Practice question 1
The Barn
Threshed corn lay piled like grit of ivory
Or solid as cement in two-lugged* sacks.
The musty dark hoarded an armoury
Of farmyard implements, harness, plough-socks*.
The floor was mouse-grey, smooth, chilly concrete.
There were no windows, just two narrow shafts
Of gilded motes*, crossing, from air-holes slit
High in each gable. The one door meant no draughts
All summer when the zinc* burned like an oven.
A scythe’s edge, a clean spade, a pitch-fork’s prongs:
Slowly bright objects formed when you went in.
Then you felt cobwebs clogging up your lungs
And scuttled fast into the sunlit yard.
And into nights when bats were on the wing
Over the rafters of sleep, where bright eyes stared
From piles of grain in corners, fierce, unblinking.
The dark gulfed like a roof-space. I was chaff*
To be pecked up when birds shot through the air-slits.
I lay face-down to shun the fear above.
The two-lugged sacks moved in like great blind rats.
Seamus Heaney
*two-lugged – knotted corners of sacks
*plough-socks – cutting blades of a plough
*motes – specks of dust
*zinc – metal sheets used to build the barn
*chaff – outer casing of corn grains
a) How does the poet use language to present a sense of fear?
In your answer you should consider:
- the poet’s descriptive skills
- the poet’s choice of language
b) How does the poet use structure and form to create atmosphere in the poem?
Support your answer with examples from the poem.
Mark scheme
Indicative content:
a)The poet’s descriptive skills:
- fear is created as the sights confronting the speaker are described as
dangerous; the farmyard equipment is threatening and war-like: ‘armoury / Of
farmyard implements’, ‘A scythe’s edge’, ‘a pitch-fork’s prongs’, ‘birds shot
through’
- a sense of fear is created through the feeling of entrapment: ‘no windows’, two
‘air-holes slit / High in each gable’
- the barn is described as cold and uninviting: ‘floor was mouse-grey … chilly
concrete’
- a sense of fear and panic is described when the speaker describes how hard
it is to breathe: ‘cobwebs clogging up your lungs’
- the descriptions of the scene and the use of imagery associated with horror
are used to convey the growing fear: ‘bats’, ‘fierce, unblinking’, ‘ great blind
rats’; the speaker tries to block out the horror as he lies ‘face-down to shun
the fear above’
- fear is described as inanimate objects appear to come to life; the sacks
appear to be like rats coming to get him: ‘The two-lugged sacks moved in’.
The poet's choice of language
Reward all relevant examples of language and comments on its
effectiveness, e.g.:
- the poem begins with two similes: ‘like grit of ivory’ and the sacks of corn are
‘solid as cement’; further similes are used to enhance the fear and threat of
the barn: ‘burned like an oven’, ‘like great blind rats’
- repetition of ‘two-lugged’ at the beginning and end of the poem brings the
objects to life as the sacks are described as being ‘like great blind rats’,
perhaps suggesting the knotted corners of the sacks resemble ears; the list of
three provides a clear image of the setting: ‘farmyard implements, harness,
plough-socks’
- colour imagery provides a sense of realism and contrast: ‘ivory’, ‘musty dark’,
‘mouse-grey’, ‘gilded motes’, ‘sunlit yard’, ‘bright eyes’
- alliteration conveys the idea of discomfort and emphasises the coldness of the
barn: ‘chilly concrete’, ‘cobwebs clogging’
- a metaphor is used to convey the fear and the horror of being ‘pecked’ by the
birds: ‘I was chaff’.
b) The poet's use of structure and form:
- the poem is written in five quatrains with occasional rhyme; enjambement and
punctuation are used to enhance the sense of fear evoked by the barn
- the use of direct address engages the reader and allows them to experience
the fear of the barn: ‘you went in’, ‘Then you felt’
- the change to the first person in the final quatrain (‘I was chaff’, ‘I lay face-
down’) implies a personal experience, so one assumes this is
autobiographical.
These examples are suggestions only. Accept any valid responses.
Reward a clear personal response, provided this is well
supported from the text.
