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Punishment
were publicly punished for their romantic involvements with
SUMMARY British soldiers. The speaker recognizes that his "civilized
outrage" at this modern-day violence is a kind of lie: he
I can imagine the noose pulling tight at the back of the hanged
understands "tribal[ism]" and the "revenge" motive just as
girl's neck and the wind blowing across the front of her naked
instinctively as his ancient forebears. And no matter how he
body.
feels, brutal public punishments—of women in
The wind hardens her brownish nipples and shudders her particular—continue to happen just as they did before modern
delicate ribs, which look like ropes through her skin. "civilizat[ion]." The poem thus implies that violence, vengeance,
I can imagine her corpse sunk under the peat bog with a rock and the "scapegoat[ing]" of women are historical constants:
weighing it down, and the sticks and branches floating on the humanity hasn't meaningfully evolved beyond them since
bog's surface. ancient times.
At first, her drowned body was like a young tree stripped of The poem describes an execution victim whose punishment at
bark. When they dug up, her bones were tough as oak, and her first seems primitive and antiquated. After being stripped
skull was like a wooden tub holding her brains. naked and hanged, the young woman’s body was "weigh[ted]"
Her head, which had been shaved, was like a field dotted with with a "stone" and thrown in the bog. The speaker suggests that
black, cut-down cornstalks. The blindfold her executioners had she was executed as an "adulteress" (though this is
given her was like a dirty bandage, and the rope around her speculation). In most modern societies, adultery is no longer a
neck was like a ring symbolizing the romance they punished her criminal (much less a capital) offense, so both the execution and
for. the crime seem like relics of a barbaric past.

Adulterous girl, before you were shaved and executed, you But the speaker realizes this ancient punishment has
were blonde and skinny with hunger, and your face, which the contemporary parallels in his own country; in other words, it
bog has darkened and fossilized, was lovely. can't be safely relegated to history. To the speaker, the hanged
adulteress seems similar to a group of young Irish women in his
Poor, singled-out victim, I almost feel as if I love you—but I own time: those whose communities tarred and feathered
realize, deep down, that I would've stayed silent in the face of them for sleeping with British soldiers during the conflict
your persecution, thereby punishing you as much as if I were known as "The Troubles." Tarring and feathering is itself an
stoning you. ancient, cruel mode of punishment, which readers might
I'm just the clever, self-indulgent witness of your brain's dark, associate with history books—yet it happened in Northern
visible folds; your web-like muscles; and your exposed, easily Ireland in the late 20th century.
counted bones. The poem implies, then, that what is "ancient" is also "modern";
I've also stood by silently as your modern equivalents—women these parallel situations give the lie to idealistic notions of
accused of betraying the Irish nationalist cause by sleeping with human progress. Pointedly, the speaker calls the modern
British soldiers—have had tar poured on their heads and been tarring-and-feathering victims "sisters" of the hanged girl.
tied up, crying, beside public railings. Though divided by centuries, these punished women belong
I join in outward anger, as a "civilized" person, at this uncivilized inextricably to the same human family—and that family is so
punishment. But deep down, I know what motivates this unvarying (human nature is so constant) that they might as well
calculated, tribalistic, personal vengeance. belong to the same generation. And of course, the speaker is
part of that family, too. He admits that, although he "would
connive / in civilized outrage," he perfectly well "understands"
THEMES the "tribal, intimate revenge" behind both punishments. In
other words, though he disapproves of the revenge, there's
something disingenuous about his and others' pretense that
THE PERMANENCE OF VIOLENCE AND "civilized" humanity has moved beyond such things. Deep
VENGEANCE down, he knows they haven't.
Seamus Heaney's "Punishment" contemplates one of
the ancient "bog bodies" dug up from the bogs of Ireland. This Where this theme appears in the poem:
particular corpse belongs to a young woman executed, or so the
speaker imagines, for the crime of adultery. Her fate reminds • Lines 1-44
the speaker of Irish women who, during Heaney's own time,

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VOYEURISM VS. ACTIVISM
• Lines 1-12
"Punishment" describes the well-preserved remains
• Lines 23-44
of an ancient execution victim who was young,
female, and vulnerable. The speaker (a version of the poet, who
encountered photos of such victims in books) is keenly aware of ART AND PRESERVATION
the "artful voyeur[ism]" of his description. As he contemplates,
The bog in "Punishment" turns the fragile corpse of a
pities, and "almost love[s]" this ancient girl, he recognizes that
girl into an object as sturdy and lasting as an "oak[]."
young women in his own time also face terrible public
The "artful" poet (or speaker) does something similar with his
punishments and that he does nothing to intervene on their
art. By reimagining the girl's story and linking it with present-
behalf. That is, he draws an uncomfortable parallel between his
day realities, he bestows a kind of immortality on an
role as a witness or "voyeur" to history and his role as a
anonymous person and a forgotten historical moment. Like the
bystander amid the evils of the present. The poem suggests
Irish bogs themselves, the poem hints, art has incredible
that pity for history's victims is inadequate—even self-
preservative properties. It may even have certain redemptive
indulgent—as long as it remains passive.
properties: it can summon up lost beauty and grant power and
The speaker's detailed description of the executed girl seems to significance to people who were trivialized, abused, and
convey sensitivity, empathy, and even tenderness. The speaker rejected.
imagines himself in her place just prior to execution, claiming he
Just as the bog preserves the victim's body, the poem preserves
"can feel" the noose on her neck, the wind on her "frail" body,
her story—to the point where it almost seems to bring her back
and so on. He acutely senses her fragility and vulnerability.
to life. At the time of her death, the girl was terribly "frail," but
From the evidence of her remains, he reimagines the living face
by the time she's "dug up," the chemicals in the bog have
and body of this "Little adulteress," deciding that she was
hardened her corpse to "oak-bone." Similarly, the poem makes a
"beautiful" despite her malnourishment and suffering.
permanent record of a fleeting and once-forgotten event.
Yet the speaker himself judges that his tenderness is Indeed, the poet/speaker claims that "I can feel" and "I can see"
disingenuous—a kind of artistic pose—because he's too passive what the girl went through, emphasizing that her experience is
or cowardly to help the living equivalents of the dead girl. He no longer buried and lost to history. It's now a shared
tells the girl that "I almost love you / but would have cast, I experience, for the reader as well as the poet. The poet
know, / the stones of silence." That "almost" is crucial: he imagines her "noose" (also preserved by the bog) as "a ring / to
suggests that what he feels for her falls short of genuine love. store / the memories of love." Of course, the noose was the
He admits that, if he'd lived during her time, he wouldn't have cause of her death and the bog her burial place. But in a strange
intervened on her behalf—unlike someone who really loved her. way, these things have also memorialized her tragedy—and the
Instead, he would have aided her persecutors by remaining poem does something similar. It can't resurrect her, of course,
silent and neutral. but it records her trauma and turns her remains into something
He may be a sensitive witness to history, but he's not a "artful."
passionate historical actor or agent of change. And he knows This "artful[ness]" offers a faint hint of redemption in an
this for a fact, because he recognizes that the dead girl has otherwise somber, self-accusing poem. The speaker
living, suffering "sisters." He compares the hanging of the ambiguously calls himself the girl's "artful voyeur." At most, this
"adulteress" to the public "tar[ring]" of young women in his own is only half a compliment, since "artful" can mean "cunning" or
day: specifically, Irish women who were romantically linked "deceitful" as well as "skilled at art." Still, it's the closest thing to
with British soldiers. (In the late 20th century, conflict between a positive note in the poem, and it signals Heaney's awareness
Britain and Ireland spawned a period of state violence and that he has created a memorable portrait of the hanged girl.
terrorism known as "the Troubles." The tarred women of this The victim will never receive justice or come back to life, but
period were essentially punished for tribal disloyalty—and, like the poem honors her in the only way that may still be possible.
the ancient "adulteress," for loving the wrong person.) Again, As if lifting her "weigh[ed]"-down body from the bog, it elevates
the speaker is writing about these victims, but not doing her image to something "beautiful."
anything else on their behalf, so he feels complicit in their
persecution.
Where this theme appears in the poem:
By extension, the poem implies that real love—especially for the
innocent, vulnerable, wronged, etc.—is never passive in the face • Lines 1-36
of injustice. It expresses itself through activism, not voyeurism.

