ABSTRACT
This chapter traces a development from a local to a global sense of place in Heaney's poetry. Global perspectives have come to complement and sometimes replace local considerations. The chapter talks about, global consciousness that Heise describes by reflecting a systems-oriented perspective for describing and imaging global connectedness. It draws on two important concepts introduced by Heise, to deterritorialisation and eco-cosmopolitanism. The two poems from Wintering Out that are discussed, 'Anahorish' and 'Broagh', are characterised as examples of reterritorialisation, preceding a process of deterritorialisation. The chapter talks about Haw Lantern, the poem 'From the Land of the Unspoken' introduces the idea of imagining a global, interconnected context by picturing the world as a system. The idea of being 'at home' in a natural, non-human system is finally discussed in relation to two recent poems by Heaney, the title poem from 'Electric Light' and 'A Herbal' from Human Chain.
