Journal Entry 1 by Cassiopaeia from Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom on Friday, May 30, 2008

Synopsis
"Death of a Naturalist" marked the auspicious debut of poet, Seamus Heaney, with its lyrical and descriptive powers.

One of my favourite poems from this collection.

Sygne on Aran.

Salt off the sea whets
the blades of four winds.
They peel acres
of locked rock, pare down
a rind of shrivelled ground;
bull-noses are chiselled
on cliffs.

Islanders too
are for sculpting. Note
the pointed scowl, the mouth
carved as upturned anchor
and the polished head
full of drownings.

There
he comes now, a hard pen
scraping in his head;
the nib filed on a salt wind
and dipped in the keening of the sea.


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