An Architect

[Napkin]

I was wondering what your interpretation of the poem "An Architect", by Seamus Heaney, is... it's a less known poem by Heaney and there aren't that many analysis out there and I can't really analyze poems too well...

It's possible to interpret that the poem is about God... the 'architect' of the world. This would be very possible since this poem was published in Heaney's 1996 The Spirit Level, in which Heaney mostly deals with the spiritual level. The mention of 'zen gravel' in the first stanza could reference to a Japanese zen garden. In a zen garden 'the boulder' represents the island and the gravel represents water. However, I'm not totally sure that this is what Heaney is aiming for...

It should also be known that The Troubles of Northern Ireland are still occurring at the time of this poem (correct?)...

I'm not quite sure why Heaney ends the forth stanza (or strophe? which is the correct word to use?) in a preposition... and I was wondering the effect it had on the poem that Heaney uses a list.

I was wondering what your thoughts on the poem were... and what you interpreted the overall meaning to be...


He fasted on the doorstep of his gift,
Exacting more, minding the boulder
And the raked zen gravel. But no slouch either

Whever it came to whiskey, whether to
Lash into it or just to lash it out.
Courtly always, and rapt, and astonishing,

Like the day on the beach when he stepped out of his clothes
And waded along beside us in his pelt
Speculating, intelligent and lanky,

Taking things in his Elysian stride,
Talking his way back into sites and truths
The art required and his life came down to:

Blue slate and whitewash, shadow-lines, projections,
Things at once apparent and transparent,
Clean-edged, fine-drawn, drawn-out, redrawn, remembered... .

Exit now, in his tweeds, down an aisle between
Drawing boards as far as the eye can see
To where it can't until he sketches where.

[cuppajoe_9]

Well....I like it.

I'm a bit stumped, actually. It seems to me to be about a literal architect, and the contrast between his private life, which is disorderly, and his career, which is all about order.

It's worth pointing out that the boulder in a zen rock garden doesn't represent an island. It doesn't represent anything. The idea is to meditate on all the possible meanings of the boulder and the gravel. (I think, anyway. I'm not very well versed in zen, and it's been a very long time since I've been to a rock garden.)

[rabid reader]

It seems imcomplete as if eluding to the fact the subject will return for a finaly

as I maybe uintterputting this wrong but is this about walking on water:

Like the day on the beach when he stepped out of his clothes
And waded along beside us in his pelt


This may also mean someone turning something into whiskey or alcohol... possibly wine?:

Whever it came to whiskey, whether to
Lash into it or just to lash it out.
Courtly always, and rapt, and astonishing,


this next bit seems to be hinting that the subject was well travelled and made many speechs:

Taking things in his Elysian stride,
Talking his way back into sites and truths

Niow this maybe a streach but could this be reraising, blue slate and Jesus was buried in a slate covered cave. Shawoded-lines, projections and things at once apparent that were transparent, a spirit would be very easy to see through yet the story says Juses was visable to his disciples for three days after his buriel.

Blue slate and whitewash, shadow-lines, projections,
Things at once apparent and transparent,
Clean-edged, fine-drawn, drawn-out, redrawn, remembered

[cuppajoe_9]

If it was about God it would probably be called "The Architecht", and not just "An Architecht".

I have to think that the second last stanza describes a blueprint, which would have a very detailed, yet transparent drawing of a house on it.

On reading that last stanza again, I think that this particular architecht is the architecht of his own reality.
Exit now, in his tweeds, down an aisle between
Drawing boards as far as the eye can see
To where it can't until he sketches where.I've been trying to unravel that last line. I think it's means: "To where it [the eye] can't [see] until he sketches where [meaning, until he sketches the thing which will be where his eye will be looking]".

[Napkin]

If it wasn't for the first line, as well as the last two lines... I would be, for the most part, convinced that rabid reader is correct and that the protagonist is in fact Jesus.

He fasted on the doorstep of his gift, ...what would be this 'gift' that he talks about?

Drawing boards as far as the eye can see
To where it can't until he sketches where.The first thing I thought of was that 'drawing boards' could be referring to the 'great drawing board of the sky'... but this is when I believed that the protagonist was a higher being.

this next bit seems to be hinting that the subject was well travelled and made many speechs:



Taking things in his Elysian stride,
Talking his way back into sites and truths Elysian is also related to the divine and ideal happiness... so it could be pointed out that it could be that he's enlightened or somewhere near that.

I also like cuppajoe_9's interpretation of the poem and it is true that the poem would most likely be called "The Architect" rather than "An Architect" if it was indeed about God and his creation.

[Napkin]

Sorry, I gave some more wrong information... it would seem that The Spirit Level by Heaney is not about the "spiritual level" but more about balance and equilibrium. This would strengthen cuppajoe_9's interpretation.


He fasted on the doorstep of his gift
Exacting more, minding the boulder
And the raked zen gravel.
Would this mean something like... he kept asking himself for more and more of his architect skills for his career (his gift, exacting more)... but keeping it leveled with calm meditation (minding the boulder / And the raked zen gravel)?

Actually, I'm still quite confused about the whole poem. What could Heaney be aiming to get across to the reader in this poem?

I got a question for you cuppajoe_9... although I now agree with you that the poem is most likely about a architect... where is it that you see that his private life is disorderly?

[cuppajoe_9]

The second stanza seems to me to indicate that he drinks, and the part about the beach looks like he is prone to doing things very unexpectedly (such as stripping naked and jumping in the ocean, the way I read it). Perhaps 'disorderly' was a poor choice of words.

The part about him talking his way back into sites and truths might be saying that everything in his life ties back into his work. Perhaps this is a rather uncoventional architecht (http://art.sdsu.edu/geninfo/homepages/art157/projects/elements/shape/images/shape2.jpg ) or perhaps he is in conflict between his natural desires to be unconvential and his responsibilities as a professional.

Going back to the last stanza: could Heaney mean that the architecht has enough talent to go as far as he wants as a professional architecht?