Diction And Symbolism In Seamus Heaney's Helicon

In Heaney’s “Helicon,” he utilizes many aspects of the wells and variety in pleasures to both symbolize as well as introduce his theme. Many times when referring to his adventurous endeavors with wells, Heaney uses diction greatly to voice his exact reflection of his experience which helps illuminate both the theme and symbols respectively. Aside from those three devices, Heaney provides insight from his youth which helps readers try to assimilate a similar situation or age in one’s life. Clearly used in the first line, “As a child, they could not keep me from wells and old pumps with buckets and windlasses,” the author wants to depict his childhood which makes facilitates the task of the reader to familiarize with the poem. Because of this
However, these childlike characteristics are needed as an adult because as we grow older, some begin to lose the artistic touch and thought that was once treasured as a youth. Never having been to a well, my own account of such a situation or occurrence is not similar; yet, there were definitely sources of artistic thought and creativity in my youth. The author himself uses diction to heighten the sense of creativity with his descriptions of the wells such as his phrase: A shallow one under a dry stone ditch Fructified like any aquarium.” Speaking of a well, Heaney uses extremely specific words to describe the exact image of the well in his thought. Even using a simile, he chooses to state the aquarium to describe how a child compares something insignificant to something grand and huge. His reason, however, is to also help bring out the theme of the poem because children are able to see something out of nothing which is often not the case once we grow older. Thus the theme of Heaney’s poem is to remain youthful at heart because aging will occur regardless. The two citations above help