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earthed lightning of a flock of swans”.*’ Unlike the earlier coastal locations
this one shows the presence of life in the landscape, and the inclusion of the
swans in the image opens the possibility of allusions to Yeats, with the corre¬
sponding learned and literate form of cherishing the place.
The experience, however, remains elusive in its entirety in the speakers
opinion. The in-between spatial placement of the observer, in terms of the po¬
sition of the land as well as in his act of driving through the site, is at once an
indication of a transitory situation: “[u]seless to think you'll park and capture
it / More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there”.*® This highlights the
importance of the temporal element in the scene and the detached position of
the observer, physically distanced from the contemplated scene as a driver en¬
closed within the private space of his car, in spite of his location in that piece of
land between the water bodies. The effect of the scene, however, involves the
observer despite this apparent separation since his immediate private closed
system of the car is subject to forces in the environment where it is placed,
which eventually affects the observer himself, too, "als big soft buffetings
come at the car sideways / And catch the heart off guard and blow it open.”
The outside effect of the wind thus penetrates into the seemingly sheltered
private world of the observer, almost in the form of a microcosmic parallel,
which brings about a close direct experience of the place in that particular set
of conditions. Yet just as the experience itself is elusive, the response of the
observer remains unspecified, too: the image of the open heart can suggest
vulnerability and unpreparedness as well as the possibility of receiving new
experience or of disclosing its own content. Nevertheless, the potential of the
scene facilitates the possibility of openness, of uncovering, and in the final
analysis, of self-exploration that the suggested openness implies,*° which
aligns the poem with Heaney’s early focus on the lived experience of place.
“Nonce Words” in the volume District and Circle presents a different type
of experience yet it is one that is inspired by the place in which it unfolds.
The location is a shore which is accessed by the act of solitary driving, yet the
actual place is not a specifically meditated and targeted destination; it is a
site that prompts the speaker to stop on his way as a result of what appears
to be a spontaneous decision. The contemplated scene is a quiet and virtually
deserted winter landscape which is devoid of any other human presence, and
no other lifeform is mentioned either, the gaze of the speaker finds only the
frozen scenery, suggesting his presence as an outsider, almost even an intrud¬
er, in that tranquil and motionless scene. His decision to stop and park the car
is not explained apart from the suggested appeal of the place, yet his initial
reaction of sitting quietly in the car and recalling the word “Requiescat™' sug¬
gests a rather stern and sombre assessment of the atmosphere of the outside
37 Heaney, The Spirit Level, 70
38 Heaney, The Spirit Level, 70
39 Heaney, The Spirit Level, 70
40 cf. Tobin, Passage to the Center, 292
4 Heaney, District and Circle, 44