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Seamus Heaney wrote this poem about a young girl who was killed on the charge of adultery, her neck was cut and she was stripped naked where they then buried her alive like an aminal. Heaney emphasizes the brutality of this act and links it to the past when the Irish rebels killed Irish girls who married British soldiers because they felt they were betraying their country.
I can feel the tug
of the halter at the nape
of her neck, the wind
on her naked front.
It blows her nipples
to amber beads,
it shakes the frail rigging
of her ribs.
I can see her drowned
body in the bog,
the weighing stone,
the floating rods and boughs.
Under which at first
she was a barked sapling
that is dug up
oak-bone, brain-firkin:
her shaved head
like a stubble of black corn,
her blindfold a soiled bandage,
her noose a ring
you were flaxen-haired,
undernourished, and your
tar-black face was beautiful.
My poor scapegoat,
I almost love you
but would have cast, I know,
the stones of silence.
I am the artful voyeuur
of your brain’s exposed
and darkened combs,
your muscles’ webbing
and all your numbered bones:
I who have stood dumb
when your betraying sisters,
cauled in tar,
wept by the railings,
who would connive
in civilized outrage
yet understand the exact
and tribal, intimate revenge
to store
the memories of love.
Little adulteress,
before they punished you
I can feel the tug
of the halter at the nape
of her neck, the wind
on her naked front.
It blows her nipples
to amber beads,
it shakes the frail rigging
of her ribs.
I can see her drowned
body in the bog,
the weighing stone,
the floating rods and boughs.
Under which at first
she was a barked sapling
that is dug up
oak-bone, brain-firkin:
her shaved head
like a stubble of black corn,
her blindfold a soiled bandage,
her noose a ring
to store
the memories of love.
Little adulteress,
before they punished you
you were flaxen-haired,
undernourished, and your
tar-black face was beautiful.
My poor scapegoat,
I almost love you
but would have cast, I know,
the stones of silence.
I am the artful voyeuur
of your brain’s exposed
and darkened combs,
your muscles’ webbing
and all your numbered bones:
I who have stood dumb
when your betraying sisters,
cauled in tar,
wept by the railings,
who would connive
in civilized outrage
yet understand the exact
and tribal, intimate revenge
This poem gives you an insight into the punishment given from the Irish rebels and the brutality of it. Heaney portrays the story in a way which makes you side with the girl being murdered and feel hatred towards the Irish rebels who unfairly took innocent lives.
In the second to last stanza Heaney relates back to the Irish rebels who believed marrying a British solider was an act of betrayal saying how the girl was "betraying her sisters" for this British soldier.
Seamus Heaney wrote this poem
Stanza seven tells us how she once was beautiful with blonde hair however now she looks "undernourished" and "tar-black." He uses the word was indicating how now in the present she is no longer beautiful. He calls her "my poor scapegoat" indicating the wrongness of how she is the only victim, her partner is not being punished due to the fact he is male, this is a link to the Irish rebels as this is something they often did. The use of the word "poor" indicated he shows sorrow and pity towards the girl.
Heaney brings himself into the poem in stanza eight calling himself a "voyeur" a "stone of silence" as he observed from a distance without taking action therefor making him a stone of silence. The reappearance of the word stone contradicts how the "stones of silence" caused the death of this girl (to be buried alive) by "the weighing stone."
In the first three stanza's Heaney describes the girl and her punishment. He describes her as a weak and fragile girl standing naked trembling in the wind. He uses metaphorical language comparing her body to a tree "sapling" and her body "the weighing stone" implying her body is full of sin and punishment. The use of the word "bog" is a symbol of the continuous cruelty of killing innocent people. Personification is used in stanza two when he says "it blows at her nipples."
I can feel the tug
of the halter at the nape
of her neck, the wind
on her naked front.
It blows her nipples
to amber beads,
it shakes the frail rigging
of her ribs.
I can see her drowned
body in the bog,
the weighing stone,
the floating rods and boughs.
Under which at first
she was a barked sapling
that is dug up
oak-bone, brain-firkin:
Stanza four, five, and six then continue on with the description however now he has a sympathetic tone. The frase "her blindfold a soiled bandage, her noose a ring" tells us how her ring from her british husband bought her to the noose, he uses the technique of comparison with the ring and the noose and her love for the solider "blindfolded" her.
Under which at first
she was a barked sapling
that is dug up
oak-bone, brain-firkin:
her shaved head
like a stubble of black corn,
her blindfold a soiled bandage,
her noose a ring
to store
the memories of love.
Little adulteress,
before they punished you