Personal Helicon Flashcards
(10 cards)
The title “personal helicon”
- personal is his personal inspiration
- helicon is the name of a mountain in Greek mythology - the location of two rivers where the muses lived and was a source of inspiration for artists
“I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells”
Metaphor conveys mysterious power of the well - seems to contain something as vast and overwhelming as sky
”/ of waterweed, fungus and dank moss”
alliteration of ‘d’ + sibilance tone of wonder/ astonishment - sense of synesthesia
“fructified like an aquarium”
Image suggest teeming with life and possibility
“When you dragged out long roots from the soft mulch/Its white face hovered over the bottom”
image/wc suggests the idea of something ghostly, haunting and frightening, learning about yourself can be disconnecting - unlike previous stanza he is now maturing
“To stare big eyed narcissus into some spring/ is beneath all adult dignity”
Allusion to the myth, indicating that his previous way of finding himself was self-indulgent and vain
“I ryhme to see myself to set the darkness echoing”
Much more adult lanuage - he is refined and sophisticated than the child who reveled in the filth of the wells
Quote Pairings
“I loved + of waterweed”
“Fructified + its white face”
“To stare big + “I ryhme to see”
Key Themes
Nature, childhood, exploration and coming of age
Structure
-Contrast other two poems by using heroic stanzas
