they advise: ëA rhizome-book, [is] no longer dichotomous, tap-rooting
or fasciculated. Never put down roots, nor plant even though it may be
difficult not to fall back into these old ways.í^37 The alternative is
always to be on the move or nomadic, and the rhizome is com-
posed/discomposed of shifting directions. Forever in transit, the
rhizome is neither beginning nor end, but ëalways in the middleí.^38
Discussion of the rhizome has provided post-colonial thinkers with a
metaphor for imagining the transgression of boundaries and the
attainment of a middle ground.
In view of this, how might the metaphor of the rhizome offer us a
way of reading the response to territory inscribed within Heaneyís
poems? By way of answering such a question it is important to
consider how Heaneyís poetic speakers oscillate between placement
and displacement, and to explore what effects this has on the language
of the poetry.
37 Ibid., p.52.
38 Ibid., p.47.