From the Frontier of Writing

Throughout Seamus Heaney's "From the Frontier of Writing," Heaney uses an extended metaphor and diction to create a militaristic setting and a tone of hard work and harsh procedures.
The whole poem has an extended metaphor of comparing the process of writing to the military/police. for example, in the second line "the troops inspect its make and number" this implies literally that a car is being stopped by a groups of soldiers to go through a car and make sure there is nothing wrong. But metaphorically speaking, this really symbolizes the process of writing in the sense that your writing first gets looked at by someone with a higher power. The second stanza metaphorically stands for the way critics are constantly watching your every move of your writing and are looking for ways to take action.
This process continues throughout the whole poem, comparing this violating search to critics o writing or an authoritative figure always on the lookout. finally towards the last two stanzas the poem begins to take a turn. The tone changes from an irritated to a more relieved. The second to last stanza means finally you are done with the writing process and your work was finally accepted.
I really like the way this poem is written because at first you would never think that this was an extended metaphor but once you read it more thoroughly you realize the impact it puts on the reader.