Seamus Heaney's "Requiem for the Croppies" is based on the Battle of Vinegar Hill, a 1798 Irish uprising against British rule. The poem depicts the Irish rebels, nicknamed "Croppies" for their short haircuts, as courageous yet untrained, outnumbered, and armed only with "pikes" or "scythes." Though they're brutally crushed by the British, the poem implies that their rebellious spirit lives on. Heaney wrote the poem in 1966 and later included it in his 1969 collection, Door Into the Dark.

• Read the full text of “Requiem for the Croppies”

• “Requiem for the Croppies” Summary

• “Requiem for the Croppies” Themes

  • 

    The Powerful Spirit of Irish Resistance

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-10
    • Line 14
  • 

    Remembering and Honoring the Dead

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 11-13

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Requiem for the Croppies”

  • Lines 1-4

    The pockets of ...
    ... with the tramp.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 5-9

    A people, hardly ...
    ... must be thrown.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 10-11

    Until, on Vinegar ...
    ... scythes at cannon.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 12-13

    The hillside blushed, ...
    ... shroud or coffin

    

    

    

    

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  • Line 14

    And in August ... of the grave.

    

    

    

    

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• “Requiem for the Croppies” Symbols

  • 

    Barley

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “The pockets of our greatcoats full of barley—”
    • Line 14: “And in August the barley grew up out of the grave.”

• “Requiem for the Croppies” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Imagery

    

    

    

    

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    Where imagery appears in the poem:

    • Line 1
    • Lines 7-9
    • Lines 11-14

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “pockets,” “greatcoats”
    • Line 2: “kitchens,” “striking camp”
    • Line 3: “quick,” “country”
    • Line 4: “priest,” “ditches,” “tramp”
    • Line 5: “people,” “hardly marching,” “hike”
    • Line 6: “tactics”
    • Line 7: “cut,” “reins,” “rider,” “pike”
    • Line 8: “stampede cattle into infantry”
    • Line 9: “cavalry”
    • Line 10: “Until,” “Hill,” “final conclave”
    • Line 11: “Terraced,” “shaking scythes,” “cannon”
    • Line 12: “hillside blushed, soaked,” “broken”
    • Line 13: “buried,” “shroud,” “coffin”
    • Line 14: “barley,” “grew,” “grave”

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 3: “sudden,” “country”
    • Line 5: “hardly,” “marching”
    • Line 7: “rider,” “pike”
    • Line 8: “stampede,” “into,” “infantry”
    • Line 9: “retreat”
    • Line 10: “Until,” “Vinegar,” “Hill”
    • Line 11: “died,” “scythes”
    • Line 12: “soaked,” “broken”

  • Caesura

    

    

    

    

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    Where caesura appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “run, no”
    • Line 5: “people, hardly,” “marching—on”
    • Line 10: “Until, on,” “Hill, the”
    • Line 11: “died, shaking”
    • Line 12: “blushed, soaked”

• “Requiem for the Croppies” 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.

  • Requiem
  • Croppies
  • Barley
  • Great coats
  • Striking camp
  • Tramp
  • Tactics
  • Pike
  • Stampede cattle
  • Infantry
  • Hedges
  • Cavalry
  • Vinegar Hill
  • Conclave
  • Terraced
  • Scythes
  • Shroud
  • (Location in poem: )

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Requiem for the Croppies”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Requiem for the Croppies” Speaker

• “Requiem for the Croppies” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Requiem for the Croppies”

• More “Requiem for the Croppies” Resources

  • External Resources

    • Listen to the Poem Out Loud — A recording of the poem as read by the actor Cilléin Mc Evoy.

    • An Overview of the 1798 Rebellion — A look at the history between Ireland and Britain and the events leading up to—and the aftermath of—the 1798 uprising. 

    • The Poet's Life — A Poetry Foundation biography of Seamus Heaney. 

    • Read About Heaney's Relationship to Poetry — A Guardian interview in which the poet discusses his influences, processes, and why he doesn't want to be referred to as a British poet. 

    • One of Ireland's Greatest Poets — Read an obituary published in the New York Times following Heaney's death in 2013. 

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Seamus Heaney

    • Blackberry-Picking

    • Bogland

    • Death of a Naturalist

    • Digging

    • Exposure

    • Follower

    • Mid-Term Break

    • Out of the Bag

    • Personal Helicon

    • Punishment

    • Storm on the Island

    • The Tollund Man

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