The Haw Lantern by Seamus Heaney
Seeking Light in the Shadows: An Exploration of Truth and Symbolism in Seamus Heaney's ‘The Haw Lantern
The wintry haw is burning out of season,
crab of the thorn, a small light for small people,
wanting no more from them but that they keep
the wick of self-respect from dying out,
not having to blind them with illumination.
But sometimes when your breath plumes in the frost
it takes the roaming shape of Diogenes
with his lantern, seeking one just man;
so you end up scrutinised from behind the haw
he holds up at eye-level on its twig,
and you flinch before its bonded pith and stone,
its blood-prick that you wish would test and clear you,
its pecked-at ripeness that scans you, then moves on.
Hello and Welcome to Words that Burn, the Podcast taking a closer look at poetry. This week's poem isThe Haw Lantern by Seamus Heaney. In 2023, it has been ten years since the poet's passing and I think it’s fair to say that his presence both in Irish poetry and the broader idea of poetry is still incredibly alive. It might seem hyperbole to claim that Seamus was a titan of poetry, but if anything that is simply the truth.
There are few poets who were ever as popular both with academics and general readers as was Seamus Heaney (Morrison 1982). As author and poet Blake Morrison put it succinctly Heaney was ‘’"that rare thing, a poet rated highly by critics and academics yet popular with 'the common reader.'" Though personally I find the phrase common reader a touch insulting.
Heaney seemed to be capable of invoking the dense, intertextual poetic language so loved by academics, whilst simultaneously possessing an ability to allow any reader to feel and inhabit a place he described.
The places he described were numerous, from London’s Underground, a mythic limbo complete with psychopomp, an escort to the dead(Noyes 2008), and all. But most common in his work, a defining source of imagery, was the landscape of Ireland. Not some romanticised idyllic version, but a place rendered properly mud and all. Nature and the landscape seemed an ingrained part of Heaney’s psyche(O’Donoghue 2008), as this poem proves.
That intertextuality, the intentional referencing of another work of literature/fiction whilst creating a text(Genette 1997), became a hallmark of Heaney’s work particularly in relation to the classics, both Greek and Roman, a product of his education (Impens 2018). It was not unusual to find Pan in a tube station, or Hermes in a stream in a field in the middle nowhere. Gods and monsters roamed Ireland when Heaney held a pen in his hand. This approach to a melded mythology accomplished two things. Firstly, I believe it is part of the reason for Heaney’s phenomenal success and sense of universality. Secondly, his use of classical reference lent a much needed sense of gravity and severity to the events of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Like many Northern Irish poets, Heaney was almost expected to speak about the immense violence taking place in his country from the 60’s onwards(Burt 2019).
He wrote of them often, sometimes reluctantly and other times with a fervour born of the need to understand the chaos around him, but always with an immense sense of compassion for the ordinary people trapped in those horrific circumstances.
Perhaps it was all these things in combination that saw him receive the nobel prize in 1995 (“The Nobel Prize in Literature 1995” n.d.)
All this is testament enough to the calibre of poet that Seamus Heaney was, but maybe I should let his poetry speak for itself. The Haw Lantern is the titular poem that comes from his 1987 collection of the same name. The book is filled with poems seeking to make sense of what Northern Ireland is now. The collection is recognised as Heaney taking stock in the wake of the passing of both his mother and father. This led to a period of uncertainty and doubt for the poet (Parker 1993). The Haw Lantern may be Heaney’s way of seeking clarification through illumination then.
Before we dive into the poem I have a favour to ask, if you’ve been enjoying this episode or, if you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, please consider leaving me a review wherever you listen. It really helps to get the podcast out to more people.
With that being said, let's continue.
The first stanza of this poem sets that Irish scene that Heaney was so famous for:
The wintry haw is burning out of season,
crab of the thorn, a small light for small people,
wanting no more from them but that they keep
the wick of self-respect from dying out,
not having to blind them with illumination.
