Seamus Heaney's four-part poem "Out of the Bag" appears in his 2001 collection Electric Light. Its speaker, the adult Heaney, recalls scenes from his boyhood, particularly the local doctor's periodic visits to his family's home. To the young Heaney, Doctor Kerlin is an impressive figure, and even a little frightening—because Heaney believes he's literally "delivering" new babies that he's assembled in a workshop! This childhood misunderstanding sparks an extended meditation on innocence, imagination, faith, and healing. Weaving together myth and memory, Heaney dreamily recounts visits to the religious shrines at Lourdes and Epidaurus—but keeps returning, in memory, to the plain little bedroom where he and his siblings were born.

• Read the full text of “Out of the Bag”

• “Out of the Bag” Summary

• “Out of the Bag” Themes

  • 

    Childhood Innocence and Imagination

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-37
    • Lines 50-67
    • Lines 70-79
    • Lines 80-82
  • 

    Myth, Medicine, and Healing

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-37
    • Lines 38-49
    • Lines 50-67
    • Lines 68-79
  • 

    Poetry and the Creative Process

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 8-37
    • Lines 38-67
    • Lines 75-79
    • Lines 80-94
  • 

    Origins, Myth-Making, and Memory

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-37
    • Lines 80-94

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Out of the Bag”

  • Lines 1-6

    All of us ...
    ... spaniel's inside lug)

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 7-12

    Were empty for ...
    ... door and leave

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 13-18

    With the bag ...
    ... on the forceps.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 19-24

    Getting the water ...
    ... suddenly behind him

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 25-31

    To be squired ...
    ... chill of tiles,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 31-37

    steel hooks, chrome ...
    ... in his buttonhole.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 38-43

    Poeta doctus ...
    ... cannot be coerced,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 44-49

    Say I, who ...
    ... met the god...

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 50-55

    Hatless, groggy, shadowing ...
    ... grass and hallucinated

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 56-61

    Doctor Kerlin at ...
    ... sausage-arms and legs

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 62-67

    That soon began ...
    ... the windless light.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 68-73

    Bits of the ...
    ... of the god,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 74-79

    The very site ...
    ... the undarkening door.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 80-85

    The room I ...
    ... births and deaths.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 86-90

    Me at the ...
    ... enter every time,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 90-94

    to assist and ...
    ... I was asleep?"

    

    

    

    

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• “Out of the Bag” Symbols

  • 

    The Bag

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “All of us came in Doctor Kerlin's bag.”
    • Lines 5-8: “its lined insides / (The colour of a spaniel's inside lug) / Were empty for all to see, the trap-sprung mouth / Unsnibbed and gaping wide.”
    • Line 13: “With the bag in his hand, a plump ark by the keel...”

• “Out of the Bag” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Allusion

    

    

    

    

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    Where allusion appears in the poem:

    • Line 27: “Hyperborean, beyond-the-north-wind blue,”
    • Lines 38-42: “Poeta doctus / Peter Levi says / Sanctuaries of Asclepius (called / asclepions / ) / Were the equivalent of hospitals / In ancient Greece. Or of shrines like Lourdes, / Says poeta doctus Graves. ”
    • Lines 48-49: “meaning sleep / When epiphany occurred and you met the god...”
    • Lines 73-74: “In the precincts of the god, / The very site of the temple of Asclepius.”
    • Lines 77-78: “And to be visited in the very eye of the day / By Hygeia, his daughter,”

  • Colloquialism

    

    

    

    

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    Where colloquialism appears in the poem:

    • Line 6: “lug”
    • Line 8: “Unsnibbed”
    • Line 20: “plumping”
    • Line 21: “rain-butt”
    • Line 32: “dreeps”
    • Line 93: “wee”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 4-5: “his / In”
    • Lines 7-8: “mouth / Unsnibbed”
    • Lines 8-9: “hypnotist / Unwinding”
    • Lines 9-10: “instruments / Back”
    • Lines 10-11: “cloth / Like”
    • Lines 12-13: “leave / With”
    • Lines 14-15: “come / In”
    • Lines 16-17: “whiff / Of”
    • Lines 17-18: “gleam / Of”
    • Lines 21-22: “rain-butt / And”
    • Lines 22-23: “thanks / Denied”
    • Lines 24-25: “him / To”
    • Lines 28-29: “into / Every”
    • Lines 29-30: “skimmed / Milk”
    • Lines 30-31: “white / And”
    • Lines 31-32: “tools / And”
    • Lines 32-33: “thickened / At”
    • Lines 36-37: “cock / A”
    • Lines 38-39: “says / Sanctuaries”
    • Lines 40-41: “hospitals / In”
    • Lines 42-43: “cure / By”
    • Lines 44-45: “Epidaurus / That”
    • Lines 45-46: “sanatorium / With”
    • Lines 50-51: “myself / As”
    • Lines 51-52: “procession / In”
    • Lines 54-55: “bent / To”
    • Lines 56-57: “glass / Of”
    • Lines 57-58: “draw / With”
    • Lines 58-59: “men / With”
    • Lines 59-60: “fronts / And”
    • Lines 60-61: “all / A”
    • Lines 61-62: “legs / That”
    • Lines 62-63: “laved / In”
    • Lines 64-65: “swimming / Into”
    • Lines 68-69: “off / To”
    • Lines 69-70: “chemotherapy / And”
    • Lines 70-71: “want / To”
    • Lines 72-73: “sunlight / In”
    • Lines 75-76: “down / Under”
    • Lines 77-78: “day / By”
    • Lines 78-79: “clarifying / The”
    • Lines 80-81: “from / Stays”
    • Lines 82-83: “asleep / In”
    • Lines 83-84: “presents / That”
    • Lines 84-85: “bridal / And”
    • Lines 87-88: “closes / And”
    • Lines 88-89: “back / Into”
    • Lines 89-90: “vision / I”
    • Lines 90-91: “asked / In”
    • Lines 92-93: “think / Of”
    • Lines 93-94: “all / When”

