our wickered, penitential house.
-- Speaker (Line 3)

Importance: This line, which closes the first stanza, leans heavily into the hard consonance which characterizes much of the poem. However, “penitential” has another meaning here, which is giving penance to something. It’s left to interpretation if the house itself is offering penance for something, or if it is a place for penance to be conducted within. Penance is a strongly religious idea which reflects the overt Catholic values present in Ireland for much of the 20th century. This suggests a stagnation or entrapment in the attitude of the speaker.

the pious and nictitating preeminence of a school
-- Speaker (Line 10)

Importance: Here in the third stanza, the poem again reiterates the importance of religious culture in Irish society at this time. The word “nictitating” in this context refers to something that blinks in and out of view. It is a largely archaic word outside of animal biology, but here...