Heaney's "The Forge"

In Seamus Heaney’s The Forge, I was fascinated by his precise choice of diction, and the subtleties of his work. I was also interested with the integration of the past with the present in this poem.

At the beginning of the poem, the narrator states “all I know is a door into the dark.” He describes the outside of the workshop using what he sees, while he can only speculate what is inside the workshop. It is interesting that his speculation lasts for almost the entire poem. In describing the work that the blacksmith does, the narrator uses diction which appeals to the sense of hearing. Words such as ‘hiss,’ ‘clatter,’ ‘grunts,’ ‘slam and a flick’ and ‘beat’ all describe sounds which we can imagine. He does this to illustrate how difficult the work is, as none of these are pleasant, relaxed sounds. Another significant reason why the narrator uses sound imagery is because, although he cannot see into the workshop, he can hear some of the things that are going on inside. Therefore the sounds he hears are not complete speculation.

Heaney also goes to great lengths to describe the blacksmith, and in doing so he creates a contrast between the past and the present, or Old Ireland and post-Industrial Ireland. The blacksmith is described as being “leather-aproned, hairs in his nose.” The fact that he isn’t well groomed suggests that he is not as modern or up-to-date with his cleanliness or that he is not of the upper-class.

The tension created between the past and the present occurs as a result of the blacksmith’s reaction when he looks outside: “recalls a clatter of hoofs where traffic is flashing in rows; then grunts and goes in.” Traffic and cars are now where horses and carriages once were. Another distinction arises as a result of the differences in organization between the two transportation methods: ‘clatter’ suggests that the sound is unorganized or random, while the ‘traffic is flashing in rows,’ meaning it is uniform. The blacksmith shows his disapproval by grunting. Furthermore, he goes inside to “beat real iron out.” The word ‘real’ shows that he believes that his iron is authentic because it is handmade, not fake and made by a real person.