Seamus Justin Heaney, the Irish poet, was born on April 13, 1939(Seamus). He was raised on a farm and was educated in parochial schools and later attended Queen's College in Belfast. Being from Ireland has been an enormous part of Heaney's writings. Much of his poetry is well grounded in the very basic aspects of Irish farm life such as plowing and growing potatoes. Heaney won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995(Basney). Heaney occasionally presents the poet passively, as he is connected with Ireland and his natives, yet very concerned as an individual.
             In Heaney's poem 'Casualty' from Field Work (1979), Heaney illustrates the memories of a friend who has just been killed in a bomb attack. The victim is not named in the poem but Heaney has previously pointed out in an interview that it is about Louis O'Neill (Curtis 112). This poem helps people realize that each person killed in war has a background and should not be dismissed lightly. Heaney develops a greater sense of loss by describing Louis's lifestyle and the interactions that the two shared together. The beginning of the poem lets the reader know that this particular man liked to drink alone, which more than likely means that he had either become involved in full blown alcoholism or he just didn't care to keep company even when he would go out. Louis is described as a good worker, involved in freemasonry and also a skilled fisherman with a quick eye.
             In the poem Heaney mentions that his "other life" was incomprehensible to Louis. Perhaps Heaney is trying to say that Louis did not understand poetry. One might think that Louis's attitude toward poetry had been negative, for there is a sense that Heaney is embarrassed to talk about it. Heaney might also feel like he is taking the easy road to survival and Louis, being a freemason, had taken the more masculine hard-working effect(Curtis 113). This poem also contai...