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 4: “big,” “soft,” “hands,” “his”
    • Line 5: “scullery,” “basin”
    • Line 12: “Darken,” “door”
    • Line 14: “c,” “ame,” “c,” “ome”
    • Line 15: “c,” “ollar,” “c,” “oloured”
    • Line 17: “disinfectant,” “Dutch”
    • Line 20: “s,” “oft”
    • Line 21: “S,” “ud,” “s,” “aved”
    • Line 22: “s,” “avoured”
    • Line 24: “s,” “uddenly”
    • Line 25: “s,” “quired,” “s,” “ilk,” “c,” “amel,” “c,” “oat”
    • Line 27: “beyond,” “blue”
    • Line 29: “skimmed”
    • Line 30: “swabbed”
    • Line 31: “tiles,” “steel,” “surgery,” “tools”
    • Line 34: “pendent,” “parts”
    • Line 37: “bit,” “buttonhole”
    • Line 38: “Poeta,” “Peter”
    • Line 41: “G,” “reece”
    • Line 42: “G,” “raves,” “c,” “ure”
    • Line 43: “cannot,” “c,” “oerced”
    • Line 52: “'56”
    • Line 53: “f,” “ainted,” “f,” “umes”
    • Line 54: “f,” “ainted”
    • Line 56: “s,” “teamed”
    • Line 57: “s,” “cullery,” “s,” “tarting”
    • Line 64: “b,” “b,” “swimming”
    • Lines 64-64: “aby / its”
    • Line 65: “his,” “soapy,” “b,” “ig,” “hygienic hands”
    • Line 66: “b,” “linded”
    • Line 67: “B,” “linking”
    • Line 68: “Bits,” “pulled,” “posted”
    • Line 71: “leave,” “link”
    • Line 72: “mid-day, mid-May,” “pre-tourist”
    • Line 73: “precincts”
    • Line 77: “v,” “isited,” “v,” “ery”
    • Line 78: “Hygeia, his,” “her”
    • Line 79: “haven”
    • Line 80: “room,” “rest”
    • Line 81: “Stays,” “pure,” “reality,” “stand”
    • Line 82: “Standing,” “passage,” “she's”
    • Line 83: “sheets”
    • Line 84: “showed,” “b,” “ridal”
    • Line 85: “b,” “irths”
    • Line 86: “b,” “edside”

• “Out of the Bag” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Scullery
  • Spaniel
  • Lug
  • Unsnibbed
  • Hypnotist
  • Ark
  • Keel
  • Waistcoat satin
  • Forceps
  • Plumping hot
  • Rain-butt
  • Squired
  • Hyperborean
  • Dreeps
  • Pendent
  • Poeta doctus
  • Peter Levi
  • Asclepius
  • Graves
  • Lourdes
  • Epidaurus
  • Sanatorium
  • Thurifer
  • Laved
  • Miraculum
  • Precincts
  • Hogweed
  • Hygeia
  • (Location in poem: Line 5: “In the scullery basin,”; Lines 56-57: “Doctor Kerlin at the steamed-up glass / Of our / window,”; Line 57: “scullery”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Out of the Bag”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Out of the Bag” Speaker

• “Out of the Bag” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Out of the Bag”

• More “Out of the Bag” Resources

  • External Resources

    • Heaney's Nobel Lecture — The author of "Out of the Bag" won the Nobel Prize in 1995. Read his speech for the occasion, in which he pays tribute to influences like John Keats.

    • Heaney's Life and Work — The Poetry Foundation provides an in-depth biography of the celebrated poet.

    • Seamus Heaney's Work and Writings — Read an overview of Heaney's literary, scholarly, and broadcasting career, compiled by the executors of his estate.

    • Learn about Lourdes — "Out of the Bag" recalls a pilgrimage the young Seamus Heaney made to Lourdes in 1956. Learn more about this famous site, and why it is so significant for Catholics around the world.

    • The Temple of Asclepius — Learn more about the Temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus, courtesy of this archaeological site database compiled by the University of Warwick. 

    • The Art of Poetry with Seamus Heaney — Heaney joins the poet Henri Cole in conversation for The Paris Review. Their conversation includes details about Heaney's mother and early childhood.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Seamus Heaney

    • Blackberry-Picking

    • Bogland

    • Death of a Naturalist

    • Digging

    • Exposure

    • Follower

    • Mid-Term Break

    • Personal Helicon

    • Punishment

    • Requiem for the Croppies

    • Storm on the Island

    • The Tollund Man

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