I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells
Of waterweed, fungus and dank moss.
In these initial descriptions, the speaker helps readers reimagine wells as places of mystery and magic. The "trapped sky," seemingly a metaphor for the reflection of the sky above, suggests that the well is a landscape unto itself. Heaney continues to paint a picture of this micro-landscape by filling it in with plant life, subtly negating the idea that wells are mere empty spaces. Meanwhile, he uses alliteration and sibilance to ease readers into a mood of intrigue and excitement. At first, hard D and T sounds and short words (drop, trapped) create a harsher and more abrupt mood. But soon, these give way to soft S and W sounds in longer words, creating a feeling of whispering fluidity.
Others had echoes, gave back your own call
With a clean new music in it.
Here, Heaney subtly personifies the wells. They "give" an echo, engaging in a two-way exchange with the speaker. Moreover, rather than repeating his voice identically, they improve upon it, helping him hear his own voice with more clarity and loveliness. This idea is particularly interesting in light of the later, explicit comparison between wells and poetry. It indicates that poetry, for the speaker, is a source of self-understanding—not merely a way to record his own voice but a way to hear himself more clearly, in a kind of conversation.
To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring
Is beneath all adult dignity. I rhyme
To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.
Narcissus is a Greek mythological figure who falls in love with his own reflection, and his name is the source of the contemporary word "narcissism." Heaney's reference to Narcissus brings to mind the visual image of a man staring into a pool of water, as the speaker once stared into wells. But it also serves a metaphorical role, implying that the speaker would be accused of self-obsession if he continued to indulge his childhood passions. Rhyme, he reveals, is a socially acceptable way to continue engaging in self-examination, without risking the label of narcissist. This suggests that, even when staring at his reflection, the speaker's goal was not self-admiration but rather the recognition of natural patterns and the joy of seeing his own place within a broader natural world.
