OCR GCE H074 Literature Poetry - 'The Toome Road' by Seamus Heaney.

The geographical slide of Toome Road is incorrect and vastly important to the understanding of the poem. Toome or Toomebridge is a town on the borders of Counties Antrim and Derry. This is the vicinity in which Heaney grew up. The slide suggests the Toome Road is in Belfast- a city. An urban environment. The poem is deeply entrenched in Heaney’s rural heritage and upbringing and the effect soldiers had upon the communities and rural environment. To think that militarisation was a symptom of conflict or troubles in Belfast alone is to misunderstand the context of the poem. Also further suggestion is that in the 1940s Heaney observed American Troops preparing for the battlefields of WW2 in his parish. The poem is therefore ambiguous and universal in its commentary about conflict and occupying armies. I do not feel this power point had true understanding of the poet or the poem.