Venturing Into No-man's Land

Often times, an artist, author, poet, or musician voices his/her opinions through the establishment of tone and mood of a piece. This can be done through vivid imagery appealing to every physical sense, violent and compelling diction, and the use of analogies, metaphors, or comparisons-all of which are important in adding emphasis and strengthening impact. Heaney, for example, uses detailed imagery in combination with an extended metaphor in order to emphasize the tense and fearful tone in "From the Frontier of Writing", and, in doing so, establishing his personal thoughts on the subject of writing.

The first thing one reads is the title-"From the Frontier of Writing", which, in itself, kickstarts the extended metaphor that makes up this poem. A frontier is, in this case, referring to the
warzone, implying that writing is like a battlefield- dangerous. There is thepressure to be
believable, and to compose work that is acceptable to a certain audience. This recurrence of
violent conflict is very common in Heaney's work-due to his life as a poet torm between the English and the Irish. To carry on the conflict, the first two stanzas literally describe an
inspection of a vehicle conducted by "the troops" who "inspect/its make and number, and, as one bends his face/towards your window, you catch sight of more/on a hill beyond, eyeing with intent/down cradled guns..."(2-6) This image of a warzone creates the feeling of scrutiong, which is emphasized by the constant threat of violence. The presence of more 'troops" or critics on the hill, holding guns, implies that a writer is constantly under social pressures, and constantly threatened with criticism.

Heaney seems to love violent and rather dismal comparisons, which is why the extended metaphor comparing writing to a battlefield is no surprise. Like I've already said, Heaney has been strongly infuenced by the Irish people, as well as his English upbringing, along with the persecution of Irish. Its no wonder he compares writing to war, for one has to think: perhaps the life of a writer really was at risk in this time period. Imean, if they tarred and feathered girls for dating Englishmen, I can hardly imagine what they' d do to a writer who's work has pro-English
connotations, hence the "interrogation" portion of the third stanza and the sergeant telling everything about the writer in the fifth. This suggests, that in order for an author to be socially accepted, his/her entire life comes under the microscope-he/she must have the "desired" or "proper" characteristics in order to be acceptedby the pressures of critics and society, and even...self.