Trudell is an independent scholar with a bachelor's degree in English literature. In the following essay, Trudell discusses the dichotomy between the head and the heart, or reason and passion, in Kelly's poem.

A satyr is a mythological creature characterized chiefly by a duality; it is divided between a human and an animal, with some attributes of each. One might expect a poem such as Kelly's, which uses a satyr as its central image, to be about a duality in theme, and certainly there is one in "The Satyr's Heart" between human and animal, head and heart. The "dull point" of the satyr's neck points upward toward the human, cerebral themes in the poem, while the satyr's brave and animalistic heart is associated with the "armies of pale creatures who / Without cease or doubt sew the sweet sad earth."

This is, of course, one of the classic...