Docker

Introduction

Seamus Heaney’s “Docker” was inspired by a “bigoted, dangerous man” he “used to see in the corner of a local pub”. The poem describes the eponymous docker’s intransigent and intolerant views of the world while he is “staring at his drink” and reveals the poet’s worry that tensions in Northern Ireland could easily escalate into violence.

Appearance

The speaker uses the language of shipbuilding to define the hard-faced docker in the first quatrain. For example, the simile comparing the man’s “cap” to a “gantry’s crossbeam” depicts how the straight edge of the cap “juts” from one side of his face to the other just like a gantry crane. This is an obvious reference to the iconic Harland and Wolff cranes that dominate the Belfast shipyard.

However, by comparing the typically soft cap to something much harder and more permanent, Heaney suggests the character is physically strong and tough.

This sternness is reinforced in the next line describing his “forehead” as “cowling plated”. The hyperbole compares his skin to the metal casing that contains an engine on a ship or boat. He is clearly a hard-skinned character.

His “jaw” is compared to a “sledgehead” hammer. This type of large heavy-topped hammer is attached to a long handle and is designed for brute force. The word is derived from “slægan”, which meant to strike something violently in Anglo Saxon. Once again, the metaphor adds to the metallic toughness of the docker.

Finally, in another appropriate metaphor, his lips are compared to a firm “vice” that “clamped” his “speech”. The character is resolutely silent and uncompromising. With just seven syllables, the last line of the first quatrain is the shortest in the poem. The line is “clamped” like his “speech”.

Bigotry

The hard physicality of the docker seems to be an outward manifestation of his harsh personality because the speaker imagines how “that fist would drop a hammer on a Catholic” at the start of second quatrain. The speaker worries “that kind of thing could start again”, referring to the bigotry and intolerance that has scarred Northern Ireland. Here, the tone is certainly menacing.

The docker’s disdain of the Catholic tradition is summarised in a joke:

“The only Roman collar he tolerates
Smiles all around his sleek pint of porter”

The character despises the priesthood, signified by the Roman collar worn for mass, so the only white ribbon he wants to see is on a freshly-poured pint of beer which will have the froth around the top of the glass.

The Staunch Protestant

The third quatrain compares God to an intolerant “foreman” on the docks who is in charge of “shifts of work and leisure” – there is nothing in between. The connection between the docker’s faith and shipbuilding is continued into the fourth line of the stanza when the speaker jokes a “factory horn” will “blare the Resurrection” of Christ instead of the angel’s trumpet.

The docker’s daily life is defined by his work in the shipyards, but his spiritual life is also determined by the “certain definite views” of his foreman. If he disobeys their “orders”, he will be punished. This focus on Old Testament wrath and damnation is typical of some Protestant preachers in Northern Ireland. It is also important to note that the gates of the shipyard closed in the morning and, if you were late to work, you did not get in and you missed your shift.

Home Life

In the pub, it seems the docker is quiet and only shouts “mosaic imperatives” when he wants something. His words “bang home like rivets”. Again, this simile compares the docker to an aspect of shipbuilding – rivets are tough nails used to join sheets of metal. When he speaks, his voice is loud and hard.

The docker “sits, strong and blunt as a Celtic cross” and the speaker imagines that he is “clearly used to silence and an armchair” at home. The docker’s presence silences his “wife and children” who “will be quiet” when he arrives home. They recognise his arrival by the unnecessarily harshness of the “slammed door” and his “smoker’s cough”. It is clear they are obedient and frightened. Therefore, the docker exerts his power and authority in his home with the same unforgiving tone as his foreman and god.

Comprehension Questions

1. What is the dockworker doing at the start of the poem?
2. Why is the simile comparing his “cap” to a “gantry’s crossbeam” effective in establishing the docker’s attitude?
3. How is this attitude reinforced by the metaphors comparing his forehead to “cowling” and then his “jaw” to a “sledgehead”.
4. How does the metaphor comparing his lips to a vice support Heaney’s presentation of the hard and intransigent docker?
5. Look at the second verse. What is the docker’s attitude towards Catholics?
6. Heaney compares God to a shipyard foreman and describes how the “factory horn will blare the Resurrection”. What do these images suggest about the docker’s view of faith and religion?
7. What does the “quiet” reactions of his “wife and children” suggest the way he treats his family.
8. What is your opinion of the docker?
9. What message do you think Heaney was trying to convey with his portrait of the dockworker?