1. Tate’s Avenue
Seamus Heaney

2. The relationship has changed from the romantic innocence of the first stanza, moved through the passionate excitement of the second stanza, reaching an eventual knowledge and acceptance of their differences and their union in stanza three.

3. Memory plays a large part in this poem as it does in most of the poems on the course. The inspiration for poetry comes from recollected events.

4. In the two love poems we have studied, love is presented in all its complexity and richness.
It is never trivialised or over-romanticised.

5. Politics
Perhaps Heaney is suggesting through the poem that the time has come for both sides of the political divide to accept the reality of the situation, come to a more mature understanding of each other and move forward with respect for the difference with unity and purpose.

6. Love The poem describes the excitement and pleasures of young love.
Contrasts the fun and passion then in third stanza.
The poem suggests that a relationship must cope with the tedious and the dull if it is to survive.
A couple can not expect to constantly experience the kind of passion and pleasure that the poet recalls In the first two stanzas.

7. A Sense of Place
Like many of Heaney’s poems ‘Tate’s Avenue’ is concerned with a sense of place.
The poem evokes the uncomfortable atmosphere of a “locked-park Sunday Belfast” and contrasts the tedium of such a place with the open expanses of the seaside and the banks of a Spanish river.
It suggests that location is very important when it comes to mood.

8. Just like ‘The Underground’ this poem illustrates how such joyous passion can be fleeting. Back in Belfast the couple struggle to feel like they did by the beach and in Spain.

9. Language
Note the alliterated ‘s’ sound in the opening stanza accompanied by broad vowels, which suggest the sound of the sea and the openness of the attitude of the lovers. This is continued into the second stanza.

10. The harsh ‘ck’ sounds in the “locked park, back yard” bring out the contrasting tone of the third stanza. Here, in Belfast, life is harsh. We can almost feel the discomfort.

11. The use of pronouns, “I”, “you” and “me”, in the final stanza emphasises the sense of independence but unity achieved in the relationship.

12. Symbols
The rugs in the poem are vividly described and function almost as symbols for the freedom and passion that the couple feel when they are outside Belfast and the constraint and frustration felt when they are back in the city.