Oysters (Seamus Heaney)

As a surprising number of posts on my facebook wall this morning mentioned, Seamus Heaney died today at 74. I don't know much of his work; I only have one of his poetry books - the excellent Field Work. However, the first poem in it, Oysters, is one of my favorites and has special significance for me.

I had only recently tried oysters when I first read the poem and the line "My tongue was a filling estuary" was such a thunderstroke. Yes, that's it. As was the descriptor of the seafood as "Alive and violated." Eating oysters is so unlike eating other meats/seafoods - it is more basic, primal and more delicate, full of sensations.

This poem is about oysters; it is about history (nice little bit about how the Romans got their oysters); it is about writing. It makes for a marvelous opener to the whole book and really gets to explaining the how and the feel of writing.

And that last line! Mmm. "I ate the day/Deliberately, that its tang/Might quicken me all into verb, pure verb." WOW. I remember reading this and hitting that closing line and being simply blown away. Stunning, stunning, stunning.

Thank you, Seamus Heaney.

Favorite line: "Might quicken me all into verb, pure verb"