Seamus HAYney

I really enjoyed Seamus Heaney. I thought he used a lot of great imagery. One poem in particular that stuck out to me was "The Otter." It reminded me of Hughes' "Thought-Fox" and wasn't really like any of Heaney's other poems that dealt with punishment or Ireland. At the beginning of the poem we get this image of a playful otter in the water. "Your fine swimmer's back and shoulders/ Surfacing and surfacing again/ This year and every year since." Then there is an image of the speaker of the poem sort of embracing the otter: "When I hold you now/ We are closed and deep." The end of the poem brings us to the conclusion that the otter is simply a cherished memory "In the pool of the moment." Then, as swift as it had come, "suddenly you're out,/ back again, intent as ever,/ Heavy and frisky in your freshened pelt,/ Printing the stones."

The way I interpret this, the otter is a memory or thought in the speaker's mind. It swims about, to and fro, in and out of the water. The very end where the speaker talks about the otter's "freshened pelt" could be the fact that the speaker is now able to look at this thought, or memory, in a new or different way before it goes away, "printing the stones." Like in Hughes' "Thought-Fox," I feel like the otter is a sort of muse for the speaker, allowing him to take a thought, swish it around, and consider it from all angles. I would also like to add that since I love Romantic poetry, this poem's naturalness triggers something of an echo from the Romantic period and I just really liked it.