Pool has published poems and reviews in several journals and teaches advanced placement and international baccalaureate English. In this essay, Pool interprets Heaney's poem by close reading and by placing it in a variety of contexts.

Seamus Heaney's poem "The Singer's House" presents several problems of interpretation. Unfamiliar place names, ambiguity of language, and the juxtaposition of the poet's personal life with the political situation of his native Ireland all establish initial uncertainties that can be overcome by placing the poem in biographical, religious, and most importantly, in artistic contexts. This poem uses imagery and indirectness masterfully.

At first reading, the poem presents a contrast between two places, Carrickfergus and Gweebarra. Carrickfergus is associated with salt miners, with their picks laboring away in the earth, and Gweebarra is associated with water and the enigmatic imagery of seals. The poet could hear Carrickfergus as "the frosty echo" and...