Terminus

As the god of boundaries, Terminus plays a crucial role in this poem. Tearmann in Irish is a direct linguistic descendent of Terminus. As Heaney notes in his book of essays Finders Keepers: “Terminus appears as tearmann in many Irish place-names, meaning the glebe land belonging to an abbey or a church, land that was specially marked off for ecclesiastical use” (Heaney, “Something to Write Home About”). In the Irish language, this parish boundary is a place of sanctuary and rest. Boundaries work on a smaller scale and denote the outer edge of a smaller piece of land like a yard, a farm, or a town.

“Terminus” argues that people from Northern Ireland live between these boundaries in everyday life: what can be crossed and what must be left alone. When Heaney writes about having “second thoughts,” he examines how the truth changes from one context to another: “Second thoughts are an acknowledgment that truth is bounded by different tearmanns, that it has to take cognizance of opposing claims” (Heaney, “Something to Write Home About”). As mentioned in the literary analysis, second thoughts are Heaney’s method of code-switching or alternating between two languages or dialects to better fit into the place where you currently live.