16 pages • 32-minute read
Two Lorries
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Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“The Guest Ellen at the Supper for Street People” by David Ferry (1999)
Another poem written in the traditional sestina form, Ferry uses perfect repetition of the same six words throughout, creating a cyclical atmosphere that emphasizes the mental illness of the woman featured in the poem. Published in 1999, three years after the publication of Seamus Heaney’s “Two Lorries,” this poem similarly plays with remembering the past and present, and how these events seem to overlap and create intersecting timelines.
“The Rain Stick” by Seamus Heaney (1996)
One of the poet’s most famous works from the same collection, The Spirit Level, “The Rain Stick” similarly plays with consonance and assonance to create a poem full of sounds that mimic the experience of a rain stick. The final line of this poem, “Listen now again” (Line 15), became the name of the Seamus Heaney permanent exhibition in Dublin, Ireland.
“Belfast Confetti” by Ciaran Carson (1987)
A contemporary of Heaney’s in Irish poetry, Carson explores the Troubles through this work. In this poem, the speaker is caught in the chaos of an explosive moment of protest and violence. Like Heaney, the speaker seems to question the point of this violence as they try to escape, only to be boxed in by the city and the authorities around them.
Further Literary Resources
“How writers sought to make sense of the Troubles” by Conor McCloskey (2016)
This article explores how several prominent Irish writers of the time used the Irish border conflict as a source of inspiration and social responsibility. The author demonstrates how writers like Heaney, along with William Trevor, Benedict Kiely, and Brian Friel, each approached the era from their own perspectives across literary genres.
“Missing Their Mark: The IRA’s Proxy Bomb Campaign” by Mia Bloom and John Horgan (2008)
In an effort to better understand the suicide car bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan at the time of the article’s publication, the authors look to the lesser-known history of IRA bombs during the Troubles, including the one in Magherafelt as discussed in Heaney’s poem, challenging basic assumptions about the way this martyrdom has been constructed in literature
An Interview with Seamus Heaney by Patricia Harty (1996)
The editor-in-chief of Irish America Magazine interviews Seamus Heaney just following the release of Spirit Level, in which this poem was originally published. Heaney discusses winning the Nobel Prize, his role as a poet, his writing process, and his mother, who is a central figure of the poem.
Listen to Poem
Listen to Seamus Heaney read his poem “Two Lorries.”
Heaney reads his poem “Two Lorries” on the 2003 Claddagh Records album, The Poet & The Piper.
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