Again in the second poem ‘Personal Helicon’ tells about his curiosity for things this being wells. He would like to gaze long and mystically into the pale whiteness of his own reflection. He also liked getting dirty. The first verse appeals to sight and smell and is portrayed through the ‘smells of dank moss’ and the ‘dark drop and trapped sky’. The second to sound and sight and is portrayed using language like ‘rich crash’ and ‘saw no reflection’. The third appeals to touch and sight and is portrayed using ‘soft mulch’ and ‘a white’ giving the impression of a cold colour also. The forth to sound and sight and is portrayed using ‘echoes’ and ‘music’ and ‘call’ all give a loudness about the verse ‘a rat slapped’ a scary sight, given its scariness from his use of language. The fifth verse to all three mentioned senses, touch sight and smell portrayed by him ‘fingering slime’ and how he would ‘stare’ and the ringing ‘echoing’ of the darkness. This is he uses language to evoke a sentiment upon the reader with words.
Both poems encounter his childhood experiences of nature, his feelings and view as a child. Heaney’s use of language ‘rotted’ ‘sweltered’ and ‘gargled’ are one use of language used to evolve an image of his innocence. Another technique Heaney uses to form an image of innocence is how he called the frogs ‘Mammy’ and ‘Daddy’ frogs along with ‘jellied specs’ would then turn into tadpoles, further promote the childhood view of what he was unsure of and where the frogspawn came from and what it was. Therefore when he realised he was stealing the young of another animal his guilty conscience set upon his shoulders giving him a misinterpretation of the frogs leading him to believe that they were evil and would grasp his hand should he try to take anymore. Realistically this would never happen, but as if in another world, the imagination of a child is very powerful.
In ‘Personal Helicon’ again he is oblivious to the reality of the farm, which to him is like a playground that needs exploring. Furthermore, a part of this exploration was to venture out and look down as many wells as he could. Heaney describes him as Narcissus, a character from Greek mythology who fell in love with his own reflection. This definition best describes both characters as Heaney would all day stare down the wells. The reader should feel curiosity and also senses Heaney’s love for nature ‘Fructified like any aquarium’.
As children grow up their perception on things changes as they become aware of what they are unsure of. In this case it is Heaney as an adult reflecting from his adult perspective back to when he was a child. There is a change in mood as well as tone when the language is changed. Heaney describes the nightmare images using abrupt, coarse language lyrics such as ‘angry frogs’ and ‘gross bellied frogs were cocked’, ‘obscene threats from their pulsing necks’. The language Heaney uses to evoke his fear of the unknown and image of the war and how the adult has learnt from these events as he is writing in the past tense.
In ‘Personal Helicon’ imagery of the well is the main focus of his childhood memories. He sees the well as an object of fun and mystery that needs revealing but his perspective, as an adult is that the wells were indulgent and a main part of his young life. There are various nightmare images of his childhood that are most notable in the poem, Heaney uses vulgar language to beget, for example ‘A rat slapped across my reflection’. He also embarks on how he ‘Savoured the rich crash of a bucket’ both images Heaney evokes give an image of the well being this place of mystery and excitement for his youth. The imagery of the war may be a part of his insecurity and his reason for his obsession of the well; he may be bored and unable to do anything else due the war. The other maybe to get away from all the killing of all the animals that he may want to get away from by reflecting by the well this is unsure in ‘Personal Helicon’ but if ‘The Early Purges’ is looked at this becomes clear when he is ‘ Suddenly frightened’ and then ‘ Until I forgot. But the fear came back’. As if he is scared of Death, which also may have an explanation for ‘Death of a Naturalist’.
In ‘Death of a Naturalist’ his emotions are effected by Imagery in the war as much as in ‘Personal Helicon’, the reader pleads to these emotions from how Heaney describes the frogs as ‘Cocked’ like a gun, and ‘Poised like mud grenades’ ready to go off. Also how the frogs ‘invaded’. All language used to do with the war is to evoke Danger, the slime kings gathered for vengeance.
The wells are described as oasis’s, teeming with life, Heaney uses near rhyme to suggest this and not be convened with normal poetry or rhyming.
Heaney looks back on his childhood and thinks about how fun it was to sit by the wells and how he cant do that anymore as it is ‘Undignified as an adult’ to still do that even though he wanted to and how the only way he can feel like he is back by the well is to write about his experiences by the well ‘I rhyme to see myself’
In ‘Death of a Naturalist’ his childhood memories had destroyed his perspective as an adult as he now realises looking back how the frogs wouldn’t attack him, the mammy and daddy frogs were now just the bullfrog and frog. He now also realises how the frogs are not yellow if it is sunny and brown when it rains but only they appear to be different from the different brightness and shades of colours showing his lack of innocence in both poems.