Here a power image of the uncanny is conjured. The wintry haw is a perfect example of the vernacular abbreviation that Heaney would often use to pull his audience directly into the Irish scene he was describing.(Johnston 2020). In his use of Haw he is referring to the Hawthorn Tree. A very symbolic tree in the folklore of Ireland.(Colton 2018). As journalist Stephen Colton wrote:
One of the ‘fairy-tree triad' of Ireland, ‘oak, ash and thorn', it was revered in ancient Brehon Law, known as the ‘commoner of the wood'. Such sacred trees and groves were considered as sanctuaries and often used as locations for celebrations. Hence any wanton cutting or destruction of them was a serious crime.(Colton 2018)
Heaney would have been well aware of the significance of the tree and so its inclusion is no accident. He continues with his typical abbreviation in the second line referring to the crab of the thorn or in full: the crabapple of the hawthorn tree.These tiny bright red berries are the small light for small people he is referring to. The small people our speaker is referring to could be interpreted in two different ways. On the one hand, it could be a nod to the little people of Ireland, the fairy folk for whom the tree is said to hold great significance. On the other hand the small people could simply be a reference to the ordinary people of Northern Ireland, who were always front and centre in Heaney’s work.(O’Donoghue 2008)
Given his moments of doubt and the escalating tensions in the north during the 80’s (McEvoy 2008), it's more likely that Heaney is referring to ordinary people. The Hawthorn is given a will of its own then as its wants are laid bare:
wanting no more from them but that they keep
the wick of self-respect from dying out,
That wick of self respect may be Heaney's hope that his country will survive the violence and chaos currently plaguing it without succumbing to the animalistic or primal responses: the opposite of self respect. In a simpler fashion however it could be a call for Northern Ireland to maintain some semblance of hope. The burning out of season then (the hawthorn shows its berries in autumn) is a call to stand against the times when things are at their darkest in the winter.
Hope was a common association with the Hawthorn tree in old Ireland.(McGarry 2023). As journalist Marion McGarry writes:
We often also see [the hawthorn tree] sanctified at Christian holy wells, sometimes with offerings tied to it. These rag trees offer the hope that as the tied offering disintegrates, so too will the ailment or worry it was placed there to represent.(McGarry 2023)
The final line of the first stanza is an example of the density that is sometimes characteristic of Heaney’s work: not having to blind them with illumination.
For me it is a simple allusion to the way in which the Hawthorn tree can act as a gentle reminder not to lose hope, it achieves this without the need of any great underlining but rather by simple existence.
If hope is the message of the first stanza, then the opposite is true of the second:
But sometimes when your breath plumes in the frost
it takes the roaming shape of Diogenes
with his lantern, seeking one just man;
so you end up scrutinised from behind the haw
he holds up at eye-level on its twig,
and you flinch before its bonded pith and stone,
its blood-prick that you wish would test and clear you,
its pecked-at ripeness that scans you, then moves on.
The winter of the first stanza has intensified and we are met with the immediate contradiction of the word but. Heaney begins to feed his audience once more, pulling them into the scene, first with the use of you and then with the sensory feel of breath pluming in the cold.
Then a touch of the uncanny and the classical is infused in the poem as the figure of Diogenes forms from the steam of breath. Diogenes is an interesting inclusion. Widely recognised as one of the founders of cynicism (McGarry 2023; Desmond 2014), he was perhaps most notorious for his strange practice with a lantern. It’s said that Diogenes would make his way through the city of Athens holding a lantern both night and day. He would confront citizens of the ancient city holding the lantern to their faces, when asked why he did such a bizarre thing he would simply reply that he was searching for a single truly honest man. Naturally he found none, and would turn from each face finding them wanting.(Laertius 2018).
So why has this ancient seeker of truth graced the planes of Northern Ireland? He is performing the exact same ritual he did in ancient greece:
with his lantern, seeking one just man;
so you end up scrutinised from behind the haw
he holds up at eye-level on its twig,
Heaney interprets his purpose as the hunt for one just man. Diogenes pours over the figure in front of the Hawthorn tree, the haw lantern with its burning berries. There is so much fluidity here that is pure Seamus Heaney. The poem is a swim in a series of images all at once classical and contemporary, Irish and Greek, never staying solid enough to be pinned down to a single idea.(Bruce 1989)
We begin to understand the you Heaney is referring to in the second stanza is more a third person recounting of an event that may be occurring to the poet himself. As previously mentioned this poem came about a time of great doubt and reassessing for Heaney. It is in these lines that he begins to look for solid ground, a stronger sense of self that wasn’t being eroded by outside circumstance. As the poem draws to a close however, Heaney is left with no more certainty than he began with:
and you flinch before its bonded pith and stone,
its blood-prick that you wish would test and clear you,
its pecked-at ripeness that scans you, then moves on.
That flinch tells Diogenes, and thus the hawthorn all they need to know. It’s interesting that Heaney describes the tree as bonded pith and stone. A recognition of the solidness of the nature before him and a contrast with the person who just moved in its presence.
The blood prick is a reference to the numerous thorns that grow about the tree, here a touch of medical imagery enters the poem and the speaker finds themselves hoping for some kind of blood test that might clear them of the doubt they feel.
Unfortunately it is to no avail as the pecked-at ripeness , the burning hawthorn crab apples weigh him and, much like Diogennes move on, finding him utterly wanting.