Where this theme appears in the poem:

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MISOGYNY
Where this theme appears in the poem:
"Punishment" illustrates how women are punished
more harshly than men for transgressing social • Lines 1-44
boundaries—particularly those involving sex. Punishment, in
these cases, becomes a way for male-dominated society to
assert control over women's bodies and lives. By casting LINE-BY
LINE-BY-LINE
-LINE ANAL
ANALYSIS
YSIS
himself as a passive "voyeur" of such punished women, the male
poet basically accuses himself of participating in this misogyny. LINES 1-4
As an artist, he may suspect that his fascination with these I can feel ...
women arises from lust or other unsavory motives. As a citizen, ... her naked front.
he recognizes that he has not objected to—and therefore
The poem opens with the words "I can feel," but it soon
passively assents to—society's punishment and control of
becomes clear that the speaker isn't talking about his own
women.
experience. Instead, he's imagining someone else's. The
The poem implies that the women it describes are victims of a unidentified speaker—who, later details will suggest, might be
misogyny—in particular, a sexual double standard—that has read as Heaney himself—is re-creating the experience of a
remained constant from ancient through modern times. The woman who once stood "naked" with a rope around her "neck."
speaker calls the executed woman a "scapegoat," meaning that The poem's title signals that her hanging was not a suicide; it
she was singled out and punished not only for her own offenses was an execution, or "Punishment."
but those of others. That she was scapegoated as an
The speaker imagines "the tug / of the halter," or noose, as it
"adulteress" implies that she was punished more harshly than
tightened at the "nape" (back) of the woman's neck; this is a
the man or men she slept with. Similarly, the modern, "tar[red]"
description of the moments just before her hanging, or perhaps
women of Northern Ireland have been punished, in effect, for
of the hanging itself. The imagery is vivid and tactile (i.e., based
sleeping with the enemy (British soldiers). But there's no such
on the sense of touch), helping readers, too, viscerally imagine
penalty for men in parallel situations; society treats their
themselves in this grim situation.
"betray[al]" as less severe. Though men were sometimes tarred
for other reasons, only these "betraying sisters" are humiliated Normally, the word "halter" refers to a rope used for leading or
for perceived offenses related to sex. They, too, are scapegoats tying up animals. Here, it suggests that the woman's
for a larger problem. A misogynist double standard therefore executioners are dehumanizing her, treating her no better than
remains in effect centuries after the death of the "adulteress." an animal. Clearly, she isn't "naked" by choice in the "wind[y]"
weather; her captors have stripped her in order to humiliate
The speaker's criticism of his own role frames him as complicit
her. As later lines reveal, she has been convicted of a perceived
in this misogyny. He describes himself, uneasily, as an "artful
sexual offense—adultery—so her punishment is designed first
voyeur." Indeed, the poem focuses heavily on the adulteress's
to shame and then to kill.
naked body, over which she had little agency in life and has no
agency in death. Only in this passive state does she become Though some religions regard adultery as a sin, few modern
"art" as opposed to a person. By calling himself voyeuristic, the societies treat it as a crime, and even fewer treat it as a capital
speaker implies that there's something intrusive and crime (one punishable by death). In modern Europe, where
exploitative about his detailed description—and that he may be Heaney was writing, public shaming and execution for adultery
writing it more for his own satisfaction than for the sake of love are associated with more primitive eras; they haven't been part
or justice. In fact, he admits that he would have "silen[tly]" of formal legal systems for centuries. Right away, then, the
witnessed the adulteress's hanging and that he's done nothing method of "Punishment" is a clue that the woman in the poem
to intervene in the tarring of his female contemporaries. lived long ago. However, the poem will question whether
Creating art about these injustices is the most he's willing to do, European cultures—and "modern" or "developed" societies in
and even this art may be an exploitative act or a poor substitute general—have truly progressed beyond such cruelty.
for activism.
LINES 5-10
These moral qualms take on more significance if the speaker is
It blows her ...
Heaney himself, a famous writer (and thus a man with some
... in the bog,
power in his society) at the time he wrote this poem. Heaney
seems to be weighing whether art like his can meaningfully Lines 5-10 continue to describe the woman, or girl, being
address the unjust "Punishment" of women, or whether it shamed and punished. The speaker imagines the wind
simply exploits or compounds the problem. "blow[ing] her nipples / to amber beads" and "shak[ing] the frail
rigging / of her ribs." Through these vivid sensory details, the
speaker implies that the wind is cold without actually

