All through that Sunday afternoon
a kite flew above Sunday,
a tightened drumhead, an armful of blown chaff.
I’d seen it grey and slippy in the making,
I’d tapped it when it dried out white and stiff,
I’d tied the bows of newspaper
along its six-foot tail.
But now it was far up like a small black lark
and now it dragged as if the bellied string
were a wet rope hauled upon
to lift a shoal.
My friend says that the human soul
is about the weight of a snipe,
yet the soul at anchor there,
the string that sags and ascends,
weigh like a furrow assumed into the heavens.
Before the kite plunges down into the wood
and this line goes useless
take in your two hands, boys, and feel
the strumming, rooted, long-tailed pull of grief.
You were born fit for it.
Stand in here in front of me
and take the strain.
A poem from his Field Work collection which has a lot of retrospective thoughts and reflections. This poem is based on a memory of him flying a kite with his sons, Michael and Christopher. The themes explored are that of life, doubt, parenthood, purpose, fate and grief which links to poems such as Oysters and Postscript.
Throughout the poem, the stanzas get longer, perhaps suggesting that as life goes on, we have more weighing us down, more thoughts to reflect upon.
Light assonance sounds.
Coating of a kernel of grain. Something light and free.
Use of animism to describe the kite. Gives it animalistic properties.
Signposting.
Present tense. Vacillating between past and present.
Simile that compares the kite to a bird, which symbolizes freedom. Similar to childhood, kind of like in Death of a Naturalist.
Lexical field of "heavy." This symbolizes grief.
Group of fish.
Comparing the human soul to the kite.
Referring to farming.
Make the most of it.
Referring to his own death.
Talking to his kids.
The kite in a way.
One of the ways in which Heaney explores feelings and emotions in this poem is through the use of animism. This is seen in the second stanza when he states that the kite has a "six-foot tail." Initially, it might seem as though this is merely referring to the string, but Heaney then contrasts the kite with the human soul, stating that it has an "anchor" and that the "string sags." This animalistic feature of the kite is then given to the feeling of grief, as it too has a "long-tailed pull." This can be interpreted in multiple ways such as the kite or human soul wanting to be free but being weighed down by humanity and our experiences. This is further supported by the fact that the stanzas get longer as the poem goes on, perhaps suggesting how the soul gets heavier as life goes on due to our experiences and emotions. But in my opinion, the kite represents grief, and Heaney is passing it onto his sons by telling them that they "were born fit for it" and that they should grab the string in their "two hands." Heaney has done this to express the fact that grief is a natural part of life and we are capable of overcoming it.