Andie Foley

Dr. Fuller

20th Century British Poetry/Prose

5/4/16

Afterword

Seamus Heaneys poem Out of the Bag tells the story of a young child welcoming a

new sibling, with particular curiosity about the infants origins. In the piece, a young Heaney

observes a mysterious (and somewhat imposing) doctor in the moments before and after the

babys arrival. Heaney recounts his juvenile speculation about the origins of this infant, with

fascinating and vivid imagery of an infant assembly room. However, Heaneys naturalist

technique paints these thoughts in rather gruesome detail. Through my childrens book Out of the

Garden, I have sought to extend Seamus Heaneys powerful and impactful style to the younger

generation by replacing butcher shop scenery with a more child-friendly garden. As you have

seen, the imagery is still quite peculiar while remaining approachable even to those faint of heart.

Out of the Garden seeks to capture the strong, often strange imagination almost

unanimously experienced in childhood. It is designed to be a story for all colors or creeds.

Examples of these design choices would be the different skin types in reflections, the female

doctor, the work-from-home mother, and the use of parents rather than mom and dad, etc.

[Side note: I did get held up with the use of mommies bellies when considering transgendered

men who choose to be gestational carriers. I decided against addressing this as we still have a

way to go before this is mainstream. Also, the concept is well as over the head of my intended

audience.] I also chose to use nonabrasive consonance, assonance, and alliteration enough to
make the sentences hint at musicality without being overtly sing-song. Finally, I chose to

include a strong emphasis on family, particularly that of the parent/child bond.

My intention was to connect Out of the Garden to Heaneys work through the above

measures. I have been repeatedly struck by his ability to describe mundane personal experiences

in a manner that makes them universal. Similarly, his command of sound is inimitable, threaded

together in hints, moments, or clusters in a way that gives melody to his writings. I chose to

name my characters traditional, earthy sounding names in effort to further pay tribute to

Heaneys eye for detail, nature, and nationalism envisioning the picturesque Ireland he so

dutifully captures in his work. Finally, I strove to give some manner of reverence to my silly

little tale, in the same way Seamus reverently discusses family and memory in his poetry. In

Out of the Garden, the mother is a safe, warm space and presence a vessel for Mother Nature

herself. I feel this same sort of affinity for the women in Heaneys family is communicated in

works such as Mossbawn, Red, White, and Blue, and, of course, Out of the Bag.