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mentioning the word "cold." The word "rigging" is a metaphor
metaphor: it came to resemble a "firkin"—a small, old-fashioned, usually
means the ropes tied to a ship's mast, and here suggests that wooden tub—holding her "brain."
the girl's "ribs" show through her skin like a series of "frail," Notice how these metaphors convey a transformation that
parallel ropes. The speaker is implying, then, that her body is began with the imagery in lines 5-8. First, the speaker
skinny and fragile. Later lines will call her "undernourished" and compares parts of the girl's body to "beads" and "frail" ropes:
"Little," with the implication that she was also fairly young. delicate, fragile items. Then he compares her drowned body to
Whereas line 1 began with the claim "I can feel," the next stanza a stripped "sapling," which is made of wood, but still associated
begins with a parallel claim: "I can see." Again, the speaker is not with delicacy. Finally, he likens her fossilized body to "oak,"
literally witnessing the woman's "Punishment," which belongs which connotes toughness and durability. So by the time it was
to the distant past. Instead, he's vividly imagining the event for "dug up," the girl's corpse appeared mighty rather than fragile.
the sake of the poem. This third stanza also takes a small leap (This photo of the bog body that inspired the poem gives a clear
forward in time: having been hanged to death, the girl is now sense of what Heaney means: notice how the bones and
"drowned" in "the bog." preserved flesh look equally sturdy, and in fact resemble dark
For an Irish writer, and for Seamus Heaney in particular, "the wood.)
bog" has a specific set of connotations here. Ireland is famous LINES 17-22
for its peat bogs, which can also be found in other parts of
Northern Europe. These bogs sometimes act as a her shaved head ...
preservative—a sort of natural refrigerator—for bodies and ... memories of love.
objects that sink in them, and they've yielded some remarkable Lines 17-22 add further details about the hanging victim's
archeological discoveries. body. The speaker notes that her head was "shaved,"
"Punishment" is one of a series of poems Heaney wrote about presumably as part of her shaming and punishment. The short,
so-called "bog bodies" (well-preserved human remains) stiff hairs that remain on her head resemble "a stubble of black
recovered from Irish and Northern European bogland. It's corn," or the black remnants of cornstalks cut down in a
based on an ancient corpse recovered near the German town harvest. This simile carries deathly overtones: after all, the
of Windeby in 1952. (Years after the poem was published, Grim Reaper is traditionally imagined as a harvester of souls.
scientists found that the corpse was male, not female, and that The color "black" is also symbolically associated with death
its cause of death was probably disease or malnutrition.) Some (and the fossilized bodies recovered from Northern European
details in the poem draw on an account given in the 1965 study bogs were generally of a dark brown or black color).
The Bog People, by P. V. Glob. Heaney doesn't expect the reader The corpse is also wearing a "blindfold": a grim courtesy that
to recognize this particular allusion
allusion, but he counts on the executioners traditionally offer to their victims. The blindfold
reader's general familiarity with the "bog bodies" phenomenon, resembles, or is, a mere "soiled bandage"—nothing fancy.
which other poems in North (the collection "Punishment" Symbolically, this image might suggest the agony the
comes from) focus on as well. condemned young woman went through, or the way her
society judged her to be morally "soiled" (stained).
LINES 11-16
Notice the heavy alliter
alliteration
ation in lines 18-19:
the weighing stone, ...
... oak-bone, brain-firkin: [...] like a stubble of bl
black corn,
Lines 11-16 describe the aftermath of the young woman's her bl blindfold a soiled bandage,
death. After hanging her, her executioners drowned her in the
bog, attaching a "weighing stone" to her so that her corpse These /b/ and /s/ sounds have occurred frequently in previous
wouldn't float back to the surface. She sank under the muck, lines (e.g., "b
body in the bog," "she was a barked sapling"). They
surrounded by "floating rods and boughs"—branches and will repeat in lines 27 and 31, too ("tar-b black face was
similar debris—that remained after she disappeared from view. beautiful"; "the stones of silence"). Several stanzas contain
The poem renders these details concisely, almost cinematically, prominent, often alliterative /n/ and /r/ words as well ("the nape
as if cutting from one shot to another and zooming in on details. / of her neck"; "rrigging / of her ribs"; "her noose a ring"). These
The speaker then segues from one image involving wood recurring sounds give the stanzas about the hanged girl a
("boughs") to another. "Under" the bog, he reports, the girl's distinctive texture; they also make the language more emphatic
body at first resembled a "barked sapling," or slender young and heavy, as if bogging it down. That effect fits the setting
setting,
tree stripped of its bark. This metaphor again emphasizes her which is a literal bog! And, sure enough, once the poem
youth, vulnerability, nakedness, etc. Yet over time, her body transitions away from the bog in the last two stanzas, the dense
turned to something much sturdier in appearance. As it alliterative sounds largely vanish.
fossilized, her "bones" came to resemble "oak," while her skull Finally, lines 20-22 describe the "noose" around the girl's neck

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as "a ring / to store / the memories of love." This is a curious that sun exposure (e.g., from outdoor labor) and/or the grimy
metaphor
metaphor: after all, the noose was the implement that killed conditions of impoverished life darkened her skin to some
her, not a sentimental keepsake. But as the following line will degree. However, the speaker most likely means that her face is
reveal, she was killed for adultery, or sex outside of her now "tar-black," after fossilizing in death, in contrast with its
marriage. This is a crime of passion (in societies where it's healthy and "beautiful" appearance in life. (This reading is
considered a crime at all), so in a darkly ironic way, the ring- supported by photos of real-life bog bodies.) Regardless, the
shaped noose, like an engagement or wedding "ring," comes to speaker describes the young woman with a mix of pity and
symbolize a romantic relationship. The noose has been affection, according her the kind of humanity her killers denied
drowned along with her, too, so in that sense, it is a macabre her.
sort of keepsake. (Compare married people who are buried
with their wedding bands.) LINES 28-31
My poor scapegoat, ...
LINES 23-27 ... stones of silence.
Little adulteress, ... The speaker continues to address the executed girl with
... face was beautiful. tenderness and sympathy, but now he begins to question his
Lines 23-27 reveal some of the victim's backstory: who she was right to these feelings. In lines full of soft /s/ consonance
consonance, he
in life, or at least, who the speaker imagines she was. Line 23 admits that he would have stayed "silen[t]" about her
reveals that she was hanged as an "adulteress": a married punishment if he'd been alive at the time:
woman who has sexual relations outside of her marriage. In a
number of ancient cultures (and a few modern ones), adultery My poor scapegoat,
was regarded as a crime, and sometimes a capital crime. I almosst love you
The speaker calls the girl a "Little
Little adulteress," hinting that she but would have casst, I know,
was not only physically diminutive but also, perhaps, quite the stones of silencce.
young. He then describes what she looked like in life,
apostrophizing her directly: The hushed, sibilant sounds fit the speaker's sober, self-
accusing mood. The speaker effectively acknowledges that the
[...] before they punished you girl wasn't guilty of a serious offense and that she wasn't
you were flaxen-haired, uniquely guilty, either. She was a "poor scapegoat," unfairly
undernourished, and your singled out for punishment. Sex outside of marriage is common;
tar-black face was beautiful. for whatever reason, she happened to be caught and blamed
for something many people do. And she may well have faced a
The direct address creates an effect of sudden familiarity and misogynistic double standard (been scapegoated as a woman)
tenderness. It's as if the speaker is attempting to connect with since there's no indication here that her (presumably male)
this young execution victim across the span of millennia. The lover was punished for the same offense.
speaker imagines that she was "flaxen-haired," or blond, The speaker feels tenderly toward this "scapegoat," then, and
presumably because blond hair is common in the region where wants to equate that tenderness with "love." But he feels that
her corpse was found. (Heaney based the poem on a "bog wouldn't be accurate. He "know[s]" and admits that, if he'd been
body" from Northern Germany.) He also imagines her as around to witness her fate, he wouldn't have tried to
"undernourished," a detail that ties back to the earlier intervene—the way someone who truly loved her would.
metaphor about her skeletally thin body ("the wind [...] shakes Instead, he would have metaphorically "cast [...] the stones of
the frail rigging / of her ribs"). It's possible that adultery was silence": that is, collaborated in her murder by staying silent
punished harshly in this ancient society in part because about her unjust persecution. He wouldn't have been one of
resources were scarce, and sexual competition overlapped with her executioners, but he would have been one of the
competition over those scarce resources. bystanders who failed to speak out against them. His silence
The speaker also comments that the girl's "tar-black face was would have been a form of violence.
beautiful." This ambiguous phrase could mean a few different This metaphor also alludes to the Gospel of John (8:3-11), in
things. It probably does not mean that she was born with very which a group of men asks Jesus whether they should punish
dark skin, as, in ancient Northern Europe, this would make an an adulterous woman by stoning her. (This was a standard
unusual combination with light blond hair. It could imply that punishment for adultery at the time, prescribed by older
her face was tarred by her executioners (in parallel with the Mosaic law, and it still exists in a few modern societies.) Jesus
punishment described later), though this detail does not appear famously replies: "He that is without sin among you, let him first
in the speaker's account of the execution itself. It's also possible cast a stone at her." The men depart in shame, implicitly

