One morning early I met armoured cars

In convoy, warbling along on powerful tyres,

All camouflaged with broken alder branches,

And headphoned soldiers standing up in turrets.

How long were they approaching down my roads

As if they owned them? The whole country was sleeping.

I had rights-of-way, fields, cattle in my keeping,

Tractors hitched to buckrakes in open sheds,

Siloes, chill gates, wet slates, the greens and reds

Of outhouse roofs. Whom should I run to tell

Among all of those with their backdoors on the latch

For the bringer of bad news, that small-hours visitant

Who, by being expected, might be kept distant?

Sowers of seed, erectors of headstones…

O charioteers, above your dormant guns,

It stands here still, stands vibrant as you pass,

The invisible, untoppled omphalos.

Information

A protest poem with a theme of defiance. Based on a childhood memory, so past events.

One morning early

Starts like the beginning of a story or a fairy tale.

I

Makes it more personal.

armoured, convoy, camouflaged, soldiers, turrets

Military lexical field. Referring to the invasion. Metaphorically suggesting his childhood is being invaded and corrupted by the adult world. Similar to "Death of a Naturalist," "Strange Fruit," "Punishment." Clearly, this is a bad memory.

broken

Destroying the countryside.

my

Ireland is an occupied and divided place.

As if

Defiant tone.

sleeping

Could be interpreted in two ways. The first one is that Ireland is a dormant country that doesn't do anything about the problems at hand, which is a naive and childish way of thinking, which could stem from the fact that Heaney didn't grow up in Belfast to witness the true scale of the Troubles. The second interpretation is that it's simply early in the morning as suggested by the first line of the poem.

I had rights-of-way, fields, cattle in my keeping,

Tractors hitched to buckrakes in open sheds,

Siloes, chill gates, wet slates, the greens and reds

Of outhouse roofs.

Visual imagery with a list that shows breathlessness.

Whom

A volta which leads into a tone of confusion.

backdoors

The people's doors are open, which refers to a simplistic and "open" childhood.

small-hours visitant

Could be referring to the people who got kidnapped during the Troubles.

sowers of seed

Farmers.

erectors of headstones

Politicians.

charioteers

Ancient.

It

Ireland.

stands

Repetition of the verb "stands" shows resilience and defiance.

vibrant

Referring to how Ireland is full of culture.

omphalos

The center, navelstone, of the statue "Charioteer of Delphi." This could be referring to how Ireland is the center and will not be overtaken.