The Lammas Hireling by Ian Duhig: AS Level


The Lammas Hireling by Ian Duhig (2000)


 After the fair, I’d still a light heart
and a heavy purse, he struck so cheap.
And cattle doted on him: in his time
mine only dropped heifers, fat as cream.
Yields doubled. I grew fond of company
that knew when to shut up. Then one night,
 
disturbed from dreams of my dear late wife,
I hunted down her torn voice to his pale form.
Stock-still in the light from the dark lantern,
stark-naked but for one bloody boot of fox-trap,
I knew him a warlock, a cow with leather horns.
To go into the hare gets you muckle sorrow,
 
the wisdom runs, muckle care. I levelled
and blew the small hour through his heart.
The moon came out. By its yellow witness
I saw him fur over like a stone mossing.
His lovely head thinned. His top lip gathered.
His eyes rose like bread. I carried him
 
in a sack that grew lighter at every step
and dropped him from a bridge. There was no
splash. Now my herd’s elf-shot. I don’t dream
but spend my nights casting ball from half-crowns
and my days here. Bless me Father for I have sinned.
It has been an hour since my last confession.

 Content and Meaning

 The poem is narrated by a man whose hired labour turns out to be a warlock who shape-shifts into a hare. Once he has shot him, the narrator becomes paranoid that the warlock will return, seeking the protection of the church.

 Ian Duhig enjoys playing around with medieval tales and folklore to comment on our modern times in a satirical way. Lammas is the traditional celebration of the first harvest at the start of August and farmers often hired extra help at these times. Superstition about witchcraft and supernatural beings was common, as attendance at confession in Catholic churches. 

 However, the reader becomes increasingly suspicious of the narrator throughout the poem. Why did he hire extra help when he was a dairy farmer? Why did the hireling stay when he could have left? How did the narrator's wife die? Was the wife unfaithful with the hireling? Is the narrator's need for protection and forgiveness because he murdered them both? Is the narrator manipulating a superstitious society into a false witch hunt to cover a cold-blooded revenge murder?

 Poems in this collection present the opportunity for a variety of interpretations and it is important to explain your reasoning from the language and structure of the poem to support a particular approach.

 Structure

 The poem is presented in four stanzas with six lines each, none of which are end-stopped but all use enjambment to link the stanzas together and to give the sense of an incomplete meaning or conclusion. The lines flow in free verse, without a regular beat or pattern, just as the narrator's murderous actions continue, unhindered. 

 The mood of the poem shifts from happy/ victorious to suspicious/ murderous to paranoid/ anxious as the narrator changes his opinion of the hireling.

 Language


Fat dairy heifer and calf
Stanza 1
  • Although the hireling seems like he brings prosperity - the cows are 'fat as cream' and 'yields doubled', there is foreshadowing in the violence of the word 'struck' and disloyalty in the way the cows 'doted on him'.
  •  The suggestion that the hireling is not only a companion to the narrator but who is also obedient in knowing 'when to shut up' hints at there being someone who did not 'shut up' - perhaps the narrator's wife? Domestic abuse could be hinted at here, particularly with the aggression of the phrase 'shut up'.
A dark lantern, covering the candle or wick inside
Stanza 2
  • The focus on the narrator's apparent grief for his 'dear late wife' is made dubious by the rather aggressive verb choice 'hunted' and the adjective 'torn' - had he 'hunted' her and 'torn' her apart?
  • The word choices in the stanza work together to suggest infidelity. Whether the narrator feels betrayed because he thought they were friends, he now realises what the man really is or whether there has been infidelity with his now dead wife, is open to interpretation. His 'pale form', 'stark-naked', 'dark lantern', 'fox-trap' and 'leather horns' of a cuckhold all build to suggest that the hireling has cheated him. 
  • The 'warlock' revelation shifts the poem into a different realm, explaining why the man had a magical effect on the cows and on the narrator. 
  • 'to go into the hare gets you muckle sorrow, The wisdom runs, buckle care.' is archaic language like a proverb, 'the wisdom runs' that sums up the central hub or point of the poem, sitting in the exact middle of the poem, forming a focus as we try to understand it. The proverb says that turning into a hare will bring problems. When we compare the 'light heart' at the start and the sleepless nights and paranoid days at the end of the poem, we can see that the 'sorrow' and 'care' comes to the narrator, not to the hireling, who is the one turning into a hare. This suggests that it might be the narrator who is at fault. 
'The moon came out. By its yellow witness I saw him...''


Stanza 3

  • The murderous act is heightened by the fact that he has a gun with him 'I levelled', he doesn't hesitate and shoots to kill 'through his heart'.
  • The word 'witness' is interesting because the moon, symbolic of Diana, goddess of hunting, 'sees' the changing of the man into a hare. 
  • Descriptive language 'fur over', 'head thinned', 'top lip gathered' 'rose like bread' are vivid metaphors and similes to help the reader imagine the transformation.
Casting silver musket balls
Stanza 4
  • The narrative language continues with a disconcerting lack of 'splash' suggesting that the creature, although dissipating, is not dead.
  • The continuing presence of a curse is suggested by the ill-effects of his disappearance on the 'elf-shot' herd, which has grown small and infertile.
  • 'my nights' and 'my days' implies a constant and unrelenting haunting - he makes musket bullets from coins, the silver of which is the only metal that is believed to be able to kill a witch.
  • The final two lines reveal an overwhelming guilt that must be obsessively confessed every hour.


 Study questions

  1. Explain how the poet uses language to set his poem in the past.
  2. How does a modern audience understand the superstitious and religious imagery in the poem?
  3. Is it possible to interpret the poem as a commentary on modern 'witch-hunts'?

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