sp09250jgrady

="Personal Helicon" by Seamus Heaney (1965)= Jonathon Grady

As a child, they could not keep me from wells And old pumps with buckets and windlasses. I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells Of waterweed, fungus and dank moss.

One, in a brickyard, wtih a rotted board top. I savoured the rich crash when a bucket Plummeted down at the end of a rope. So deep you saw no reflection in it.

A shallow one under a dry stone ditch Frucitfied like any aquarium. When you dragged out long roots from the soft mulch A white face hovered over the bottom.

Others had echoes, gave back your own call With a clean new music in it. And one Was scaresome, for there, out of ferns and tall Foxgloves, a rat slapped across my reflection.

Now, to pry into roots, to finger slime, To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring Is beneath all adult dignity. I rhyme To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.

Way 1: First Impressions
My first impression of this poem is that the narrator is reminiscing about their childhood. How they loved going to a well and starring down into it. This particullar well that the narrator is looking into has a bucket system anchored at the top. They do what any child would do and send the bucket crashing down to the bottom of it. Lines six and seven describe how the narrator loved to do this action and "savoured the rich crash (line 6)" when the bucket hit the bottom. The narrator also descibes what they notice about this well. Line 16 states "Foxgloves, a rat slapped across my reflection" which explains that animals are at the bottom and there is enough water to see your own reflection. The end of the poem describes how the narrator wishes to dig their own hands into the plantlife in and around the well. "Is beneath all adult dignity (line 19)" explains how the narrator can not do this because they are an adult now. But they still will always remember what it was like to do it as a kid and the feelings they had about it.

There were some questions that I had about this poem as I read it the first time. The first question that I had was about line 5, "One, in a Brickyard, with a rotted board on top." Does this mean that the author is reminiscing about this well in a Brickyard or just wells in general? Another question that I had was how does the title "Personal Helicon" relate to the poem?

Way 2: Engaging with the Text
After listening to the text being read by others I know see what this poem is really about. The narrator is describing many wells that they had visited during their childhood. One part of this poem descibes a well that was in a brickyard. While at this well, the narrator sent the bucket down and it went "So deep you saw no reflection in it. (Line 6)" Throughout the rest of the poem, the narrator describes a shallow well, followed by a description of wells overall. When hearing this poem read to you, it allows you to picture the wells that are being described.

Link to listen to the poem. Click "Listen" next to the poem. http://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/heaney/personal_helicon.php

Way 3: A Point about Form and Its Relationship to Content
I found this poem to be a free verse poem. It only has a few places with a specific form of rhyme. "Wells" (line 1) and "smells" (line 3) is one example of rhyming in this poem. Other examples include "call," (line 13) "tall," (line 15) and "slime" (line 17) "rhyme," (line 19). It also uses some forms of words that half way rhyme. The rhymes seem to be in an AbAb pattern.

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
 The first use of figurative language that I found in this poem is line 10, “fructified like any aquarium.” Heaney uses this similie to describe a particular well that he is recalling in this poem. This particular well is shallow and has many different life forms in it. Frucitified means to be productive and an aquarium is filled with an ecosystem unique to that aquarium. When comparing these two ideas and relating it to the poem, you find that he is describing this well to have its own ecosystem. It has the different elements that organisms need to survive in this particular enviornmet. The rest of this stanza descirbes this particular well as being cluttered with other plant life. If you were to remove all the plants and wildlife that existed deep inside of this well, then at the bottom you will find a reflection of yourself in the shallow water at the bottom.

Way 4: Unpacking Another Instance of Figurative Language
 Another use of figurative language involves line 20, “To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.” This line is used by the narrator to describe what he wants to do with his life. He uses line 20 as a symbol of his own life and struggles that need to be overcome. Darkness can be defined aas evil or wickedness, while echoing is defined as having a lingering trace. The narrator wants to get ride of the evil things that are in his life. When he says, “set the darkness echoing” it means that these evil things that he is trying to get ride of will leave a trace behind and he will always remember them. He ryhmes to forget these evil things that consume the wells that he is reminiscing about, since each well is filled with darkness.

Way 5: Analyzing the Setting
The setting in this poem takes place at different wells that the narrator experienced as a child. The first line of the poem, "As a Child, they could not keep me from my wells" and also to first line in the next two stanzas describe to the audience what the setting is. For each stanza the setting is changed a little bit, each stanza represents a different well. "One, in a birckyard, with a rotted board top," (line 5) "A shallow one under a dry stone ditch" (line 9), and "Others had echoes, gave back your own call" (line 13) describe the setting for the first three wells that the narrator recalls.

Way 6: Identifying and Analyzing Point of View
This poem is written in the first person point of view. One line from this poem that justifies this is the very first line in which Heaney writes "As a child, they could not keep me from wells". The part of that line that shows the first person point of view is the fact that the speaker is referring to himself as "me". Another line that made me come to this conclusion is "I savoured the rich crash when a bucket". In this line of the poem, he is calling himself "I."

Horizontal Thinking: Connecting the Text to Wider Contexts Way 8: Considering Canonicity
"Personal Helicon" should be considered part of the canon because of its esthetic language portrayed by Seamus Heaney. The aesthetical language used through out this poem makes it feel like you are there, experiencing the well for yourself. "Dank moss," (line 5) "rotted board top," (line 6) and "soft mulch" (line 11) are just a few examples that show the laguage he uses.

Way 9: Biographical Context
The poem "Personal Helicon" is about different wells that the narrator has visited and what he has seen or felt there. The author Seamus Heaney wites most of his poety about his surroundings, what he has personally seen or some of the places he has visited. Mainly, about his surroundings in Northern Ireland, where Seamus was born. Through out the poem, the narrator is describing his surroundings at the different wells that he visits.

Way 10: Historical and Cultural Context
Seamus Heaney grew up on a small farm of fifty acres with eight other siblings. His uncles took care of him after his parents died when he was young. He spent most of his time split between Ireland and America. When he wrote this poem, he was in his mid twenties and was reminiscing about his past childhood memories, at his farmhouse that he grew up in. It shows this in line one, "As a child, the could not keep me from my wells."

Way 11: Theoretical Application
One theory that can be applied to this poem by Seamus Heaney is the psychoanalysis and the author theory. This relates the author to the poem that they have created. An anology used by Brown and Yarbrough is, "the way a fever is caused by a virus" ( B & Y 218). When applying this to the poem we see that this poem was written due to the authors childhood life. Without ever coming in contact with different wells, this poem would not be possible to write.

Way 12: Another Theoretical Application
Another theory that can be applied to //Personal Helicon// is the cultural studies theory. This theory explains that how the author grew up and the surroundings that are around while he is growing up is a key factor when trying to interpret this poem. The conditions of the economy and other cultural aspects help shape this poem. He was just a kid, playing around different wells in Northern Ireland. It was cheap and something that a little boy would do exploring his surroundings.

Way 13: Unifying Interpretation
I feel that one of the most important themes in this poem is never to forget where you came from. In this poem, the author is describing different wells that he encountered in his younger years. In the last two lines of the poem, Heaney says that he rhymes to set the darkness echoing. I feel that these lines are the most important to analyze and interpret. As he is reminiscing, he realizes why he loves to do what he does, write poetry. He loves is so much because its his escape from everything that is on his mind. Its his own world where all he does is focus on the one thing, not allowing any other aspect of his life to come into question or thought.