Description Seamus Heaney, in describing the pump in his backyard, wrote: 'There the pump stands, a slender iron idol, snouted, helmeted, dressed down with a sweeping handle, painted a dark green and set on a concrete plinth marking the centre of another world.'In 'District an Circle', he tells us: 'It stands here still, shouts vibrant as you pass / The invisible, untoppled omphalos.'