Understanding Requiem for the Croppies by Seamus Heaney

1. Requiem for the Croppies
Seamus Heaney

2. Watch this interpretation of the
poem. What is the poem about?

3. Basic Information
Structure: Sonnet (14 lines, without division into
sections)
Language: past tense
everything happened
giving more emotional impact
“we” referring to the Irish rebels
“they” English enemies

4. Definitions & Historical
Aspects
Cropped Hair vs long haired aristocrats. Who are
the Irish and who are the English?
What happened 21st June 1798 in Vinegar Hill?
What is barley and what is it used for?

5. written in 1966 on the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter
Rising of 1916
Heaney celebrates not the Rising itself but what he
considers its original seed in the rebellion of 1798." Neil
Corcoran
Poem was printed in his second collection Door into the
Dark

6. Easter Rising
the harvest of seeds sown in 1798,
when revolutionary republican ideals and national
feeling coalesced in the doctrines of Irish
republicanism and in the rebellion of 1798 itself -
unsuccessful and savagely put down.

7. Basic Information
Heaney tells the story of the _______ though the voice of a random dead croppy boy and, therefore, the rebel's point of
view.
The poem is written in _______ form - 14 lines - but with no division into stanzas.
The poem describes the _______ the Irish rebels had to undergo.
Heaney focuses on the old-fashioned weapons - _______, _______ - the rebels used.
The rebels also used _______ _______ to stampede into the lines of British solders.
The poem shows how the rebels used clever tactics to attack the superior army.
The rebels included _______, _______and _______
A _______, Father John Murphy, led the rebellion in Wexford.
The first line and the last line both mention barley, the _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______
_______ _______ _______ _______ _______
The setting of the last lines of the poem is _______ _______ where the rebels were defeated. Vinegar Hill in Wexford was
the site of the battle in which the rebels were defeated.
By describing the hillside as "blushing", Heaney expresses the vast amount of blood that was shed
The rebels who died were buried without a coffin or even a shroud.

8. About the Poem
Theme:
Irish freedom
Life and death
Tone:
distant
urgency of separation
Mood:
sombre
tragedy in the poem
fatalism
Form
sonnet 14 lines
most lines 10 syllables (some run over)
adds to the meaning as it comes from an
uneducated narrator
Voice
1st person plural
Rhythm
full of punctuation making the reader stop and
think about what is being said

9. Lines 1,2
The pockets of our
greatcoats full of
barley…
No kitchens on the run,
no striking camp…
Where are they?
Why don’t they have a
kitchen? What does this
imply?
Why are they on the run?
Is it possible for them to
set up camp somewhere?

10. Answers
They are on the run from the English
They have to carry their food with them so they are
considered nomads

11. Questions
We moved quick and
sudden in our own
country.
The priest lay behind
ditches with the tramp.
What does the 3rd line mean by the
emphasis of “our own country”?
What is a ditch? Why were the
priests there?
Why does it mention the priest and
the tramp? What place in society
do they hold and how are they
given the same place in this poem?

12. Answers
1.Ironic phrase as Ireland was dominated by the English
and not the Irish.
2. Because they had to hide. Not even priests were safe
from the English.
3.The priest (especially then) was a symbol of holiness and
purity whereas the tramp was the lowest of mankind.
There was no difference between the people. All classes
were under persecution because they were Irish.

13. Questions
A people hardly
marching… on the hike…
We found new tactics
happening each day:
Who marches? Are
the people here
marching? What could
it represent?

14. Answers
1.The people were common people and trained
army men. They were not organised and they
had not special training.

15. Questions
We’d cut through reins
and rider with the pike
And stampede cattle into
infantry,
What tools do they
use to fight? What is
their purpose?

16. Answers
1.These tools are used for farming. Again we are
seeing the Irish in disadvantage.

17. Questions
Then retreat through
hedges where cavalry
must be thrown.
Until… on Vinegar Hill…
the final conclave.
Research what
happened in Vinegar
Hill. How are these
lines examples of
what happened?

18. Answers
Did you think you would get the answer that easily?
Go and research what happened! This poem has a
strong historical presence and you should find out
what happened.

19. Questions
Terraced thousands died,
shaking scythes at cannon.
The hillside blushed,
soaked in our broken
wave.
Find an example of
personification. How
does this add
meaning to the poem?

20. Answers
1. It is used to express the immense amount of
bloodshed that splattered along the hills making
them as read as blushed cheeks. This also
creates a sense of embarrassment fo what has
been done to these people.

21. Questions
They buried us without
shroud or coffin
And in August… the
barley grew up out of our
grave.
How were the dead buried?
Were they given respect?
What happened in August and
what does it refer to?
What irony is mentioned here?
What metaphor is used?

22. Answers
The dead were buried in mass burials. There was no respect as the English
buried them. The Irish could not even burry their own.
The English tried to kill the rebellion but the Irish just would not give up. The
seed of rebellion continued to grow even from the grave.
The irony of the barley that the soldiers had was the same that made the barley
grow out of the graves. Even though they were killed the Irish still continued to
fight.
The new grown barley is a metaphor for the new Irish society that hopes one
day all the pain and death will end.

23. Bibliography
Gardiner.M, (1998) Summaries of selected poetry by Seamus Heaney (Higher
School Certificate 1998), Available at: https://files.puzzling.org/wayback/hsc/heaney
Accessed 30th July, 2014
(n/a) (2013), Pulpteacher, A quick reading of Seamus Heaney’s “Requiem for the
croppies”. Avalible at: http://pulpteacher.wordpress.com/2013/03/13/a-quick-
reading-of-seamus-heaneys-requiem-for-the-croppies/ Accessed: 30th July, 2014
(n/a), (n/d) ENotes, Available at: http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-
heaneys-poem-titled-requiem-croppies-effective-329611 Accessed 30th July, 2014