Punishment (seamus heaney 1939- 2013) Flashcards
‘who would connive in civilized outrage yet understand the exact and tribal, intimate revenge’
tribalism oxymoron 'intimate revenge' very different words 'intimate revenge' contrast poet understands why they did what they did- being honest
‘when your betraying sisters, cauled in tar’
‘cauled’ juxtaposition
covering her head
‘cauled’ femininity
turning the words meaning upside down
‘stones of silence’
sibilance
sussuration
‘her blindfold a soiled bandage, her noose a ring’
metaphor
‘ring’ instead of being married she is being strangled
‘noose’ could be around her neck
‘her’ always looking at her body
‘oak- bone, brain- firkin’
skull like casket
coffin for her brain holding her brain protective
her bones are old- oak tree bones become like branches
‘nape of her neck, the wind on her naked front’
‘nape’ exposure/ private parts of the body
‘her’ all about her/ recognising what happened
‘naked front’ the wind blew against her neck
‘it shakes the frail rigging of her ribs’
can see her body/ maybe skinny her ribs are breaking aggressive feel gives a sense that her ribs are broken/ pain starved
‘it blows her nipples to amber beads’
talks about her dead body
personification
‘i can see her drowned body in the bog’
guilt
putting himself there like it is happening in front of his face
‘the weighing stone, the floating rods and boughs’
‘weighing stone’ wrapped heavy stones on her feet/ would make her drown
‘rods and boughs’ creates a rhythm/ changes the mood- dark
‘of your brain’s exposed and darkened combs, your muscles’ webbing and all your numbered bones:’
what the inside of her body looks like aging time passing constants 'numbered bones' archeology- in a museum describes that she is dying in a very pleasant way
‘she was a barked sapling’
young/ has become part of a tree
old tree/ loss of innocence/ she was tied up for a long time
‘little adulterness, before they punished you’
adultery
the girl is being punished
‘my poor scapegoat’
sacrifice
being used
