plies the image of a “red lamp” swinging. In the beginning of the poem we had the image of a white light in our minds, which represented goodness, and purity, but now we have a drastic transition to a red light, which gives us more of a sharp and “warning” sense around him. From these lines we also, now, get the audio connection of what is happening. In line ten and eleven all what he describes is through what Colum must of heard when he made that abrupt stop. This effect make it even more horrifying because his Colum could probably sense what was going on and that he was in trouble. The description of the cold nose gun moreover makes it seem even more a brutal crime because it makes the killing seem more planned because the gun had still not been fired, as if the gun itself was waiting for him to come. In these lines we are taken back to the feeling of safety when Heaney says how Colum wasn’t in familiar territory: he was in hostile, protestant territory instead of Catholic. In referring to Lough Beg it implies that Colum’s land was peaceful and that there wasn’t any feeling of insecurity when you were there. In addition, he mentions that there is a Church near Lough Beg, giving the reader the sense that Lough Beg was a place to be considered close to sanctuary.The poem takes a turn in the third stanza, and Heaney talks about the way that his cousin lived. Importantly, he also describes his cousin’s nature and outlook on what was going on between the Protestants and Catholics.There you use to hear guns fired behind the houseLong before rising time, when duck shootersHaunted the marigolds and bulrushes, But still were Scared to find spent cartridges,Acrid, brassy, genital, ejected,On your way across the strand to fetch the cows[Lines 17-22]In these lines Heaney describes he lands that Colum lived on and the way he was effected by little things. For example, the fact that the firing of duck...
