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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 adultress,
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 voyeur
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.
Seamus Heaney
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7.6
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(25 votes) |
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Click here to write your comments about this poem (Punishment by Seamus Heaney)
Johnny Muir (6/17/2008 8:12:00 AM)
Hi, I work for the BBC in Belfast and am working on a documentary to mark Seamus Heaney's 70th birthday. His work is studied (and written about in exams) by people all over the world and I am trying to find out what impact it has them. In this poem he writes about events in pre-historic Ireland - yet it clearly has a resonance om our time. I would love to hear anyone's comments on what Heaney's poetry means to them. Tell me about individual poems that have made an impact on you and why!
Cheers,
johnny.muir@bbc.co.uk |
Laura Brooks (5/13/2008 6:43:00 AM)
We studied this poem in great length, and I am in fact just about to do an exam involving it. The poem possesses great depth, Heaney sympathizing with the woman. She was an adulteress and, though her lover went unpunished, she was killed in such a brutal manner. She was a 'scapegoat' for the crimes committed by both of them, not just one. Very well written. |
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