Poetry Comparison Essay

Which terms are used to describe the conflict in Northern Ireland (or maybe you say the north of Ireland) depends upon who is approaching the subject. One method that is present, no matter which side is in question, is using silence to avoid the discussion or to preserve one’s own views on the issue. Silence and murder are closely connected…While silence is a way to avoid the conflict, it is also a tool of hatred. Sean O’Casey’s Shadow of a Gunman and W.B. Yeats’ “Easter 1916” both encourage silence. Seamus Heaney’s North and Ciaran Carson’s Belfast Confetti in particular both negotiate their way through the Troubles with silence. Northern Ireland was known as a dangerous place during the Troubles. In “Whatever You Say, Say Nothing”, the speaker

Yeats spoke out against those who spoke up in his poem “Easter, 1916”. The structure and rhyme scheme of this poem are much more elementary than much of his poetry. The lack of complexity of Yeats’s style is reflective of his straightforward message, that those in the Easter Rising are not great martyrs, but rather they have altered Ireland for the worse. This is evident in the last two lines of each stanza “a terrible beauty is born.” This implies a sublime beauty that is terrifying rather than uplifting. He encourages a silence on issues because he believes it is all for naught, especially since most of the major planners of Rising were executed for their deeds. One of the many stanzas in which he denunciates the rebels in the Rising is about Countess

In Heaney’s view, “Ulster was British, but with no rights on / The English lyric: all around us, though / We hadn’t named it, the ministry of fear” (60, Singing School I. Ministry of Fear). This is another act of silence on a subject that is at the heart of the Troubles, it’s something unnamed thus no one speaks about it. Heaney is addressing the militarized state of fear within Ulster County. Although the British army was originally brought in to protect Catholic neighborhoods, the army ended up protecting the Protestants while they committed crimes against the Catholics. Even the narrator cannot drive without coming to a roadblock, read his letters. “Singing School” also talks about schools teaching their pupils to write lies home, “I still wrote home that a boarder’s life/Was not so bad” (59). This is another act of not speaking about a problem. The speaker will not write home about his troubles because he is taught not to speak about them and is perhaps afraid to do so. Thus, there is a ministry of fear in schools and a ministry of fear in the