poetry | Spoons and Books

The paper I published in the journal East-West Cultural Passage entitled ‘”My Palate Hung With Starlight” – A Gastrocritical Reading of Seamus Heaney’s Poetry’ is now available online! You can find it here: https://doi.org/10.2478/ewcp-2019-0010

abstract

Nobel-prize winning poet Seamus Heaney is celebrated for his rich verses recalling his home in the Northern Irish countryside of County Derry. Yet while the imaginative links to nature in his poetry have already been critically explored, little attention has been paid so far to his rendering of local food and foodways. From ploughing, digging potatoes and butter-churning to picking blackberries, Heaney sketches not only the everyday activities of mid-20th century rural Ireland, but also the social dynamics of community and identity and the socio-cultural symbiosis embedded in those practices. Larger questions of love, life and death also infiltrate the scenes, as they might in life, through hints of sectarian divisions and memories of famine.

This essay proposes a gastrocritical reading of Heaney’s poetry to study these topics in particularly meaningful ways. Gastrocriticism is a nascent critical approach to literature that applies the insights gained in Food Studies to literary writings, investigating the relationship of humans to each other and to nature as played out through the prism of food, or as Heaney wrote: “Things looming large and at the same time […] pinned down in the smallest detail”.

key words

gastrocriticism, Seamus Heaney, food studies, Ireland, foodways, georgic poetry

Wet snow drips misery from the rooftops. I shouldn't have had that last bottle of beer. Or the dozen before it. Or that shot of tequila – I guess that was not such a brilliant idea. But last night, I was thirsty for beer and adventure and a glint in your eye told me you were too. So the drinks had no bottom, and the clock had no meaning, 'til the sky started turning a lighter blue. You bought the first round at the bar of the venue, a scene we've rehearsed on many a day. Cold beer in the dark, heartbeat soaring with drumbeat, and on stage someone sings what we never could say. We picked up more drinks on the way to the party. It was somebody's birthday, with cake and a grill. Someone brought out tequila. Someone brought out a camera. In the pictures you smile as only you will. Early this morning I woke up on your sofa and snuck out of the house while you were asleep. Maybe the next time we meet I will tell you that it's for you that my thirst runs so deep.

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Category Archives: poetry

Publication: A Gastrocritical Reading of Seamus Heaney’s Poetry

Thirst