1. 2nd Year – Nature – ‘Early Purges’ by Seamus Heaney
Junior Cert Poetry
2nd Year – Nature –
‘Early Purges’ by Seamus Heaney

2. The Early Purges [part [1]
I was six when I first saw kittens drown.
Dan Taggart pitched them, 'the scraggy wee shits',
Into a bucket; a frail metal sound,
Soft paws scraping like mad. But their tiny din
Was soon soused. They were slung on the snout
Of the pump and the water pumped in.
'Sure, isn't it better for them now?' Dan said.
Like wet gloves they bobbed and shone till he sluiced
Them out on the dunghill, glossy and dead.

4. The Early Purges [part [2]
Suddenly frightened, for days I sadly hung
Round the yard, watching the three sogged remains
Turn mealy and crisp as old summer dung
Until I forgot them. But the fear came back
When Dan trapped big rats, snared rabbits, shot crows
Or, with a sickening tug, pulled old hens' necks.
Still, living displaces false sentiments
And now, when shrill pups are prodded to drown
I just shrug, 'Bloody pups'. It makes sense:
'Prevention of cruelty' talk cuts ice in town
Where they consider death unnatural
But on well-run farms pests have to be kept down.

5. Comprehension Questions
Before Lesson on the poem:
From Quest – p336
For 5 marks – Q2, 3, 4
For 10 marks – 7, 11
After 1st Lesson on the poem:
For 10 marks – Q8, 10
A) What sound effects do you find most interesting in the poem? Why? [10 marks]
b) What language voice is used in the poem? Is it conversational or is it poetic? Why does the poet use this type of voice? [10 marks]
C) What is your favourite line/image in the poem? [10]

6. Like wet gloves they bobbed and shone till he sluiced Them out on the dunghill, glossy and dead.

7. Theme of the poem Nature Growing up Death Cruelty Feelings of sadness
Ask yourself, what does this poem tell me about nature?
What is the message the poet is trying to convey [get across] to us?
In what way is the poem about growing up?
What lesson does the boy learn in this poem?

8. Theme of Nature Poet focuses on a memory of a vivid event
We see a particular view of nature and animals in this poem
Rural setting
Two different attitudes to the death of the kittens
We see how people have different attitudes to nature in life

9. Theme of Growing up / Childhood
The poem focuses on a vivid experience in the boy’s youth – something that he has never forgotten
Why is this memory so important to him?
Written in a child’s voice
We feel how he feels throughout the poem
Does the boy’s attitude change as he gets older?
What message does this tell me about growing up?
What attitude shows me that the speaker is no longer a boy?

10. Early Purges I was six when I first saw kittens drown.
Dan Taggart pitched them, 'the scraggy wee shits',
Into a bucket; a frail metal sound,
Soft paws scraping like mad. But their tiny din
Was soon soused. They were slung on the snout
Of the pump and the water pumped in.
Conversational, colloquial language
Direct quotation – colloquial dialect
Aural image – unusual adjective ‘frail’
Colloquial slang expression
Sibilance
Unusual adjective ‘tiny’
Onomatopoeia – ‘soused’, ‘slung’, ‘pumped’
Personification of the pump – ‘snout’

11. 'Sure, isn't it better for them now?' Dan said.
Like wet gloves they bobbed and shone till he sluiced
Them out on the dunghill, glossy and dead.
Suddenly frightened, for days I sadly hung
Round the yard, watching the three sogged remains
Turn mealy and crisp as old summer dung
Until I forgot them. But the fear came back
When Dan trapped big rats, snared rabbits, shot crows
Or, with a sickening tug, pulled old hens' necks.

12. Still, living displaces false sentiments
And now, when shrill pups are prodded to drown
I just shrug, 'Bloody pups'. It makes sense:
'Prevention of cruelty' talk cuts ice in town
Where they consider death unnatural
But on well-run farms pests have to be kept down.
Aural image
Onomatopoeia
Colloquial dialect
Visual, descriptive verb
Sarcastic, dismissive tone
End-rhyme

13. Tone of the Poem The boy is clearly disturbed at the start
Upset by the event – Even Terrified?
The shocking first line captures his emotions
Made a mark on the boy – remembers it years later
Disgusted by Dan Taggart’s behaviour
Even disgusted by Dan Taggart’s attitude and words – can remember them verbatim years later
The language used to describe the helpless kittens
The alliteration and assonance highlights how traumatic and unforgettable the event was
‘i sadly hung / round the yard’

14. Tone [2] The speaker’s feelings change in the second half of the poem
At first he is still scared by Taggart’s killing of animals
But then he becomes Less emotional
Becomes hardened as he grows up
Less sensitive; colder

15. Tone
The unemotional reaction to death is captured in his attitude – ‘i just shrug’
The bland description of how the animals are ‘prodded to drown’ shows that he is used to it now
He sounds like Dan when he speaks – ‘bloody pups’
The cold, even ironic line – ‘It makes sense’
Find two lines that illustrate this new attitude
He seems sarcastic about the kind people in town
Could do a paragraph about how you found this poem very interesting because the tone changes
Shows how the speaker grows up and becomes more cold and adult

16. Images Powerful visual images of the kittens
The speaker clearly remembers this moment
He recaptures it in vivid detail for us
How are they brought to life for the reader?
The visual detail –
The sound effects of them in the bucket
The simile
The tactile detail – what you can feel / touch
The metaphor as they rotted
Find an example of each of these!

17. Aural Images
Colloquial language – called dialect – ‘scraggy wee shits’; ‘sure isn’t it better for them now?’
Aural image – ‘a frail metal sound’
Tactile and aural – ‘soft paws scraping like mad’ – sibilance
Descriptive verbs – ‘soused’, ‘slung’, ‘bobbed and shone’, ‘sluiced’, ‘tugged’ – vividly capture the little details about how they were treated – onomatopoeia

18. Tactile images Means an image that you can feel – touch
Simile - ‘like wet gloves’
The adjective ‘three sogged remains’

19. The man Dan Taggart - Colloquial Language
Heaney brings Dan Taggart to life through his spoken words
We get a sense of his personality from his actions towards the cats
But we also get an insight into his character from the language he uses to describe them
From the north of ireland – speaks in a dialect: ‘scraggy wee shits’
Seems unmoved by their innocence and frailty
His rhetorical question – ‘sure isn’t it better for them now?’ – highlights how he believes it was the best option

20. Dan Taggart – the man
We also get a sense of his personality though the descriptive verbs used for his actions
‘pitched’, ‘soused’, ‘slung’, ‘sluiced’ – the onomatopoeia –
Seems careless and casual – unmoved by the animals’ fear or their suffering

21. Powerful language - comparisons
Poem uses unusual comparisons to bring the animals vividly into our minds
The water pump – ‘snout’ – personified – captures the physical shape of the pump
The dead kittens compared to ‘wet gloves’
The rotting bodies compared to ‘old summer dung’