"Personal Hellicon"

I was recently trapped by writer's block--a condition that plagues me every so often--and having read through this poem again, I believe I have found a directed remedy to my plight. This poem, "Personal Helicon" by Seamus Heaney, shows the speakers growth as a man from carefree child to self-aware adult. Interestingly he uses a well to symbolize his ability to see himself as others see him--humanity is a well of experience (or some such quote in cliche). The first well has no reflection, and that is when Heaney's play seems most full of mirth. That is when true creativity and fun are taking place. Then a face starts to take it's form: first as a hovering, white apparition, then a fully fledged reflection (like the of Narcissus).

I thought to myself, having come to terms with the fact that I have writer's block, what am I trying to write for? Fame? Publication? Money? No, I was writing for the sake of creativity and expression. In this poem, I found that intended audiences, people we assume to be critiquing our work, force us to see the mirror and polish, rather than create. As thus, I have taken to writing in privacy. No expectations, no reflections about appearance, and no stress. I am cured at last.

Sort of a Blog Response

William Williams (quite a humorous name, in fact) has truly baffled and impressed me with his poem, "Sort of a Song." Here, I shall attempt deconstruction and reexamination.

"Let the snake wait under
his weed"

This seems simple enough: let the thing exist where it should exist. He seems to be setting up a direct comparison of the relation between the snake and his weed to the nature of writing.

"and the writing
be of words, slow and quick, sharp
to strike, quiet to wait
sleepless."

This is where confusion rears its ugly head. Since we're letting the snake exist in his habitat, we must be letting writing consist of its natural factor: words both slow and quick--words sharp to strike--words quiet to wait sleepless. Slow and quick seems clear, a possible reference to several literary ideas that involve pacing and diction. Sharp to strike, now I'm lost. Does he mean "sharp" as in "The better 'to strike' you with"? Or "sharp" as in "striking this will allow you to discover how sharp it is"? It seems the first would fit more cleanly. Words that are slow, quick, sharp, and quiet. Waiting sleepless, however, seems pretty clear: words are always 100% accessible.

The structure here is what has me truly impressed: it's as if the first idea completes the first stanza and leaves me blank space beneath it for reflection. Then, with an em dash of great importance, Williams cuts into my reflection with further poetry.

"--through metaphor to reconcile
the people and the stones."

I can only assume the subject to be writing. If that is true, these lines say that metaphor (a symbol here for figurative language, I think) allows writing to reconcile all things in this world, from the pebble to the human mind.

"Compose. (No ideas
but in things) Invent!"

The use of single word imperatives here is a brilliant call to action. "No ideas but in things" might mean only ideas that pertain to reality.

"Saxifrage is my flower that splits
the rocks."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxifraga I cannot relate these ideas. However, splitting rocks is the first step to breaking ground and finding something valuable (?). Perhaps "Saxifrage" is the thought that helps Williams start in his composition process and he is suggesting that we each find our own Invention Starter.

When broken up, the poem seems to make a little bit more sense. I really wish I could talk to Williams.

"No man is an island, entire of itself."

Edgar Allen Poe's "Alone" starts with a dark and gloomy reminiscence about his isolation in childhood. He then goes on to say that "Then--in my childhood... was drawn/ The mystery... Of a demon in my view." I have experienced times of intellectual reflection in which I believed myself to be entirely of an independent nature. And of that nature, I do deem to have 'seen a demon.' I think that Poe is trying to point out that his separation from others early on has forced him to look from a third party perspective and see the 'demons' of the other's lives. I entirely agree that isolation can breed cynicism through over-analysis. However, in John Donne's Meditation XVII, he says that "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." In that, Donne is saying that all life is interrelated (at least on the level of human emotion) and that Poe's witness of the 'demon' as a result of being alone may be a witness of the 'demon' of loneliness itself.  These opposing ideas became ever-prevalent in my thoughts on this subject when I began to wonder about my academic lack of peers. It wasn't truly a lack of peers at all. Quite the contrary, the 'demon' of my loneliness was a fear of anything more than loneliness. However, Poe's representation of one side of this discussion was artfully crafted with a chain of couplets and what seems to be a loose iambic tetrameter. The genuine nature of the piece will hopefully find its way into my writing through example.