Terminus

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1987

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

Digging

By hoking in “Terminus,” Heaney lets the reader know that he is still digging decades after his original declaration in the poem “Digging” (1966). For Heaney, this dialectic word uncovers the layers of his writing more precisely: “When I hear someone say hoke, I’m returned to the very first place in myself. It’s not a standard English word and it’s not an Irish-language word either, but it’s undislodgeably there, buried in the very foundations of my own speech” (Heaney, “Something to Write Home About”). Like all colloquial terms, only people from his specific area of Northern Ireland would know this word. The word doesn’t fully exist in either of his first languages, but it’s part of his identity in how he writes and speaks.

Balance

The final stanza of “Terminus” is all about balance. This balance is between two buckets, two sides of a scale, two sides of a river, and two sides of history. One image of balance that tips both ways is the stepping-stone.

When Heaney stands on the stone, “he is the last earl on horseback” (Line 21), engaged in a childhood game with historical importance. By playing the Earl of Tyrone, Heaney engages in “a mysterious turn, a hiatus, a frozen frame in the violent action” (Heaney, “Something to Write Home About”). Men on both sides of this conflict experienced a point where “those on either bank could see what was happening but could not hear what was being said” (Heaney, “Something to Write Home About”). In this sense, balancing on the stepping-stone in the middle of the river is dangerous. One wrong move could mean a full breakdown of communication.

On the other hand, the boy standing on the stone is also Heaney as a grown man observing his childhood. As an adult, he writes about this stepping-stone:

[it] invites you to change the terms and the tearmann of your understanding; it does not ask you to take your feet off the ground but it refreshes your vision by keeping your head in the air and bringing you alive to the open sky of possibility that is within you (Heaney, “Something to Write Home About”).

The stepping-stone challenges the reader to re-evaluate their preconceived notions and to view the world again like they would as a child.

Dialect

Heaney uses colloquial words in “Terminus” that are not precisely standard English or Irish-language words. These words are colloquial or informal words used in ordinary conversation. The colloquial words in “Terminus” are also particular to the dialect in Heaney’s part of County Derry, Northern Ireland.

Heaney uses the word “kearne” in the 1984 version of the poem but removes it from the newer print. This word derives from Irish but also made its way into Old English. Kernes were hired soldiers, either Scottish or Irish, who followed a tradition of guerrilla warfare. Heaney used this word to connect the history of ancient wars to contemporary guerrilla warfare during the Troubles.

“Shunting” is a more dialectically English word used in the United Kingdom for a railroad switch or to switch from one track to another. The term “shunting” also refers to corralling cattle to different sides of a pen. Heaney uses this word to tie his rural and industrial sides together; he uses it as a switch.