Perch on their water-perch hung in the clear Bann River
Near the clay bank in alder-dapple and waver,
Perch we called 'grunts', little flood-slubs, runty and ready,
I saw and I see in the river's glorified body
That is passable through, but they're bluntly holding the pass,
Under the water-roof, over the bottom, adoze,
Guzzling the current, against it, all muscle and slur
In the finland of perch, the fenland of alder, on air
That is water, on carpets of Bann stream, on hold
In the everything flows and steady go of the world.
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The poem describes perch apparently 'perching' in the river, just as they did when Heaney was a boy. They seem to stay still and are apparently unchanging, in contrast to the fast-moving world.
Vocabulary meanings
Perch a common spiny-finned freshwater fish
Bann River (line 1) the River Bann in Northern Ireland, famous for course fishing
slubs (line 3) lumps in skeins of wool, yarn or thread
runty (line 3) small and thick-set
fenland (line 8) marshy shallows along the edge of the river
