Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Punishment
- Content
- Language
- Simple opening with monosalabic
vocabulary showing that the girl has
been stripped of clothing and is in a
vulnerable state
- Techniques
- Allitteration
- "frail riggging of her ribs" draws attention
to the aspects of her female body, evoking
powerful imagery
- "I can see her drowned body in the bog", the
speaker imagine the disposal of the body.
the explicit, explosive alliteration emphasises
the brutality of her death
- Imagery
- The opening description of the girl makes her
appear as a vulnerable creature, evoking
sympathy from the reader
- Painfully detailed imagery gives the
poem a dark, mordid feel
- "Her shaved head like a stubble of black corn" this
vivid image of the outward ugliness which the people
have bestowed onto this once beautiful girl.
- "Your tar-black face was beautiful", the paradoxical
image of contrasting the tar with her beauty,
looking past her crimes
- Methaphorical language
- The speaker is still with the girl when she is discovered. The passing of
time is portrayed to the reader through Heaney's metaphorical language,
"oak bone" and "she was a barked sapling". The idea of the body of this
girl being alone for so long even if she is dead evokes pathos
- Direct contrast between a noose
and a ring, one representing
harm and the other, love
- "stones of silence" metaphorical language
as well as being a biblical reference. Heaney
points the blame directly at those who
stood by and said nothing (sibilance)
- Repitition
- Heaney's repition of "her" gives the
reader a feeling of closeness to the girl
- Powerful adjectives
- "Soiled bandages", the choice of adjective gives
connotations of her reputation which has also
been spoiled
- "little adultress", the "little soften s the
use of the harsh term, reminding the
reader of the youth of the girl
- "My poor scapegoat" the speaker reminds himself
of times when he, himself, stood back and did
nothing for women in a similar situation to this
girl
- "I almost love you" this adds a further, personal dimension for
the speaker, portraying the empathy he feels for this girl but
also the guilt he feels for the others
- Direct admission of his guilt
when he says he ould have stood
by and done nothing if he had
been there
- She is still under public scrutiny, even when she
is dead, she cannot escape the shame.
- The final lines of the poem show Heaney, himself, in a bad light; a coward
who would'nt step forward and prevent this from happening. the reader
themself also knows in their heart of heart that they would have done
what he did.
- This poem represents Heaney's critism of a
stonage communities brutal intolerance
- Based on a bog body found in
North Germany thought to have
been that of a female adultress
- The troubling irony is that the stonage justice
does not seem that far removed from the
modern punishment which would have been
carried out in Northern Ireland during the troubles
- Narrative style
- Poem opens with a first person speaker who
seems to imagine themself being at this execution
- Final two stanzas compare the girl directly to the
"betraying sisters"
- Structure
- 11 quatrained stanzas which vary in
length between 2 and 8 syllables
- "to store" draws attention
with its dramatic nature
- Use of longer lines to provide
more detailed descriptions
- Plentiful use of enjambed lines in
and across several stanzas
- Lack of rhyme scheme is in
keeping with the poem's
uncertainty and Heaney's own guilt