Seamus Heaney’s ‘Ethical Vision’ from Death of A Naturalist to Human Chain

Abstract

This paper aims to prove that Heaney shows his ‘ethical vision’ through all his poems, which is exceptional among the modern poets. What I mean by ‘ethical vision’ is the love and responsibility for his root—his own parents, land, and belief —as well as his love and responsibility for others. His poems can be classified into three steps according to what Heaney searches for: Celtic and Gaelic tradition, Glocal one and ‘uisneach,’ Irish spiritual center. The reason that we can apply the word ‘ethical’ to the early poems is that his early poems express his responsibility and love for his root such as parents, folk tradition, his own land and people. Further, his middle poems also show that he tries to maintain the balance in his view of the world, which can be called ethical, because keeping balance accompanies acceptance of others and criticism of himself. Besides, his search for ‘uisneach’ as Irish spiritual and aesthetic center in his later poems reflects another ethical vision because ‘uisneach’ means Irish spirit featured with reconciliation and beauty.