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The context in which a poem was written can sometimes tell you more about its themes, message and meaning.

Some questions you might ask include:

• Are aspects of the poet’s life reflected in the poem?
• Is the time or place in which it was written reflected in the poem?
• Does the reader need knowledge or understanding of significant events to understand the poem’s real meaning or message?

You will need to research the poet’s background to discover answers to these questions. But if you do write about a poem and its context, be careful to include only details that reveal something about the poem.

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney was born in 1939 in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

This poem was published in his second poetry collection Door into the Dark in 1969, but it was written in 1966. This was the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising in which Irish Republicans began an armed rebellion to fight for control of Ireland against British rule.

Irish Rebellion

The poem focuses on the Battle of Vinegar Hill - fought in County Wexford as part of the 1798 Irish Rebellion - where the "Croppies" of the title were defeated by British forces on 21 June.

The Irish rebels were called "Croppies" because of their cropped hairstyles. These were inspired by the French revolutionaries who shaved their heads to distinguish themselves from the French aristocracy who wore long ornate powdered wigs.

The poem shows how the Irish rebels were disadvantaged by the fact that they were poor and hungry and had no military training or adequate weaponry - for example, using farm implements against the well-equipped British forces.

Many of them died in this battle and the poem is written as a tribute to them.

Due to the subject of the poem, it was used as propaganda for the IRA when the Troubles began in Northern Ireland in 1969.

As a result, Heaney stopped reading the poem in public as he did not want to add fuel to an already violent situation.