From The Frontier Of Writing

In "From The Frontier of Writing" by Seamus Heaney, Heaney uses an extended metaphor to compare writing to getting through a military checkpoint. With in the first three stanza Heaney paints a good comparison of writing to a checkpoint. He mentions "troops inspect its make and number", this suggests they are either judging his writing or his background. It may also say that they don't see the speaker as a person, but as a number. He goes onto state "you catch sight of more on a hill beyond", this shows that no matter what there will always be someone judging you. In stanza three he mentions that "everything is pure interrogation", they seem to need to ask the speaker many questions before they let him go on.

In Stanzas four through six we see more judgement. He uses words such as "emptier", "spent", "quiver in the self" and "obedient" to show an emptiness or a trauma of being judged. In the fifth stanza he firsts mentions the "frontier of writing" and he says "where it happens again" showing that it's a cycle and he has moved on to a "Sargent" who will judge even further. Finally we see "the marksman training down out of the sun upon you like a hawk" which shows there is someone always over your shoulder ready to judge you.

In the last two stanzas he has finally made it through. He uses "the black current of a tarmac road" which gives the image of a wide open stretch of road allowing to go on freely. In the last line the Heaney uses the word "polished" and when something is polished it will reflect things. I think this image shows a writers reflection.