A Call (Leaving Cert English): Revision Notes

A Call

Overview of the poem

"A Call" presents a deeply personal moment where Heaney explores the relationship between himself and his father through a simple phone conversation. The poem captures themes of time, death, and love while revealing the emotional complexity of family relationships. The narrative begins with the speaker on the phone with his mother, who goes to fetch his father from the garden. During this brief interval, Heaney visualises his father gardening and reflects on their relationship. When his father comes to the phone, the speaker experiences an overwhelming urge to express his love but holds back - a moment he later regrets.

Structure and form

Heaney constructs this poem using four stanzas with irregular line arrangements. The first stanza contains three lines, the second has seven lines, the third contains four lines, and the fourth has three lines. This uneven structure mirrors the natural, unforced flow of memory and emotion. The poet deliberately avoids a strict rhyme scheme or consistent metre, instead creating moments of partial rhyme through the repetition of similar sounds. For example, we see assonance and consonance in phrases like "Touching, inspecting, separating" and "Pleased," "feel," "each," and "weed."

Detailed analysis by stanza

Opening stanza

The poem opens with direct speech: "Hold on," she said, "I'll just run out and get him. The weather here's so good, he took the chance / To do a bit of weeding." Heaney uses dialogue to create an immediate, authentic feeling that draws readers into this intimate family moment. The mother's casual tone - asking the speaker to wait while she fetches his father - establishes the ordinary domestic setting. The phrase "he took the chance" suggests spontaneity and the father's connection to nature and seasonal rhythms. The enjambment between "chance" and "To do a bit of weeding" creates a natural flow that mimics conversational speech.

Second stanza - the father at work

The second stanza shifts to Heaney's imagination as he visualises his father: "So I saw him / Down on his hands and knees beside the leek rig, / Touching, inspecting, separating one / Stalk from the other, gently pulling up / (...) Yet rueful also..." Here, Heaney demonstrates his deep knowledge of his father's character and habits. The image of the father "Down on his hands and knees beside the leek rig" shows both physical closeness to the earth and a kind of devotion to his work. The detailed description - "Touching, inspecting, separating" - reveals the father's careful, methodical approach to gardening.

The poet's ability to imagine his father's "rueful" expression demonstrates the intimate understanding between father and son, even when physically separated. This stanza also ends with an ellipsis, creating a sense of drifting thought and unfinished reflexion.

Third stanza - time and reflexion

The third stanza introduces crucial temporal imagery: "Then found myself listening to / (...) Of mirror glass and sunstruck pendulums..." During this pause in the conversation, Heaney becomes aware of time's passage through the "grave ticking of hall clocks". The adjective "grave" carries dual meaning - both serious and death-related, introducing the theme of mortality that underlies the entire poem. The reference to "sunstruck pendulums" creates beautiful visual imagery while emphasising how time continues its relentless movement.

Final stanza - the moment of regret

The concluding stanza delivers the poem's emotional centre: "And found myself then thinking: if it were nowadays, / (...) Next thing he spoke and I nearly said I loved him." The shift to "if it were nowadays" suggests this is a memory, and introduces the theme of death and loss. Heaney reflects on how death appears as a personified force that "moves and chooses the victims of its own accord." The capitalisation of "Everyman" emphasises that death affects all people, not just specific individuals.

The final line proves devastatingly powerful. The word "nearly" captures a lifetime of unexpressed emotion and missed opportunities. Heaney came close to breaking through the emotional reserve typical of traditional Irish father-son relationships, but ultimately maintained silence. This restraint creates lasting regret that haunts the speaker and resonates deeply with readers who recognise similar patterns in their own families.

Major themes

Mortality and the passage of time

Throughout "A Call," Heaney confronts the inevitability of death and ageing. The poem reflects on mortality as an omnipresent force, particularly evident in the "grave ticking of hall clocks" and the meditation on death as a personified entity. The speaker observes his father's physical vulnerability - imagining him "Down on his hands and knees" - which suggests both dedication to work and physical frailty. The poem concludes with the sobering recognition that death arrives quietly and suddenly, making unexpressed emotions particularly poignant.

The temporal imagery reinforces this theme, as the "sunstruck pendulums" and clock sounds remind us that time moves forwards regardless of human desires or regrets. Heaney's awareness of his father's ageing creates an urgency around communication and emotional expression.

Communication barriers and emotional reserve

The poem explores the difficulty of expressing love within traditional family structures, particularly between fathers and sons in Irish culture. The telephone serves as both a symbol of connection and separation - Heaney can hear his father working in the garden, yet struggles to communicate openly with him. There exists a tension between love and emotional reserve, where feelings remain unspoken despite their intensity.

The father's gardening sounds substitute for direct conversation, creating what the poet describes as "The amplified grave ticking of hall clocks". This auditory imagery suggests both connection and distance - the speaker can hear evidence of his father's presence and activity, but lacks direct emotional communication.

Key poetic techniques

Imagery and sensory details

Heaney employs rich auditory and visual imagery to create a vivid scene that grounds abstract emotions in concrete experience. The detailed description of gardening - "the puff of his pipe," "the slapping of weeds" - brings readers directly into the father's world. The "leek rig" and specific gardening actions demonstrate Heaney's intimate knowledge of rural life and his father's daily routines.

The imagery works on multiple levels, as the simple, ordinary activity of "Digging away among the flowerbeds" becomes symbolic of life's persistence against the backdrop of mortality. The contrast between the domestic, peaceful gardening scene and the underlying awareness of death creates emotional depth and poignancy.

Symbolism

The telephone call itself symbolises the complex relationship between connection and separation that characterises many family relationships. While technology allows communication across distance, it cannot bridge emotional gaps or overcome ingrained patterns of reserve.

Clock imagery, particularly the "grave ticking", symbolises time's relentless passage and death's approach. The word "grave" creates a double meaning that reinforces the mortality theme while describing the serious, measured sound of timepieces.

Tone and emotional restraint

The poem's tone remains quiet, reflective, and melancholic, tinged with regret and tenderness. Heaney's understated approach makes the emotional weight of the final lines even more powerful. The restraint in expression mirrors the emotional reserve the poem critiques, creating a formal echo of the content.

Enjambment and flow

Heaney uses enjambment throughout the poem to create a sense of ongoing, unstated thoughts and feelings. Lines flow into each other naturally, mimicking the way memory and emotion move through consciousness. This technique is particularly effective in passages like "Next thing he spoke and I nearly said I loved him / But kept the words unsaid," where the line break reflects the spur-of-the-moment urge that gets quickly suppressed.

Contrast

The poem gains power through its contrasts between the peaceful, everyday activity of gardening and the ominous awareness of death and time passing. This juxtaposition between domestic tranquillity and existential concern creates emotional tension that drives the poem's impact. The simple sounds of garden work are contrasted with the "grave ticking" that symbolises time's quiet threat.