Punishment by Seamus Heaney: GCSE

Windeby Girl found in 1951 by peat cutters in Northern Germany

Punishment by Seamus Heaney (1975)

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.

What is this poem about?

It's about standing by and watching someone get badly treated. We know that they've done something wrong and deserve punishment but we don't feel right about what's happening to them. Still, we do nothing.

Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet who saw terrible things happen to Irish women who fell in love with British soldiers. He is unhappy with the way he stayed silent about this at the time. He uses another story to talk about how people treat others when they judge them - a story of adultery leading to the execution of a woman  2000 years old 'bog body'.

Windeby Girl (the name given to the body when it was found in 1951) was thought to be a woman who was put to death for falling in love with the wrong person.

When you investigate this further you will find that recent evidence suggests that the facts surrounding this body were wrong when Heaney wrote the poem. That doesn't matter because we are studying the poet's understanding of the bog body and how it related to him in the 1970s.

Youtube links to investigate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AldtEaNoUQ  heaney talking about his bog poems

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCj8XQLGSDs  National Geographic  film about the bog bodies

More detailed notes: 

Context:  

Seamus Heaney is widely recognized as one of the major poets of the 20th century. A native of Northern Ireland, Heaney was raised in County Derry, and later lived for many years in Dublin. He was the author of over 20 volumes of poetry and criticism, and edited several widely used anthologies. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past." Heaney taught at Harvard University (1985-2006) and served as the Oxford Professor of Poetry (1989-1994). He died in 2013.  

Punishment is part of a series of poems called Bog Bodies inspired by the discovery in 1952 of human remains that had been preserved in a bog in Germany for 2,000 years. All the Bog Body poems were published in 1975 in a collection called North. In this anthology Heaney looked to explore the troubles of Northern Ireland.  

From 1968 – 1998 Ireland endured a civil war called The Troubles which saw conflict between Unionists who wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom and Republicans who wanted Northern Ireland to become part of the Republic of Ireland (Eire). Both groups had strong identities routed in culture and religion and are the tribal factors that Heaney refers to in the last line of the poem.  

Structure: 

Poem begins with narrator emphasising with the girl from the bog. He can feel what it was like for her to be led to her painful and humiliating death. However, his empathy leads to artful voyeurism and by line 27 he admits he stood by while women were abused. By the end of the poem he can understand the tribal motivation for violence. 

Even four line stanzas – measured form to reflect the moderated way in which the narrator tries to work through his own feelings of guilt and his observations about human nature.  

Meaning: 

The poem uses the pain, ritual humiliation and death of a young girl executed more than 2,000 years ago in order to comment on the ritual humiliation and punishment given to Irish women who had relationships with British soldiers. In doing so it explores the notion that humanity has not progressed beyond the brutal customs and values it held thousands of years ago. When asked what it was about, Heaney said this, “it is a poem about standing by as the IRA tar and feather these young women in Northern Ireland. But it’s also about standing by as the British torture people in barracks and interrogation centres in Belfast. It’s about standing between these two forms of affront”. 

Use of Language: 

First stanza 

The use of I in the first line shows empathy and makes the subject personal  

Halter – noose 

Naked – emphasises the vulnerability of the dead girl and makes the reader feel sympathy 

Second stanza 

Amber – semi precious stones used in worry beads/rosary 

Rigging – nautical image 

Third stanza 

I can see – again an empathetic personal witness 

Boughs – limbs, branches 

Body in the bog – harsh alliteration 

Fourth stanza 

Barked sapling – refers to the girl’s youth and innocence conjuring up images of her being flayed (whipped until the skin is broken) in order to communicate the pain she suffered.  

Oak bone – assonance (survived like a hard wood tree) and brain-firkin (firkin is small wooden barrel or covered vessel) are examples of Kennings (two word metaphors) which were a common feature of old English poetry. This reminds the reader that although society was brutal thousands of years ago it also had art and literature. 

All three metaphors compare girl to a young tree.  

Fifth stanza 

Like a stubble of black corn – simile is used to show how the girl’s hair was shaved as part of the humiliating ritual before her execution. This episode foreshadows the modern day Irish women who had their heads doused in black tar as a punishment. Here the structure draws past and present together in order to show that mankind has not developed.  

Soiled – dirty, unclean. Connotations of sexual activity – damaged goods.  

Sixth stanza 

Little adulteress – religious reference to woman accused of adultery in John, Chapter 8. Jesus pronounces that anyone without sin is free to stone her to death, leading her accusers to realise this rules them out and to slip away. This allusion is picked up later in the eighth stanza.  

Seventh stanza 

Undernourished, beautiful and scapegoat evoke sympathy in reader. 

Eighth stanza 

Stones of silence – sibilance to emphasise that the narrator knew that Irish women were being punished but he kept quiet, he did not judge the women, but neither did he step up to defend them because he had his own sins that he did not want revealed. 

Artful voyeur – his observations are drawing sexual pleasure. 

Ninth stanza   

Exposed – still under public scrutiny as indignity continues after death as she is exposed and put on display in museum – cannot escape shame 

Numbered bones – allusion to a catholic psalm where speaker is surrounded by enemies. Evokes situation in Ireland where during The Troubles people were physically close to their enemies. Could also refer to the cataloguing of artefacts. 

Tenth stanza 

Betraying sisters – time shift links young girl to women in Northern Ireland 

Caul – embryous membrane that covers head of foetus or close fitting cap for women 

Eleventh stanza 

Despite the opportunity to study that the body brings, the irony is we know nothing more today than we did thousands of years ago in that humans haven’t learnt to be tolerant.  

Revision questions for Punishment:

1. What are the two central 'stories' of this poem? (Hint: one is about a girl 2000 years ago and another is about girls more recently)
2. Who is the narrator in the poem? What sort of emotions does he display?
3. How does the poet use language and structure to communicate his main message?