Funeral Rites: Themes & Linking Poems

Funeral Rites: Themes & Linking Poems

‘Funeral Rites’ - Key Themes

Tradition and Ancestry

  • The poem explores the theme of tradition, particularly in regards to ancestral rites and rituals pertaining to death and mourning. A strong sense of cultural lineage is present throughout the poem.
  • Heaney contemplates with admiration the Viking funerary ritual; this reflection underscores his search for ancestral continuity, order and ceremony amid his turbulent present.

Culture and Identity

  • ‘Funeral Rites’ negotiates Heaney’s dual identity as an Irishman and British subject, made evident in the juxtaposition of Viking, Irish and English imagery.
  • It underscores the importance of heritage and tradition in defining one’s personal and collective identity.

Death and Mourning

  • Heaney vividly depicts the solemn markers of death - coffins, gravesites, funeral processions - with an acute focus on Irish customs.
  • His references to the “corpse-chamber” and “silent congregations” paint a vivid picture of the aftermath of death and how communities respond to it.

Conflict and Reconciliation

  • The contextual backdrop of the ongoing ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland is evident in the poem.
  • Heaney uses the image of the Viking tradition of a “water-gate” funerary passage as a symbolic call for an end to bloodshed and a peaceful ‘crossing over’.

Linking Poems and Collections

“The Tollund Man”

  • Both ‘The Tollund Man’ and ‘Funeral Rites’ showcase Heaney’s fascination with rituals from the past, particularly those involving death.
  • Both poems draw parallels between ancient sacrificial victims and the contemporary victims of Ireland’s political strife.

“North”

  • ‘Funeral Rites’ is part of Heaney’s ‘North’ collection (1975), which eulogises the dead while exploring Irish history and cultural identity through parallels with Norse mythology.
  • The collection is preoccupied with the violence of the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’, a theme that is vividly palpable and particularly haunting in ‘Funeral Rites’.

“Station Island” and “The Haw Lantern”

  • Like ‘Funeral Rites’, poems within these collections also explore themes of identity, conflict, heritage, and the weight of the past.
  • ‘The Strand at Lough Beg’ and ‘Casualty’, like ‘Funeral Rites’, mourn individual victims of the ‘Troubles’, considering their deaths within the wider cultural and political context.