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature.

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by

narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the

dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening

thought and action;

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake."

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

Between my finger and my thumb, I see one that is ...

2008-09-22T14:41:00.000+01:00

Between my finger and my thumb, I see one that is numb! But why the hell is my hand going numb? Now look at my thumb, or are you dumb? This is what I sing of the numbness in my thumb from hours of playing the dumb guitar

"Between my finger and my thumbThe squat pen rests...

2008-09-22T13:03:00.000+01:00

"Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; as snug as a gun."

"Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it."

from 'Digging' my fave Heaney poem. http://www.wussu.com/poems/shdigg.htm

Even more accessible than 'Trout' I think - especially because it is easier to identify with - a story of 'father and son', of a 'generational shift', of the passage of time, of the origins of artistic creativity, and at the same time, a 'nature poem'. And the singular reference to 'gun' seems to be a brilliant allusion to Northern Ireland's troubles.

Every poet needs to write his/her own 'Digging' i think...

An aside: he seems to be a man who can't afford to waste even one word...