This is a powerful sequence of imagery and typical of the sort that Seamus Heaney frequently wrote in his work but the dense beautiful imagery can be obfuscating. So what is the central message of the Haw Lantern? It must be important, as this is the poem that gave its name to an entire collection. As with much of Heaney’s work, it helps to seek a little assistance with its meaning. Academic John Dillon had this to say on the devastating final lines of the poem:
Since this poem gives its name to the collection, we may take it, I think, that Heaney intends its imagery to have a central importance. Presumably he wishes his poetry as a whole to act as a kind of lantern of Diogenes, probing our consciousness, and separating out the bogus from the true. (Dillon, 1995)
If we take this to be true, it would be very fitting of the poet who was obsessed with the boundaries between things, the liminal spaces that came to be when they were ill defined and how change eventually came to everything.
Seamus Heaney’s obsession with unearthing the true nature of things was the great driving force of his poetry. However it rarely manifested in our literal manifestation of truth. His use of the natural landscape and entities from mythology were never to confuse or obscure the truths of the time he was living in but rather give his reader a lens through which to better understand the world around them, sometimes mired by literal reality.
The Haw Lantern is a perfect example, it is not flooded with folklore but rather holds only one reference infused gently throughout to better sharpen the point that Heaney is trying to make about doubt and uncertainty. His use of Diogenes, the father of cynicism becomes a mirror for the poet’s own scepticism8 of the things he once held as concrete
Perhaps Doctor Ellen Howley put it best when she said:
Heaney was a poet who drew from many wells… He turns to myth to see the contemporary more clearly - to understand it, to challenge it, to deepen it. (“New Book on Seamus Heaney’s Mythmaking by Dr Ellen Howley” 2023)
Ten years on from his passing in 2013, audiences are still turning to his mythmaking and poetry to better understand the world around them and the complex circumstances that seem to endlessly rear their heads. He is a poet who remains a driving force both for the everyman to better understand life and for poets to better understand how important their craft is.
What did you think of the poem? As always this is my interpretation and I’d love to hear yours. If you’d like to get in touch with me there are a few ways to do so.
You can reach me directly by email: wordsthatburnpodcast@gmail.com
You can get in touch through the podcast website: www.wordsthatburnpodcast.com
I’m on twitter or X @wordsthatburn
I’m on instagram @wordsthatburnpodcast and tiktok @wordsthatburn2
If you’d like to read the script for this week's podcast, complete with citations and sources, check the substack link in the description.
If you enjoyed the episode or know someone who might, consider sending it to them directly or leaving me a review wherever you listen.
Words That Burn is written and produced by me, Benjamin Collopy.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to the podcast once again.
Bibliography
Bruce, Benjamin. 1989. Water Imagery: A Study of Its Relationship to Language and the Feminine in the Early Poetry of Seamus Heaney.
Burt, Stephanie. 2019. “How Seamus Heaney Became a Poet of Happiness.” The New Yorker, October 3, 2019. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-seamus-heaney-became-a-poet-of-happiness.
Colton, Stephen. 2018. “Take on Nature: The Beautiful and Revered Hawthorn Is a Tree of Ancient Roots.” The Irish News. April 21, 2018. http://www.irishnews.com/lifestyle/2018/04/21/news/take-on-nature-the-beautiful-and-revered-hawthorn-is-a-tree-of-ancient-roots-1305977/.
Desmond, William. 2014. Cynics. Routledge.
Genette, Gerard. 1997. Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation. Cambridge University Press.
Impens, Florence. 2018. Classical Presences in Irish Poetry after 1960: The Answering Voice. Springer.
Johnston, Maura. 2020. From Aftergrass to Yellow Boots: A Glossary of Seamus Heaney’s Hearth Language.
Laertius, Diogenes. 2018. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Oxford University Press.
McEvoy, Joanne. 2008. The Politics of Northern Ireland. Edinburgh University Press.
McGarry, Marion. 2023. “Death, Sex, Superstition and Fear: The Hawthorn Tree in Ireland.” RTÉ. May 8, 2023. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2023/0508/1136776-hawthorn-tree-ireland-folklore/.
Morrison, Blake. 1982. Seamus Heaney. Methuen.
Dillon, John. “Classical Allusions in Seamus Heaney’s ‘The Haw Lantern.’” Classics Ireland 2 (1995): 52–66. https://doi.org/10.2307/25528277.
“New Book on Seamus Heaney’s Mythmaking by Dr Ellen Howley.” 2023. Dublin City University. May 26, 2023. https://www.dcu.ie/humanities-and-social-sciences/news/2023/may/new-book-seamus-heaneys-mythmaking-dr-ellen-howley.
Noyes, Deborah. 2008. Encyclopedia of the End: Mysterious Death in Fact, Fancy, Folklore, and More. Houghton Mifflin Company.
O’Donoghue, Bernard. 2008. The Cambridge Companion to Seamus Heaney. Cambridge University Press.
Parker, Michael. 1993. Seamus Heaney: The Making of the Poet. University of Iowa Press.
“The Nobel Prize in Literature 1995.” n.d. NobelPrize.org. Accessed September 20, 2023. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1995/summary/.