Not exactly a Brigit poem, but as goddess of smithcraft, she certainly has a hand in here.
Seamus Heaney. My hero.
The Forge
by Seamus Heaney
All I know is a door into the dark.
Outside, old axles and iron hoops rusting;
Inside, the hammered anvil’s short-pitched ring,
The unpredictable fantail of sparks
Or hiss when a new shoe toughens in water.
The anvil must be somewhere in the centre,
Horned as a unicorn, at one end and square,
Set there immoveable: an altar
Where he expends himself in shape and music.
Sometimes, leather-aproned, hairs in his nose,
He leans out on the jamb, recalls a clatter
Of hoofs where traffic is flashing in rows;
Then grunts and goes in, with a slam and flick
To beat real iron out, to work the bellows.
Outside, old axles and iron hoops rusting;
Inside, the hammered anvil’s short-pitched ring,
The unpredictable fantail of sparks
Or hiss when a new shoe toughens in water.
The anvil must be somewhere in the centre,
Horned as a unicorn, at one end and square,
Set there immoveable: an altar
Where he expends himself in shape and music.
Sometimes, leather-aproned, hairs in his nose,
He leans out on the jamb, recalls a clatter
Of hoofs where traffic is flashing in rows;
Then grunts and goes in, with a slam and flick
To beat real iron out, to work the bellows.
1969
BBC Radio Ulster's "Your Place and Mine" features a clip on the man who inspired "The Forge". Find it here:
On this week’s programme, we pay tribute to the late Barney Devlin - the blacksmith who inspired the famous poem by Seamus Heaney.
Photo: Blacksmith Stephen Quinn, from Craft in Ireland.
For more on the blacksmith in Ireland and Stephen Quinn, read The Tuam Herald "Iron, art and inspiration & keeping the blacksmith's craft alive", by Tony Galvin.
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