Lines 1-4:

Though the sonnet cloaks certain intricacies in mystery—such as the woman's identity and the exact bond she shares with the speaker—the opening lines unravel almost all we need to grasp. The verb "came" in line 1 opens up intriguing avenues. First, its past tense hints that the action it describes—a visit to the well—has ceased, implying she no longer graces the well's presence. This notion is reinforced by the imagery of decay and frailty woven throughout the first quatrain: "old bat," "staggering," "whooping cough," "slow diminuendo." Together, they suggest the woman's demise. Moreover, "came" rather than "went" implies the speaker's presence at the well upon her arrival, hinting he might own the well and permit her to draw from it, casting him as the "Giver" at the poem's outset.

Lines 5-8:

In the initial octet, the poem's auditory nuances craft an elegiac resonance. Notice how the poet intertwines the traditional Shakespearean sonnet's rhyme scheme with a twist. Conventionally, the first and third, as well as the second and fourth lines of each quatrain, share end rhymes where final vowels and consonants match perfectly. Heaney, however, employs half rhymes, where vowel sounds echo rather than match exactly: "field" (line 2) intertwines with "filled" (line 4), differing from the more direct "field" and "wield." This choice maintains the sonnet's musicality without compromising its word choice or descending into overwrought lyricism that might clash with the poem's tone. Pay attention to internal sound patterns, such as assonance, where vowels repeat among nearby words: "draw" and "water," "bat," "staggering," "clattered," "gray," "apron." Similarly, consonance emerges in repeated consonant sounds: the p's in "pump" and "whooping," the l's in "field," "filled," "recall," and other terminal words, the b's in "brimming bucket" and "treble." These auditory elements evoke the speaker's sound-laden memories of the woman, manifesting in the octave through "the pump's whooping cough," the "bucket's clatter," the "slow diminuendo" of running water's sound, and the "creak" of the pump's handle echoing her "treble" voice.

Lines 9-14:

In the sestet, the narrative shifts from dawn to dusk and from the well to the woman's abode, yet she, the focal point of the sonnet's initial lines, departs physically from the verse. Moreover, while the speaker's presence at the well is evident in the octave, his connection to the scene in lines 9 through 11 is open to interpretation. In line 9, the perspective seems external, observing the moon as it ascends "past her gable." Yet, by lines 10 and 11, the viewpoint appears to drift indoors, witnessing (or envisioning) moonlight "lie / Into the water set on the table." Regardless of the speaker's vantage point, the phrase "would lie" bridges time from the opening octet to the subsequent tercet, while line 12's "have dipped" shifts to the present perfect tense, indicating a temporal and focal transformation, insinuating her passing.

Readers may ponder various interpretations for the closing lines. The moonlight personified as "lying into the water" could evoke religious imagery—baptism, a rite of Christian initiation. This aligns with the speaker's pledge to remain "faithful" to the inscription on the woman's cup, a religious dictum: "Remember the Giver." Despite the woman's apparent faith, the speaker's religious skepticism is evident. To him, the cup's motto serves as an "admonition," suggesting neglect in recalling the "Giver" it denotes, and its words are "fading off the lip." The irony of his allegiance to something he seems to doubt adds a layer of complexity. Another layer emerges: while once the "Giver" who afforded her use of his well, now her memory fuels his verse. She transforms into the "Giver," her memory immortalized in his poetry. Symbolically, she embodies themes Heaney revisits, reflecting on the poet's evolution, the "aging" of his muse, his "Giver," destined, like all, to fade and depart.