The Butts (2)

The Butts, By Seamus Heaney

I like The Butts by Seamus Heaney because it shows the transition between child

hood and adulthood for the character in it. For example, when the poem changes

from the childhood of a boy stealing cigarette butts from his father’s pocket, into

a man who is taking care of his father in old age. This shows the human side of

things. The love shown for his father when he says “Closer than anybody liked”

when he was washing his father showed a certain kind of love that the author

felt for his father. I also like the description of when the character in the poem is

stealing cigarette butts from his father’s pocket it says “suit cloth…pressed against

my face”. This scene is explained very well with the use of senses to make you

imagine what the poet is imagining. For example "Stale smoke and oxter- sweat".

There are three characters in this poem, The father, son and the narrator.This

poem has 11 tercets and has no rythming scheme.Heaney uses assonance often

in the poem, for example "suits, short, sleeved, sweat, stale". Alliteration starts

in the first line with abrupt b and d sounds. The poet uses imagery to make the

reader imagine a complex image of an equally difficult situation in a subtle way,

to feel like the boy in the poem was feeling with his hand in the pocket of the

jacket "Then delved past flap and lining". One of the main themes in this poem is

memory. The memory of stealing the cigarette buts from his father's pocket, then

washing his father.