Personal Helicon

• Personal Helicon


  Poem dedicated to Michael Longley, Heaney's friend and fellow poet
• Personal Helicon


  • Deals with themes of childhood, the natural world, loss of innocence and maturity, and examines Heaney's inspiration for writing poetry
• Narrative


  • First person narrative - the solitary speaker communing with nature
• Influence


  • Romantic poetry influenced this work
• Heaney's childhood fascination with wells

  1. Discovery of his own reflection staring back at him

  2. His voice echoing in the darkness
• Three wells described


  • One in a brickyard so deep he could not see his reflection (sound is prominent here)
  • One in a ditch where he had to pull weeds aside to see down (sense of touch prominent here but also vision)
  • One where a rat dived out of the undergrowth into the well (images and sounds clearer here but an ominous note is sounded with the appearance of the rat)
• Heaney's motivation for writing


  Examining his childhood fascination with wells
• Tone


  • Introspective, reflective tone associated with poets
• Opening line "As a child, they could not keep me from wells"


  Suggests the adults were restrictive and other (them and us)
• Rhyme scheme


  • The rhymes of the second and fourth lines do not rhyme completely, perhaps reflecting the fading of the echo
• Rhythm and punctuation


  • Unusual, with full stops that break up the rhythm, indicating the poet asserting his personal style and challenging the reader
• Language techniques


  • Onomatopoeia (e.g. "rich crash") and alliteration (e.g. "dark drop")
• Form and thought


  • Tidy regularity but without constraint, with stanzas recalling experiences of childhood and the final one bringing his taste for wells into the present
• Well as a metaphor


  Source of wonderment, enjoyment and self-reflection, but also represents the unknown and fear
• Imagery and language


  • Natural, earthy imagery reflecting the poet's ongoing fascination with the natural world and physical sensation
• Heaney's background


  • Farmer's son with a classical education, weaving classical allusion and colloquial language
• Shift from past to present


  "I loved", "I savoured" about the past, but "I rhyme" in the present
• Shift from "I" to "you"

  To universalize the childhood experience and invite the reader closer
• Themes


  Wells and fascination with them as a metaphor for Heaney's adult role as a poet, with the rat reminding him that writing poetry is not without its dangers and dark side
• Title "Personal Helicon"


  Reference to the mountain in Greek mythology that was the home of the nine muses who inspired poets
• Tone


  Heaney's introspective tone reflects his personal, internalized reasons for writing