Point of View

“Sloe Gin” is written in first-person point of view. However, that does not become apparent until the second stanza, which begins with the line “When I unscrewed it” (Line 5). The first stanza references another person: “She fed gin to sloes” (Line 3); this implies a third-person narration, which is dispersed in the second stanza when we learn that the speaker is looking back on a memory. The following two stanzas all use the pronoun “I,” though the final stanza also uses “you.” This creates a parallel with the first stanza as the speaker uses the space of the poem to reflect on their relationship with this person.

Language and Meaning

Like the majority of poet Seamus Heaney’s work, “Sloe Gin” is written in clear, accessible, simple language that is neither overly formal nor expressively colloquial; this keeps it from being rooted too firmly in any...