Seamus Heaney, New Selected Poems 1988-2013

From Human Chain

‘Had I not been awake’

         “Had I not been awake” suggests that he was lying awake in bed. He hears  a strong wind that blew leaves off “the sycamore” (the specific tree in his garden?) and made a pattering sound on the roof. “Whirled” and “Pattered’ suggest the strength and energy of the wind – though “pattering” has relatively gentle associations – the wind is not a destructive gale. .  The leaves are described as “quick”. As well as meaning fast, ‘quick’ has an older sense which means being alive in a particularly intense way. Both senses are at work here: the whirling wind has suddenly stripped the tree of its living  (“quick”) leaves  and sent them falling, swiftly,  in numbers, on the roof with a pattering sound. The effect on the poet was to “get me up” – perhaps more in the sense of being roused rather than literally out of bed, though it could include that.  This  leads to him feeling that “the whole of me” is “a-patter”. “A-patter” echoes the pattering sounds of the leaves on the roof . This  parallelism between the sound of the wind-whirled leaves on the roof and the poet’s physical responses is striking. “A-patter’ could suggest the  relatively rapid pulse of somebody suddenly keenly alert to the wind’s energy and its associated sounds. This sense of being suddenly stimulated into life is developed further with the electric fence image. (Here we should think of a relatively low voltage fence used on farms rather than something penitentiary-like.) The current in the fence produces a ticking, which has some affinity with ‘to patter’,  and ticking (think of the vernacular word for one’s heart, ‘my ticker’) neatly suggests the poet’s quickened heart rate.

        In the third stanza the wind takes on a character beyond its physical impact. Hints at personification of the wind gradually become stronger until the final image of the wind as a “courier”. Initially, the wind seems to be possessed of  a degree of volition, if not in its unexpected arrival, then in the way it is made to seem as if it decides to leave. Furthermore, it is said to behave “dangerously”, an adverb that suggests some degree of deliberation in its behaviour. As this wind is further defined as an animal (and so, potentially, dangerous)  with a homing instinct, the poem more explicitly attributes living qualities to the wind. Finally, the poem moves beyond animism to full personification when the wind becomes a “courier”. A courier is a person who, , moving with haste, brings urgent news (the word has its origin in currere,  the Latin word for ‘to run’).

         Before continuing directly with the poem, I want to say something about 'allegory’ and about 'inspiration’.  Their relevance should soon become clear. In his Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, Chris Baldick defines allegory as, “A story or visual image with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning”.  Poets often talk of being inspired. What do they mean by this? Is it psychologically credible? I suggest that the process could work in the following way. They may be working on a subject, an idea, and putting to work aspects of their craft such as rhyme and rhythm along with their general and exceptional facility with language. These things are probably subject to their conscious control but then, as if these craft ‘things’ work like a summoning spell, an idea, an image, a rhythm may just come to them. Having perspired over the use of their craft, they are rewarded with something inspired. With these ideas in mind, Heaney’s poem can be seen as having an allegorical meaning concerning poetic inspiration. The wind is the force, the inspiring power, that comes to the poet. The poet, however, must be open to the possibility, must be ‘awake’ and so ready to receive the gift of inspiration. The repetitions of "Had I not been awake” emphasise this need to be awake in this special sense, that is, not simply mundanely awake, simply conscious,  but awake in a more highly charged sense., By virtue of being awake, the poet is open to the whole of him being further awakened , to being sent “a-patter”, to being made “Alive and ticking like an electric fence”. Notwithstanding the relatively gentle connotations of “pattering”, the power of the wind as inspiring agent is emphasised. It has ‘voltage’, it can make the poet feel like an electric fence. It is said to verge on being  dangerous and it has a wild animal quality. Finally, it  becomes a courier announcing its ‘news’ with a “blast”. 

How do we unpack the ending? The actual wind, which is also the allegorical wind of inspiration, slowly died down, it lapsed into the ordinary. Similarly, the wind of inspiration lapses away. It is beyond the poet’s power to keep it as a mental possession to be used whenever needed. Yet this lapsing away is not a for ever after departure. This expresses the poet’s confidence that it has the potential to return. Furthermore, there is a sense in which this particular ‘visit’ has not gone in that the experience of sensing that inspiring power is still with the poet, both in his being and in the poem itself.

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