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acknowledging that they, too, are sinners and have no right to (deliberately so), but it's also highly evocative. It might inspire
judge her. mixed feelings in the reader, just as it does in the poet/speaker.
Heaney acknowledged that this biblical passage partly inspired LINES 37-40
"Punishment." In these lines, he implies that it's not enough to
withhold one's participation from acts of unjust violence; one I who have ...
should actively oppose them. To remain silent in the face of ... by the railings,
others' persecution is as bad as persecuting them oneself. An important shift occurs in lines 37-40, as the speaker
juxtaposes the execution of the ancient "adulteress" with a
LINES 32-36 cruel punishment inflicted on modern women. The poem
I am the ... suddenly leaps forward in time, to what would have been the
... your numbered bones: present day (the 1970s) for Heaney.
In lines 32-36, the speaker continues to reflect on his own This period saw extended, often violent conflict in Heaney's
relationship to the young woman he's writing about. Of course, native Northern Ireland, as the country's nationalists (those
this relationship is extremely indirect; the two are separated by who wanted Northern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom and
thousands of years and, seemingly, a vast cultural gulf. But unite with the rest of Ireland) opposed its unionists (those who
seeing her well-preserved corpse (at least in photos), and wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the UK). The nationalist
guessing at the violent nature of her death, has moved him. He side was largely Catholic and the unionists largely Protestant,
is haunted not only by her tragic execution but by the sense so religious tensions heightened the conflict. The UK sought to
that, had he been alive to witness it, he would have done maintain its hold on the region through police and military
nothing to stop it. force. This period of tensions, which lasted from the 1960s
Instead, he writes about the event, and about her body, in detail. through the 1990s, became known as "the Northern Ireland
This action also makes him uneasy, as if, by viewing her remains, conflict" or "the Troubles."
he's intruding on her privacy. In fact, he calls himself "the artful During the Troubles, the nationalist paramilitary group known
voyeur" of her fossilized body. This complex and loaded phrase as the I.R.A. (Irish Republican Army) sometimes harshly
can be read in many ways: "artful" can variously mean artist-like, punished Irish women who dated British soldiers. They viewed
skillful, or cunning. Meanwhile, a "voyeur" is someone who spies such romantic relationships as a "betray[al]" of the nationalist
on other people's private or intimate moments, often out of lust cause. One of their methods of punishment involved the
(similar to a peeping Tom). More broadly, it can mean anyone ancient practice known as "tarring and feathering." They would
who snoops on others for their own enjoyment. pour hot tar over the women's heads, cover them with feathers
Hence, "artful voyeur" is an ambiguous phrase. It suggests that that stuck to the tar, and display the humiliated women in
the speaker—who appears to be the poet—quietly, skillfully public (e.g., by chaining them to lampposts or railings in front of
observes the girl's body for the purposes of his art. Yet he also their homes).
seems to fear that there's something self-indulgent or In this next-to-last stanza
stanza, the speaker draws an implicit parallel
exploitative about this activity. At best, he views himself as a between the ancient and the modern
skilled witness to and recorder of history. At worst, he suspects "Punishment[s]"—between the hanging of the "adulteress" and
that he bears witness to historical injustices rather than the "tar[ring]" of Irish women. Both punishments are painful;
meaningfully opposing them, because that's the easier and both involve public humiliation; both "scapegoat" women for
more gratifying role. His passive "silence" may facilitate his perceived sexual offenses, enforcing a misogynistic double
"art[]," but he feels that it's also morally suspect. standard. (The I.R.A. tarred men for other reasons, but not for
As if to illustrate his "voyeur[ism]," he describes the corpse sexual relationships.) And while tarring isn't a death penalty,
further, with precise, detailed imagery
imagery: women who suffered it in Northern Ireland often experienced
social death and fled their communities afterward. (The
metaphor "cauled in tar" is ironic in this context: cauls are
[...] of your brain's exposed
membranes that cover some newborns' heads and are
and darkened combs,
traditionally viewed as lucky omens. That is, they're usually
your muscles' webbing
associated with birth and good fortune, not death and
and all your numbered bones:
misfortune.) In all these ways, the women punished for
"betraying" the nationalist cause are the metaphorical "sisters"
In other words, the brains resemble "combs" or honeycombs;
of the hanged adulteress. They're victims of a brutality and
the exposed muscles are "web"-like structures; the bones are so
hypocrisy that have lasted thousands of years.
well-preserved that they can be "numbered" or counted. The
imagery here is indeed a little creepy and voyeuristic Meanwhile, the speaker is a "voyeur" to both the ancient and
modern punishments, though in slightly different senses. He

