Terminus

Seamus Heaney’s “Terminus” first appeared in the London Review of Books (1984). The poem later appeared with an added couplet in The Haw Lantern (1987), Heaney’s first book of poetry published after the deaths of his parents. The poems—especially the “Clearances” sonnet cycle—meditate on Heaney’s own mortality and identity.

“Terminus” is a lyric poem that uses colloquial dialect from Heaney’s childhood in County Derry, Northern Ireland to express his identity in relation to his parents and ancestors. The poem features farming imagery to define Heaney’s relationship to his father’s ancestry, for instance. His father was a farmer and a descendant of the Ulster Irish, who farmed the land for generations. Heaney also mentions industrial images—such as a factory chimney—to represent his mother’s side of the family and its connection to the linen industry in Northern Ireland.

Heaney established himself as a member of the Belfast Group in the 1960-1970s, where he studied and then taught poetry at Queen’s University. His work fits with other writers of the Northern School like Michael Longley, Derek Mahon, Paul Muldoon, Ciarán Carson, and Maeve McGuckin.