Personal Helicon
- Created by: khughes765
- Created on: 28-04-19 23:08
Personal Helicon
Themes:Childhood experience, wonder at natural world, maturity, loss of innocence, the creative process, why Heaney writes
Context:
· Heaney’s first Collection ‘ Death of a Naturalist’ 1966 – the last poem in that collection
· Helicon was a Mountain in Greek Mytholodgy where the ‘muses’ lived. They were goddesses of inspiration and knowledge + if you drank from one of the 2 fountains it inspired you
· Where fable of Narcissus took place
· Written for Michael Longley who was a fellow poet and friend
· Wells show reflection just as the poem shows a refelection of Heaney
· Wells are a source of inspiration for his poetry but he has outgrown them
· County Derry Mossbawn is personal Mt Helicon
Form and Structure:
· 5 quatrains
· ABAB -half rhyme, loose structure with a few notable exceptions
Language:
1.
· ‘ As a child’ – adult perspective on childhood, reflecting
· ‘could not keep me from wells’- much like he cannot keep himself from poetry
· ‘I loved the dark drop,’ – d alliteration + mysterious
· ‘the trapped sky,’- reflection, he is reflecting on childhood + metaphor traps ideas in poems
· ‘the smells of waterweed, fungus and dank moss.’ – use of a list + ‘smells’ sensory language+ sense impression
· ‘dank’ – aural imagery
2.
· ‘rotted board top’- assonance – young Seamus revels in the disgustingness but adult Seamus conveys this through used of vowel sounds, almost playful
· ‘I savoured the rich crash’ – loved sound of wells now he loves sound of his poetry auditory imagery
· ‘ bucket’ ‘Plummeted’ ‘rope’ – plosive sounds convey excitement of young Heaney
· ‘So deep you saw no reflection in it.’ – slips into “you” much…
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