Oldal 23 [23]
OCR
Orientation: Approaches to Place in Northern Irish Poetry ] 21 formative influences, with a tentative nod to its potential benefit, since “[t]he Northern poet [... ] enjoys the advantage of being both Irish and British.” The common experience of all the discussed poets is that of change, the need for dialogue with the traditions involved in the approach to place, resulting in active negotiation with the respective tradition. Montague’s spatial metaphor of the landscape as manuscript connects with the lore of place, yet his admittance of the problem of accessing it due to the loss of the language requires a different methodology of entering into contact with the heritage, with the concurrent recognition of the limited understanding that it entails.°” Heaney’s interest in local place names leads to a similar conclusion as the act of deciphering them involves specific effort for tracing the changes the current forms of the names display, with a consequent reliance on the poet’s own personal experience of the places they refer to. This is ultimately a necessary dialogue, one in which the personal precedes the learned and cultural, communal element, producing an essentially hybrid experience. Heaney also engages in a dialogue with the pastoral yet never fully gives in to its appeal due to the effect of personal experience. Montague’s attempts to return to the scene of his childhood also involve pastoral elements just to refute them due to change both in terms of the actual location and the observing speaker’s consciousness and experience. The two poets’ conclusion in this respect falls in line with John Hewitt’s disillusioned statement in his poem “Postscript, 1984”: “the whole tarnished map is stained and torn, / not to be read as pastoral again”, which ultimately suggests the inadequacy of the pastoral" to provide an adequate frame of representation for the current situation of place, especially in the context of Northern Ireland. Longley’s keen-eyed interest in the natural world is indicative of some form of longing for permanence and stability that derives from his distrust of human constructs, which also testifies to an understanding of place as intricately related to time. Mahon’s awareness of the importance of time, including specific momentary weather conditions as reminders of a dimension beyond human control, as well as his understanding of the effect of other locations on the assessment of particular places indicate his approach to place as a highly complex one that reflects the general changes to the concept of place observable through a broad range of disciplines. The poets addressed in the following essays are well-known and well-established literary artists from Northern Ireland. John Montague, Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley and Derek Mahon all present aspects and facets of poetry from Northern Ireland that emerge from that particular social and cultural context that the province embodies, and while their poetries connect in many ways with the broader Irish tradition, they are clearly marked by the 66 Brendan Kennelly, Journey into Joy. Selected Prose, (Newcastle: Bloodaxe Books, 1994), 61 8” cf. John Montague, Collected Poems (Loughcrew: The Gallery Press, 1995), 33 68 John Hewitt, Freehold and other poems (Belfast: The Blackstaff Press, 1986), 26 6° a detailed assessment of the pastoral is presented in the essays “Yet something mourns.’ Pastoral elements in John Montague’s poetry” and “Heaney’s Glanmores - Almost Pastoral (?)”
