Religion and Uncertainty in Heaney's "The Forge" Joshua Silva College

In Seamus Heaney’s poem, The Forge, an interpretation of the poem could lead one to believe that the poem is a commentary on the uncertainty of what lies ahead in the relationship between a person and religion. The mystery of what lies ahead is captured in Heaney’s use of the symbols, the structure of the poem, and the tone of the poem.

The Forge is a sonnet, which consists of a total of 14 lines. Although the poem is a sonnet and the poem starts with a rhyme scheme, the meter is lost and becomes imperfect. Also in the first eight lines, or the octet, there generally lies a dilemma; and the sestet provides the solution to that problem. One interpretation is that mankind is the problem and the blacksmith is creating a solution with the forge. Heaney also uses the octet and sestet in an unorthodox way because instead of just providing a problem and a solution, he switches the points of focus in the poem. He begins by talking about what the forge may look like from a first person perspective and then begins to talk about the blacksmith. Both the speaker and the blacksmith are mysteries as their exact identities can only be inferred from the clues that the symbols provide to the reader.

The forge, as it is the title of the poem, is...