The Forge by Seamus Heaney

The Forge

Heaney begins with the line: 'All I know is a door into the dark.' This can be interpreted as the blacksmith stepping out of reality; into the ignorance of darkness. As he steps through the door it brings him back in time via his memories, as can be seen in the next line as he goes on to tell of the 'old axles and iron hoops rusting' outside. The adjectives 'old' and 'rusting' create the impression of age; that they have been affected by time. Heaney portrays the scene inside: 'the hammered anvil's short-pitched ring...' He wants to depict to the reader what a true forge was like. Also, he creates the idea that the anvil was necessary and vital in metal production by describing the anvil as 'hammered.' The writer attempts to prove to the reader how useful and, in turn, well used it was.

'The unpredictable fantail of sparks...' Heaney uses this line to contrast with the order of today's manufacture which is quite the opposite of his idillic memory. He tries to...