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merely observes the result of the hanging long after the fact,
whereas he witnesses the tarring and feathering in his own POETIC DEVICES
homeland, in his own time. (It's unclear whether he's personally
witnessed any of these incidents, but he's at least learned about IMAGERY
them in the news.) And while he's disturbed by the cruel "Punishment" is full of precise and detailed imagery
imagery, which
tarrings, which cause women to "we[ep] by the railings" they're brings to life not only the appearance but the backstory of the
tied to, he has "stood dumb" rather than speaking out against executed "adulteress."
them. He feels he has cast "the stones of silence": enabled the The speaker, writing in modern times, tries to empathize with
violence by remaining passive and neutral. her long-ago experiences: he claims that "I can feel" and "see"
what happened to her. Using tactile (touch-based) imagery, he
LINES 41-44
imagines "the tug / of the halter," or noose, on her "neck," and
who would connive ... "the wind" on her bare body in her last moments of life. Using
... tribal, intimate revenge. visual imagery, he also imagines things she couldn't have seen,
In the final stanza
stanza, the speaker continues to reflect on his own including "her drowned / body in the bog" and "the floating
role as a witness to cruelty, both historical and contemporary. rods and boughs" around her.
He has already accused himself of being a "voyeur" or passive After recreating this scene, he describes the appearance of her
bystander, the kind of person who remains "silent" or "dumb" in body as it was dug up from the bog. This account seems based
the face of injustice. At most, he considers himself an "artful" on photographs of a corpse formerly called "thethe Windeb
Windebyy Girl
Girl,"
voyeur: someone who can turn the cruelty he witnesses into discovered near the German town of Windeby and described in
art. Heaney's source material, the 1965 study The Bog People. (The
Now, he admits that he "understand[s]" the roots of violence corpse later turned out to be male.) He points to visual details
and vengeance that might otherwise seem incomprehensibly mentioned in that book, including the "shaved head" and
cruel. He would like to "connive / in civilized outrage" when he "blindfold" that seem to indicate death by execution. He also
witnesses it, as in the cases of tarring and feathering (lines sketches an anatomical portrait of the corpse's "brain[],"
37-30). That is, he'd like to join those who indignantly insist that "muscles[]," and "bones." The perspective here feels unsettlingly
"civilized" humanity should have progressed beyond such intimate, or perhaps tenderly human, rather than clinical, as the
barbarism. But he feels that, on some level, to do so would be poet labels himself an "artful voyeur." Likewise, the speaker
hypocritical. (The verb "connive" has connotations of scheming affectionately imagines how the girl appeared in life: "flaxen-
and deceit.) He's all too familiar with the primitive passions that haired, / undernourished," yet "beautiful."
still roil under humanity's civilized surface; he The poem's final imagery involves punished women in Seamus
"understand[s]"—perhaps through his own psychology and Heaney's own day: women who were tarred and feathered for
experience—"the exact / and tribal, intimate revenge" that their alleged "betray[al]" of the Irish nationalist cause. The
befell the punished women. reference to women "we[eping] by the railings" they were tied
This kind of "revenge" is mercilessly "exact" in whom it targets. to offers a brief, yet powerful visual portrait. The image "cauled
It's "tribal" in multiple senses: reminiscent of ancient tribes (i.e., in tar" is partly tactile, too, as it prompts the reader to imagine
primitive), and also rooted in tribal loyalties (which, in modern hot tar sticking to the skull like a "caul[]," or membrane.
times, might be ethnic, national, religious, etc.). Finally, it's
"intimate" in that it involves personal, and often familial or Where Imagery appears in the poem:
romantic, passions. (Remember, both the ancient and the
modern women were punished for sex.) • Lines 1-19
• Lines 25-27
The poem's conclusion is therefore deliberately, troublingly • Lines 33-36
ambiguous. By writing the poem, the poet/speaker has in some • Lines 38-40
sense spoken out about "tribal," misogynistic violence. But he
resists a straightforward stance of righteous "outrage," instead ALLITERATION
casting himself as a morally murky figure. He's an artist who
bears witness to, but subtly enables or even participates in, the The poem is heavily alliter
alliterativ
ativee, especially in the stanzas about
world's ongoing cruelty. the executed girl. Notice the density of /n/, /b/, and /r/ words in
lines 2-10, for instance:

of the halter at the nape

of her neck, the wind
on her naked front.

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It blows her nipples hanged. He compares her cold, exposed nipples to "amber
to amber beads, beads" and her "ribs," showing through her malnourished body,
it shakes the frail rigging to "frail rigging"—that is, fragile ropes tied to ships' masts. Both
of her ribs. comparisons highlight the girl's terrible "frail[ty]" and
I can see her drowned vulnerability.
body in the bog, By contrast, death turns her into an ironically sturdy figure.
Preserved for centuries under the bog, her body, which initially
The overall effect is heavy, emphatic, and harsh: appropriate to resembled "a barked sapling," or stripped young tree, becomes
this scene of an execution victim "weigh[ted]" with a stone and as solid as "oak." Her skull comes to resemble a solid wooden
drowned in a "bog." The thick consonants bog down the poem's "firkin," or tub, for her "brain[s]." It's not just her "bone[s]" that
pace, contributing to its somber mood. This effect continues as have endured, either: her scalp remains so well preserved that
the scene unfolds: /b/ and /s/ syllables also cluster in line 16 one can tell it was "shaved." Heaney likens her shaved hair to
("oak-bbone, brain-firkin"), lines 18-19 ("like a stubble of black the "stubble" (cut stalks) of "black corn": an eerie simile that
corn, / her blindfold a soiled bandage"), and line 27 ("tar-b black symbolically suggests how death cut her down in her prime.
face was beautiful"). Even her noose, preserved along with her body, comes to seem
Another notably alliterative phrase comes in line 31: "the metaphorical or symbolic: the speaker compares it to "a ring"
stones of silence." Here, sibilant /s/ sounds give the line a holding "the memories of love." Whereas earlier metaphors
sinister hush, appropriate to a metaphor framing silence as a stressed the girl's vulnerability, then, the figur
figurativ
ativee language in
kind of violence. lines 13-22 stresses the opposite: the strange durability of her
Interestingly, alliteration fades as the poem transitions into the body and of the "love" she was punished for.
modern era (lines 37-44). This shift might be a quiet, but clever Later metaphors carry rich connotations as well. For example,
nod to literary history. Heavily accentual and alliterative verse the speaker claims that, had he witnessed the girl's persecution,
is associated with the early centuries of English poetry, he would have "cast [...] the stones of silence" at her. In other
including Old English classics like Beowulf (an epic poem words, he would have helped her persecutors by failing to
Heaney translated later in his career). By foregrounding, then speak up on her behalf. This metaphor echoes the familiar idea
dropping, alliteration, Heaney not only registers a shift in that silence in the face of injustice is a kind of violence. (It also
physical setting (from a dense bog to city streets), he subtly echoes a passage from the Bible; for more, see the Allusion
registers a shift from ancient to modern times. entry in this section of the guide.)
The final metaphor describes modern (or late 20th-century)
Where Alliter
Alliteration
ation appears in the poem: victims of tarring and feathering. It likens the "tar" poured over
their heads to a "caul[]": the membrane covering the skulls of
• Line 2: “nape”
some newborn infants. This metaphor is ironic, as cauls are
• Line 3: “neck”
traditionally considered good-luck omens, whereas these
• Line 4: “naked”
women are terribly unlucky. The metaphor might also grimly
• Line 5: “blows,” “nipples”
• Line 6: “beads” suggest that these women have entered a new life, or new
• Line 7: “rigging” phase of life. (Many had to flee their communities after their
• Line 8: “ribs” public humiliation.)
• Line 10: “body,” “bog”
• Line 16: “bone,” “brain” Where Metaphor appears in the poem:
• Line 18: “stubble,” “black” • Lines 5-6: “It blows her nipples / to amber beads,”
• Line 19: “blindfold,” “soiled,” “bandage” • Lines 7-8: “it shakes the frail rigging / of her ribs.”
• Line 27: “black,” “beautiful” • Lines 13-16: “Under which at first / she was a barked
• Line 31: “stones,” “silence” sapling / that is dug up / oak-bone, brain-firkin:”
• Lines 17-18: “her shaved head / like a stubble of black
METAPHOR corn,”
The poem's language is richly metaphorical
metaphorical. Like his vivid • Lines 20-22: “her noose a ring / to store / the memories
imagery
imagery, Heaney's metaphors help acquaint readers with of love.”
something profoundly alien: the preserved corpse of an ancient • Lines 30-31: “but would have cast, I know, / the stones of
execution victim. silence.”
• Lines 33-34: “of your brain's exposed / and darkened
The speaker first portrays the young woman in the last combs,”
moments of her life, as she is stripped of her clothes and

