Limbo

Lindsey Cherry Essay #1 Mr.
Anderson Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place The clear expression of mixed feelings, was a quote from W.H. Auden, which is a precise understanding of the context in Limbo, written by Seamus Heaney, a Nobel Prize winning Irish poet, and professor of poetry at both Harvard and Oxford (Seamus). Auden himself was a British born American poet educated at Oxford, best known for the versatility in his work (W.H. Auden). In Limbo, Heaney illustrates a child who has lost salvation and is now at a midpoint, away from heaven, as well as the conflicts of the mother, as she decides to drown the life of her newborn. The poet, Heaney, also has mixed feelings for the mother; therefore, he did not condemn the mother for her crime against life, but, on the same token, translates that the loss of the childs life is a great tragedy. Seamus Heaney uses a fishing theme throughout the story in order to tie it together for the reader, but also to reference the catch in life. In Limbo, both the word limbo, and fishing are main themes in the poem. Limbo is defined as many things, the first being a region on the border of hell or heaven, serving as the abode after death of unbaptized infants, which perfectly describes the child found in Limbo (limbo). This infant is caught in the conflict of the time, ad being both illegitimate and not baptized, not even the hand of God can save his soul. Heaney acknowledges that by referring to the child as an illegitimate spawning, which has to do with the childs birth and by also alluding to the fact that even Christ cannot save his soul, hence in limbo forever, by saying that even Christs palms, unhealed, smart and cannot fish there. Christs palms, unhealed makes reference to the crucifixion of Christ on the cross for the sins of the world; whereas, cannot fish there means that due to circumstances, even that sacrifice will not save that childs soul.
Lindsey Cherry Essay #1 Mr. Anderson Another definition to the word limbo is the place or state of oblivion to which persons or things are regarded as being relegated when cast aside, forgotten, past, or out of date (limbo). This can be applied to the mother as she struggles with herself emotionally to cope with her decision to drown her child. She stood in the waters ducking him tenderly, motherly, and lovingly as she takes his life; however, he was tearing her open. She was torn with her choice, and was in limbo between valuing his life, and for her own reasons not being able to keep him and deciding to end his life. In that space between her and her child, she was disregarding all but her judgment and her child, everything has been cast aside, even time as she wades till the frozen knobs of her wrists were dead as the gravel. The author also recognizes her struggle emotionally. Heaney wrote about her struggle in an emotional, sympathetic way. He begins describing the scene with gentle words such as small one, shallows, ducking, etcetera, but as the poem reaches the end, he uses strong dark words like cross, hauled in, and cold glitter of souls, which all depict the general awareness that what she has done was an evil deed. The inner turmoil that the author portrays in his poem, Limbo, helps the reader to understand the perception of the childs death mainly through the actions of the mother by taking us through her trials. Heaney also made fishing a main theme in his poem to draw in the reader by connecting different scenes by a central motif. He referenced the baby to be an illegitimate spawning, which illegitimate is the literal allusion to the birth status of the human child, but he ties in spawning, which is the verbal allusion to how fish birth their fry. He also illustrates how the baby was killed, as in the place and the literal killing of the baby, by saying the baby was a small one thrown back. This makes reference to
Lindsey Cherry Essay #1 Mr. Anderson a small fish, when fishing, is thrown back the water. Heaney also calls the baby a minnow with hooks in connection with the mother since she has such ties to him that it breaks her heart to have to kill him. Keeping with the fishing theme, Heaney compares the baby to a minnow, and says that in drowning him, or the baby being thrown back, she has been torn by the hooks that have become attached to her because of her child as if by killing her child she is killing a part of herself. One of the most important illustration of the fishing theme comes when Heaney describes the sacrifice of Christ not being enough to save the soul of the infant by saying that even Christs palms, unhealed, smart and cannot fish there. There was no literal meaning when he stated cannot fish there, he meant it as an allusion to Christs inability, based on Catholic belief, to have the child join him in heaven. In conclusion, both the fishing and limbo motifs develop the poem Limbo, written by Seamus Heaney. He develops both the child and the mother as being in an intermediate state, as well as his form by the imagery words he uses. The child, being illegitimate, is unable to be saved by Christ, so therefore will stay in Limbo outside heaven. The mother herself has emotional conflicts between loving the child and wanting to nurture it, and having to make the hard choice to drown him herself. And finally, the author uses soft words in the beginning, then harsh, ugly words at the end to show both conflicts between action and emotion. He ties all these scenes together by the central motif of fishing so that the reader will relate them in a smoother manner which was clearer to relate to with the confused, scrambled feelings of an unfortunate reality.
Lindsey Cherry Essay #1 Mr. Anderson Works Cited Frngsmyr, Tore. "Seamus Heaney - Biography". Nobelprize.org. 1995. 16 Sep 2011 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1995/heaney-bio.html "limbo." Dictionary.com. 20 Sept 2011. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/limbo. "W. H. Auden." Biography.com. 2011. 16 Sep 2011. http://www.biography.com/people/w-h-auden-9192132.

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Lindsey Cherry Essay #1 Mr.

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