Whatever You Say, Say Nothing

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1975

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Free Speech

The primary message of Heaney’s “Whatever You Say, Say Nothing,” directly refutes the statement made in the poem’s title. Sections I, II, III, and IV of the poem all offer powerful refutations of the idea that it is understandable to “say nothing.” Whether the phrase is issued as a threat or is being taken as advice for how to safely and happily conduct life in a sectarian state, Heaney takes umbrage with it. The main theme of the poem “Whatever You Say, Say Nothing,” is in the power and necessity of free speech.

Part III of the poem opens with a series of platitudes from citizens, empty and used to discourage free discourse: “‘You know them by their eyes,’ and hold your tongue. / ‘One side’s as bad the other,’ never worse. / Christ, it’s nearly time that some small leak was sprung” (Lines 54-56). Here, Heaney explicitly calls for free speech. He acts directly against the idea that you can know someone’s identity “by their eyes,” and the belief that “holding your tongue” is the answer to fighting inequality based on nationality or religion. Heaney calls out for a “leak” to be sprung in the dam of threat and fear that withholds meaningful speech and dialogue. The first section of the poem likewise ends with the admonishment: “The ‘voice of sanity’ is getting hoarse,” (Line 24) which implies with emphasis that useless platitudes, empty words uttered by members of the moderate multitude or the exploitative media, have grown tired and tedious in their lack of depth, meaning, and ability to bring about real change.

Media Exploitation

The poem opens first with an indictment on the false speech and showiness of the media. In fact, it is the media’s presence that Heaney first responds to and critiques in the poem: “I’m writing just after an encounter / With an English journalist in search of ‘views / On the Irish thing’” (Lines 1-3). Although Heaney makes many ideological statements in “Whatever You Say, Say Nothing,” his primary attention throughout the poem consistently returns to words, language, its purpose, and its power.

If words are a currency of power during wartime, then in Heaney’s view, the media is mongering in that currency through falsehoods and the exploitation of the suffering of a region of people. In the second stanza, Heaney describes the media as “stringers” who “sniff and point” (Line 5) at the suffering of their fellow man because of the power, attention, and money it brings them. The media “litter the hotels” (Line 7) looking for stories of suffering and violence on which to report and who have “scribbled down the long campaign from gas / And protest to gelignite and sten” (Lines 11-12). In “Whatever You Say, Say Nothing,” Heaney critiques the media’s use of words for the exploitation of, rather than the liberation of, a suffering people.

Life and Death

Heaney consistently uses word play in “Whatever You Say, Say Nothing,” to turn common messages and epigrams into purposeful, satirical criticisms of particular viewpoints that reward evasion of conflict for the sake of comfort or coexistence. One particular turn of phrase comes towards the end of the poem, when the speaker asks, “Is there life before death?” (Line 85). This question, posed as it is, near the poem’s conclusion, works as a kind of turn, asking the reader to consider the suffering and lack of freedom that people are living with during the Troubles. The question itself references the concept and moral-religious question of “Is there life after death?” This question is at once familiar to both contemporary readers and readers living during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, because it is a question that is often pondered by people of many religious and political backgrounds; it is also a question that is often asked or posed by Christian religious figures (and many more besides) and then answered with biblical explanations of life after death through specific avenues (Christ as a pathway to life after death for Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, is an example of this.)

Heaney’s poem poses a secondary, related question that is more relevant to the thematic topics of “Whatever You Say, Say Nothing”: “Is there life before death?” (Line 85). Heaney’s play on the original question makes a clear statement about the quality of life for people living in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. What kind of life is it to live in constant fear of violence? Is it truly living to be afraid to speak openly about what is right? Heaney’s poem supposes that the question of life before death is just as important as the fraught answer to the question: “Is there life after death?”