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I almost love you
• Line 39: “cauled in tar,” but would have cast, I know,
the stones of silence.
JUXTAPOSITION
The poem juxtaposes two time periods—one ancient, one These lines echo a famous passage from the Gospels (John
modern—as well as two implied settings
settings: the bogs of Northern 8:3-11), in which "scribes and Pharisees" bring an adulterous
Europe and the towns of Northern Ireland. More importantly, it woman to Jesus and ask whether they should punish her by
juxtaposes two kinds of "Punishment" for purposes of stoning. Jesus replies: "He that is without sin among you, let
comparison. him first cast a stone at her." The woman's accusers, admitting
they have sinned themselves, let her go free.
The speaker doesn't mention exactly where or when the
hanged girl lives, though it implies that her recovered body is In the poem, the speaker acknowledges that, in a similar
centuries old. Her story is based on the real-life body known as situation, he would have "cast" the "stones of silence" at the
Windeby I (formerly "the Windeby Girl"), which dates to accused adulteress. In other words, he would not have stoned
roughly the first century CE. By the time it was "dug up" near her to death himself, but he would have stayed silent and
the town of Windeby in Northern Germany, it was nearly two allowed others to do so. His silence would have made him as
thousand years old. In Heaney's account, the body belonged to hypocritical, and as guilty, as the executioners themselves.
a teenaged girl condemned and executed for adultery, Heaney confirmed that these lines were inspired by "Christ's
presumably by members of her own Germanic tribe. challenge to the men about to attack the women taken in
The speaker then juxtaposes this ancient punishment with a adultery, a challenge that is entirely apposite in the north of
modern one. During the Troubles, or the Northern Ireland Ireland today." That is, he intended the "adulteress" in his poem
conflict of the late 20th century, the Irish Revolutionary Army to parallel the one in the Gospels, and invoked both as a
sometimes "tar[red]" and feathered Irish women who dated warning against the cruel, unjust punishment of women during
British soldiers. Though it wasn't a death sentence, the the Northern Ireland conflict.
punishment was cruel, painful, and humiliating, and its victims
often fled their communities afterward. Where Allusion appears in the poem:
This juxtaposition implies that humanity, whether in Northern • Lines 23-27: “Little adulteress, / before they punished
Europe or elsewhere, has never become particularly "civilized." you / you were flaxen-haired, / undernourished, and your
Nor have women ever stopped facing misogynistic double / tar-black face was beautiful.”
standards, especially where sex and the body are concerned. • Lines 28-31: “My poor scapegoat, / I almost love you /
From ancient bogland to modern cities, male-dominated but would have cast, I know, / the stones of silence.”
society attempts to police female sexual and reproductive lives. • Lines 37-44: “I who have stood dumb / when your
For all the speaker might express "civilized outrage" at the betraying sisters, / cauled in tar, / wept by the railings, /
modern injustice, he admits that he's previously stayed silent who would connive / in civilized outrage / yet understand
about it—and that he "understand[s]" too well the primitive the exact / and tribal, intimate revenge.”
motives behind it.

Where Juxtaposition appears in the poem: VOCABULARY

• Lines 1-44 Nape (Lines 1-3) - The back of the neck.
Halter (Lines 1-3) - Usually refers to a rope with a noose used
ALLUSION for leading or tying up an animal; here refers to a hanging noose
The poem centers on two major historical/political references, placed around an execution victim's neck.
covered in depth elsewhere in this guide. It juxtaposes the Rigging (Lines 7-8) - A metaphor comparing the girl's ribs
imagined backstory of a Northern European "bog (visible through her skin) to the ropes supporting a ship's mast.
body"—loosely based on the corpse known as Windeby I, which
is about 2,000 years old—with the punishment of Irish women Weighing stone (Lines 9-11) - A heavy stone tied to the
who dated British soldiers during the Troubles. execution victim in order to sink her body deep in the bog.

The poem also contains a biblical allusion in lines 28-31. Bog (Lines 9-10) - The poem describes one of a number of well-
Addressing the "Little adulteress" directly, the speaker admits: preserved ancient corpses, known as "bog bodies," that
archaeologists have retrieved from Ireland's peat bogs
bogs.
My poor scapegoat, Rods (Line 12) - Sticks and similar debris floating on the surface

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of the bog. the UK and unite with the rest of Ireland, saw such
Barked sapling (Lines 13-14) - A metaphor comparing the girl's relationships as a "betray[al]" of their cause. According to the
naked and drowned body to a young tree stripped of bark. Belfast T
Telegr
elegraph
aph:

