The Toullund Man

‘The Toullund Man’

‘The Tollund man’ is one of my favourite Seamus Heaney poems, as the imagery in the poem sounds like the speaker is reminiscing memories of his past. The speaker states that he will go to Aarhus and see a man who was preserved in peat when he died “to see his peat-brown head” I also liked the structure of the poem because it is all written in quatrains, apart from the names of the dead bodies “Tollund, Grauballe, Nebelgard” this shows that the poet wants to outline these names, thus making the poem more personal and memorable as a name makes a character come to life!

I like Seamus Heaney so much because he first of all is Irish! Heaney rarely doesn’t have some sort of reference to his Irish background in his poems. This poem ‘The tollund man’ is an exception, although it does have an Irish setting to it. “Peat-brown head... turfcutters’... consecrate (religious practice)... farmyards” are all Irish things and remind us of Heaney’s background. I also like Seamus Heaney because of his intelligence when it comes to poetry. He is not boastful in his poems about his intelligence, as it is done on the sly. For example: ‘Bye child’ is framed in iambic pentameter with a blank verse, this is only found if you really study the poem and it may come as a shock. All Heaney’s poems have clever little things like this, that just make his poems flow so easily and grasp the attention of so many people

By S. W.