Composition- Two Lorries- Jordan Zapp 8/13/15

Two Lorries

            The modern era was marked by new ideas in many fields, most notably literature. With this new era came new dangers.  War had laid waste across that world, people were scared, confused, and in need of help.  These themes inspired new sources of inspiration for writers, and new elements emerged that would define modernism.  In the poem Two Lorries by Irish poet Seamus Heaney, we can identify these elements.   Two Lorries exemplifies the modern era with its use of fragmentation, themes of loss, and destruction.

            Fragmentation was a popular literary theme in the modern period.  It symbolized the destruction occurring at the time using broken stanzas and lines.  The use of fragmentation in Two Lorries is evident.  There are many instances where the phrase is not a full sentence or completed thought. The lines drop off suddenly in strange places that may symbolize the sudden collapse of culture.  For example, one stanza ends in, “Empty upon empty, in a flurry,” and the next one begins with, “Of motes and engine-revs, but which lorry,” (Heaney).   The stanzas seem to have holes in between them like a Jenga game, teetering and threatening to fall over..  Additionally, the author mulls over two lorries, the cheerful one and the deadly one.  This reflects the constant presence of the joy rising from the ashes of war and the bombs that buried them.

            During the Modern era, two major world wars occurred. Many families sent their men overseas to aid in the bloody battles while those at home made other sacrifices.  Loss is a huge element of modern literature, reflecting the loss of loved ones, homes, and personal freedoms.  In this case, the author has lost his mother and his town, Magherafelt. The poem begins with him almost cheerfully describing a moment as a boy; his mother flirting with a kind coalman.  He then describes a horrific dream in which his mother emerges from the bombed town carrying ashes. “Death walked out past her like a dust-faced coalman,” describes the reality of death and its suddenness, its concealment.  The theme of loss is heavily present in Two Lorries, just as it was in the Modern era.

            Ashes.  The word brings to mind fire, burning heat, blackness floating lazily through the air, settling with the dust.  In other words, ashes do not exist without destruction.  Ironically, the making of ashes is necessary for one’s survival.  Heaney first describes the coalman and the prominence of ashes in his everyday life,  “all business round her stove, half wiping ashes with a backhand from her cheek…” (Heaney).   Ashes come to mean something else: utter destruction.   Magherafelt is bombed, leaving the town in a pile of ashes.  The narrator has a dream of his mother, “her shopping bags full of shoveled ashes,” as she sits with Death.  By the end of the poem, the ashes come to symbolize ghosts, “then reappear from your lorry as my mother’s dreamboat coalman filmed in silk-white ashes.”  Maybe the ashes symbolize everything; destruction and beauty and hope all in one.  Maybe that is what the modern/postmodern period was all about; finding the hope in a pile of ashes. 

            Two Lorries was one of my favorite pieces that we read all year.  It truly came to exemplify the spirit of an era and culture.  I think is epitomizes the spirit of humanity in that we can find and make beauty in even the darkest of times.  The use of fragmentation shows the theme of being in pieces, as many cities and spirits were at the time.   So much was lost to the bloody fight for peace, as the theme of loss reflects.  Finally, the theme of destruction, symbolized as ashes, ties the modern style together

Works Cited

Heaney, Seamus. "Two Lorries." Poetry Archive. Web. 13 Aug. 2015.