Oak-bone (Lines 15-16) - Metaphorically suggests that the These terrified women had their heads shaved before being
girl's bones, preserved under the bog, have become tough and dragged to a lamppost.
durable as oak. Once tied up, they had hot tar poured over their heads.
Brain-firkin (Lines 15-16) - A "firkin" is a small tub meant to This was followed by feathers being dumped over them which
hold butter, liquids, etc., so "brain-firkin" is a metaphor for the would stick to the tar for days, acting as a reminder of their so-
drowned girl's skull. called crimes against their community.
Shaved head (Lines 17-18) - It's implied that the girl's head Cauled (Lines 38-39) - A "caul" is a membrane covering the
was shaved as part of her punishment (formerly, she was heads of some newborn infants, so the women who have had
"flaxen-haired"). hot tar poured on their heads are metaphorically "cauled in tar."
Stubble (Lines 17-18) - Plays on two related meanings of Connive (Lines 41-42) - Conspire in a devious way.
"stubble": Tribal (Lines 43-44) - Rooted in loyalty to a particular ethnic,
• Cut stalks left over after grain (such as corn) has been national, or religious group, or in conflict between such groups.
harvested.
• Short, stiff hairs growing out of a person's head or body.
Adulteress (Lines 23-24) - A woman who commits adultery FORM, METER, & RHYME
(sleeps with a married person or sleeps with someone outside
her own marriage). Historically, adultery has been considered a FORM
crime or sin (or both) in many societies and religious traditions. "Punishment" consists of 11 free-verse quatrains. In other
words, it contains 11 stanzas of four lines apiece, with no meter
Flaxen-haired (Lines 25-26) - Having blond or pale yellow hair.
or rh
rhyme
yme (other than the imperfect rhyme between "combs"
Tar-black face (Lines 26-27) - An ambiguous phrase. Might and "bones" in lines 34 and 36).
suggest any or all of the following:
The short lines and short stanzas introduce frequent pauses
• This "undernourished" girl lived an impoverished life that left into the language, giving the poem a slow, thoughtful pace that
her face soiled with grime or sunburnt from outdoor work. fits its sobering subject. The halting rhythm might even suggest
• She was literally tarred by her executioners (as her modern that the speaker is choosing his words carefully. Heaney was a
"sisters" are tarred in lines 38-40).
master handler of meter and rhyme, so his choice of free vverse
erse
• Her face (and body in general) has grown dark while
here suggests a deliberate plainness of style, a desire not to
fossilizing in the bog.
dress up a poem that is so much about vulnerability and
Scapegoat (Line 28) - An individual blamed or punished for the suffering. At the same time, the regular quatr
quatrains
ains reflect the
crimes or faults of a group. speaker's attempt to be "artful" (line 32) in shaping these
Voyeur (Lines 32-34) - Someone who spies on private or painful stories.
hidden activity (e.g., involving nudity, sex, etc.) for their own
pleasure.
METER
"Punishment" is a free vverse
erse poem, meaning that it has no
Combs (Lines 33-34) - Here, a metaphor for the brain's folds,
regular meter (or rhrhyme
yme scheme
scheme). The poem's formal plainness
which Heaney is comparing to honeycombs (or possibly to the
makes a good match for its humble setting (a bog), stark subject
fleshy growths on top of roosters' heads).
matter (violent death), and restrained and somber tone
tone. The
Webbing (Line 35) - A web-like structure, or a type of woven lines remain relatively short throughout, ranging from two to
fabric. A metaphor for the appearance of the body's exposed eight syllables. The poem sounds controlled and lyrical despite
muscles. its lack of a consistent rhythm.
Your betraying sisters (Lines 37-38) - A reference to female
victims of tarring and feathering during the late-20th-century RHYME SCHEME
Northern Island conflict, known as the T Troubles
roubles. Members of As a free vverse
erse poem, "Punishment" has no rh rhyme
yme scheme
scheme.
the IRA (Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary organization) There is one imperfect rhyme in lines 34 and 36
punished Catholic women in Northern Ireland for having ("combs"/"bones"), but it's not part of a larger pattern.
relationships with British soldiers (or with members of the Again, Heaney was a master of formal devices like meter and
Royal Ulster Constabulary, a police force viewed as enforcing rh
rhyme
yme; his best-known poems are often richly musical. But the
British rule). Nationalists, who wanted Northern Island to leave stark setting and subject matter of "Punishment" seem to have

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encouraged Heaney to adopt a plainer, less traditionally Europe. Such bogs are a famous feature of Heaney's native
"poetic" style. Indeed, the hanged girl in the poem likely lived Ireland, but the body he describes here was inspired by a
before the birth of most English-language poetic conventions, corpse found near Windeby, in Northern Germany. Heaney's
so Heaney may have felt that organic rhythms and rough-hewn source for the poem's details was P. V. Glob's study The Bog
language suited her story best. People (1965), which gives an account of "the young girl from
Windeby, in Domland Fen." At the time, this corpse, now known
as Windeby I, was thought to be a blindfolded girl with a shaved
SPEAKER head; later, it turned out to be a 16-year-old boy who had died
of illness or hunger. (See the Context section of this guide for
The speaker is a central and complex part of the poem. Rather
more.) Nevertheless, Heaney's poem is a work of imagination
than settling for passive description, he highlights his own
set in the Northern European "bog[s]," where ancient people
moral burden with respect to the events he describes. The
like this girl were buried hundreds and thousands of years ago.
speaker is never named, gendered, etc., but given his status as
Some of these corpses, including the famous Tollund Man Man, were
an "artful" (art-making) chronicler of Irish/European history
indeed victims of hanging.
and politics—from the ancient "bog people" to the late 20th-
century Troubles
roubles—he is usually read as a stand-in for the poet. Lines 37-44 jump forward to the Northern Ireland of the
1960s and 1970s: the early period of the Northern Ireland
In theory, the speaker has no direct connection to the
conflict, a.k.a. the Troubles. During that conflict, the
punishments in the poem. The executed girl was hanged and
paramilitary group known as the I.R.A. (Irish Republican Army)
"drowned" centuries before his time; she is one of the
sometimes "tar[red]" and feathered women suspected of
recovered "bog bodies" Heaney learned about from an
having sexual relations with British soldiers. They then chained
academic book on the subject. The speaker re-creates her story
the women to lampposts, where, in Heaney's words, the
with the help of some imaginative license (e.g., claiming she was
women "wept by the railings" (of bridges, etc.) in humiliation.
hanged for adultery). By contrast, the girl's so-called "betraying
Heaney was born in Northern Ireland and wrote this poem in
sisters"—Irish women punished during the Troubles for
the 1970s, so he was brooding on contemporary violence in his
involvements with British soldiers—are the speaker's
homeland.
contemporaries. However, there's no suggestion that the
speaker knows any of these women personally or could have
directly prevented their punishment. CONTEXT
So why does he feel so guilty? He may be writing as an ordinary
citizen of his country, lamenting his failure to oppose these LITERARY CONTEXT
kinds of injustices. He may also be writing as a public figure of Seamus Heaney grew up a farmer's son and became the most
sorts. Heaney was already a highly regarded writer in his native acclaimed Irish poet of his generation. He won the Nobel Prize
Ireland by the time "Punishment" appeared (1975); arguably, in Literature in 1995, with the Nobel committee citing his
he could have taken a stronger public stand against the "tribal" "works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday
violence of the Troubles. Some of his contemporaries felt that miracles and the living past."
he should have done so, and the speaker of the poem admits
Heaney's early literary influences include the American poet
that he has "stood dumb" in the face of shocking violence.
Robert Frost (1874-1963), whose work also dealt with rural
Nevertheless, the poem itself, and others Heaney wrote around
topics and the natural world, and the English romantic poet
this time, constitutes its own form of public statement. Its
John Keats (1795-1821). In his Nobel Prize lecture, Heaney
speaker walks a delicate line, implying that any "civilized
referred to Keats's "Ode
Ode to Autumn
Autumn" as the "ark
ark of the
outrage" he might express would be hypocritical, yet bearing
co
covvenant between language and sensation
sensation." William Butler
witness to the cruel "tar[rings]" and their devastating effect on
Yeats (1865-1939)—a previous Irish Nobel laureate—was
their victims. Ultimately, he laments the persistence of violence,
another significant influence, about whom Heaney wrote the
vengeance, and misogyny over the centuries, while
essays "Yeats as an Example?" (1978) and "A Tale of Two
acknowledging that "silence" like his own can fuel them.
Islands: Reflections on the Irish Literary Revival" (1980).
Like many of Heaney's poems, "Punishment" is inspired by the
SETTING landscape and history of his homeland, including County Derry,
Northern Ireland, where he was raised. It's one of numerous
The poem has two settings
settings, both implied rather than mentioned poems Heaney wrote about Northern European bogs, and
outright: Northern Germany and Northern Ireland. about the skeletons ("bog bodies") and ancient artifacts
The first 36 lines focus on one of the ancient "bog bodies" recovered from them. "Punishment" appeared in his 1975
archeologists have recovered from peat bogs in Northern collection North alongside several other such poems, including

