These are getting easier...

In Seamus Heaneys, From the Frontier of Writing, Heaney uses descriptive imagery and the literary technique of extended metaphor to describe his struggles in writing. The title, "From the Frontier of Writing" displays how Heaney refers to writing as a type of war zone showing the struggle perhaps that he goes through when writing his poems. Words like, "tightness", "nilness" and "inspect" shows the pressure he feels as a writer. The extended metaphor of how writing is a war to Heaney is represented by references like "troops", "rifles" and "sergeant". Heaney also shows how he may seem a bit held back from writing, "and everything is pure interrogation until a rifle motions and you move with guarded unconcernec acceleration." The troops can be seen to represent the publishers because they are "inspecting" or interrogating his "make" and "number" and Heaney feels as though these troops have all the power and the choice to decide whether they should publish his work, so he feels a little restrained with "guarded unconcerned acceleration".

He identifies how these pressures or obstacles like the "frontier" and "troops" act as difficulties in his "journey" of writing. At first he is stopped at a border while the troops inspect the car, or his work. Then further on in the poem he states how, "suddenly you're through, arraigned yet freed, as if you'd passed from behind a waterfall on the black current of a tarmac road" showing how he may have finally been able to overcome those obstacles of writing.