>Erminia writes: "I deeply object to the use of "we"..."
>Matthew expands : "you said that you hated the use of "we" ....."
>Orpheus adds: " I am surprised that anyone can hate anything in a text"...
Mea culpa. I was trying to be so accurate, too.
I don't particularly want to defend Heaney against your criticisms. I
haven't kept up with his latest work, having never really taken to the
earlier. I have no doubt, though, that he's taken to seeing himself as some
kind of bardic spokesman, as perhaps almost anybody would when treated with
the reverence he has received. But I thought there was some justification
for the first use you cited. Surely what you call 'the Irish language' was
to him the words he grew up with, the ones which were used in his own
community, but which, in those days, had no official status. Isn't there a
valid contrast between the words 'we' (family, friends etc) used and the
language of books, school, authority? I know he's been mining this vein for
a long time, as you say, and one may be feeling a bit fed up with it by now;
nevertheless I wouldn't fault the language of this line, however much the
rest of the poem may overreach itself.
Best wishes
Matthew
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