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"Bog Queen" and "The Grauballe Man." about male adultery. The adulterous woman had her
Heaney is the best-known poet of the Northern School, a group hair cut off in the presence of her relatives and was
of Northern Irish poets who began to garner attention in the then scourged out of the village. This calls to mind
1960s, as political and cultural unrest escalated in their one of the bog people in particular, the young girl
country. North contains a number of poems that wrestle with from Windeby, in Domland Fen. She lay naked in her
the Northern Ireland conflict
conflict, which lasted from the 1960s grave in the peat, her hair shaved off, with nothing
through the 1990s (see below). but a collar of ox-hide round her neck, and with
bandaged eyes.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Heaney was born in Northern Ireland in 1939. He grew up in a Though such punishments for adultery may well have
country wracked by what became known as "the Troubles" or happened, DNA testing later rerevvealed that this particular
the Northern Ireland conflict. The Troubles (c. 1968-1998) corpse, once known as the Windeby Girl, was really a 16-year-
were a dispute between Protestant unionists, who wanted old boy. He probably died of disease and malnutrition, not
Ireland to remain a part of the United Kingdom, and Roman hanging, and his "blindfold" was really a headband.
Catholic nationalists, who wanted Northern Ireland to join the
Republic of Ireland. The struggle was often violent: more than
3,600 people were killed and 30,000 wounded in these MORE RESOUR
RESOURCES
CES
decades.
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
Heaney himself was a Catholic and nationalist who chose to live
• The P
Poem
oem Aloud — Listen to Seamus Heaney read
in the south of Ireland. Some contemporaries criticized him for
"Punishment." (https:/
(https://www
/www..youtube.com/
declining to take explicit sides in the Troubles, but his writing
watch?v=XsoUBO0qR
watch?v=XsoUBO0qRQg) Qg)
(including the books Wintering Out and North) does address the
conflict in both direct and indirect ways. Even his seemingly • The P
Poet's
oet's Life and W
Work
ork — A biography of Heaney at the
non-political poems reflect his profound awareness of Irish Poetry Foundation. (https:/
(https://www
/www.poetryfoundation.org/
.poetryfoundation.org/
history and identity. poets/seamus-heane
poets/seamus-heaney) y)
"Punishment" specifically references a notorious series of • Heane
Heaneyy, Nobel Laureate — Read Heaney's citation and
incidents from the Troubles: the tarring and feathering of Irish lecture as the winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in
Catholic women who were romantically involved with British Literature. (https:/
(https://www
/www.nobelprize.org/prizes/liter
.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/
ature/
soldiers (or policemen in the British-allied Royal Ulster 1995/heane
1995/heaneyy/lecture/)
Constabulary). Members of the IRA (Irish Republican Army), a
• Heane
Heaneyy T
Talks
alks P
Poetry
oetry — Watch a late-life conversation with
paramilitary organization, carried out these incidents of public
the poet. (https:/
(https://www
/www..youtube.com/
humiliation to avenge these women's perceived "betray[al]" of
watch?v=s7ssk
watch?v=s7sskc1pi_k)
c1pi_k)
the nationalist cause. Typically, perpetrators shaved the
women's heads, poured "tar" on them, dumped feathers on the • Tarring and F
Feathering
eathering During the T Troubles
roubles — Historical
tar, and tied the women to lampposts or "railings" to be jeered context on tarring and feathering during the Northern
at by their communities. "Punishment" draws a parallel Ireland conflict, a.k.a. the Troubles.
between these modern incidents and the long-ago execution of (https:/
(https://www
/www.belfasttelegr
.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/public-
aph.co.uk/news/public-
an "adulteress": a young woman who, in Heaney's telling, was humiliation-that-was-all-too-familiar-during-troubles/
hanged and "drowned" in a "bog," where her body was found 28397271.html)
centuries later. • The Bogs of Ireland — More on Ireland's peat bogs and
As the poem suggests, the peat bogs of Ireland and Northern their storied history. (https:/
(https://www
/www.n
.nytimes.com/
ytimes.com/
Europe have been a rich source of archeological discoveries. inter
interactiv
active/2019/10/19/multimedia/ireland-peat-
e/2019/10/19/multimedia/ireland-peat-
These include well-preserved skeletons of ancient and bogs.html)
prehistoric humans and animals, as well as remarkable artifacts
such as "bog
bog butter
butter." Several of Heaney's poems about "bog
LITCHARTS ON OTHER SEAMUS HEANEY POEMS
bodies," including "Punishment," were inspired by material in P. • Blackberry-Picking
V. Glob's archeological study The Bog P
People
eople (1965). Heaney's • Bogland
account of a young adulteress echoes Glob's description of a • Death of a Natur
Naturalist
alist
body recovered near Windeby in Northern Germany: • Digging
• Exposure
• Follower
Tacitus [the ancient Roman historian] names a special
• Mid-T
Mid-Term
erm Break
punishment for adultery by women, but says nothing

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• Personal Helicon
• Requiem for the Croppies HOW T
TO
O CITE
• Storm on the Island
• The T
Tollund
ollund Man MLA
Allen, Austin. "Punishment." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 20 Mar 2023.
Web. 31 Mar 2023.

CHICAGO MANUAL
Allen, Austin. "Punishment." LitCharts LLC, March 20, 2023.
Retrieved March 31, 2023. https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/
seamus-heaney/punishment.

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