Understanding the term Conflict
Punishment
Seamus Heaney
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 voyeur
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.
Explication of Punishment using the literary term ‘conflict’
Punishment
Seamus Heaney
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 voyeur
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.
Explication of Punishment using the literary term ‘conflict’
In Seamus Heaney’s Punishment the poem leaves a lot for readers to unpack, and interpret. By understanding the types of conflict that can occur throughout literature a reader can gain a better insight to just how deep this poem truly is. However before diving in, it would be best to review the overall message of the poem. In Punishment Heaney views a young girl who has been killed for her adulterous ways after being striped naked, throat cut, and bruised violently while alive. Heaney is viewing a girl killed by Irish rebels and compares what he sees in the girl to the killings of females of Ireland who married British soldiers during war time. With this poem Heaney tries to create empathy for killing the ‘innocent’ girl. The poem is quite a heavy matter and is filled with many types of conflict: man vs society and man vs self will be the areas for discussion in this analysis.
During the course of this poem Heaney goes from objectively describing the girl, to viewing her in first person, to standing in for society as a whole. Up through the first 4 stanzas Heaney starts the poem by describing the girl who is being viewed. In the way she’s described Heaney tries to create empathy for the girl. This empathy helps to create the conflict found in the poem. However, in stanza 5 at the last line ‘her noose a ring’ Heaney begins to shift the tone of the poem. By saying her noose a ring Heaney describes the ring that was given to her by a married man the noose, which could correlate to the death penalty. He then goes on to describe the girl as a scapegoat. What could Heaney mean by calling the deceased girl a scapegoat? This is where the conflict begins. By calling someone a scapegoat the term suggests someone talking the fall or blame for someone else. At this moment Heaney begins to have the man vs society conflict. If the girl was the scapegoat for the adultery committed between her and a man, the author is beginning to question the girl being killed in such a brutal manner as the man walked free. Society at the time handled adultery in this way by killing the girl in a violent manner, while letting the man continue on as if nothing happened. Is this truly justice, by punishing one party and not the other… especially since there are good odds the man would have been the older of the two. Shouldn’t he have been the one to have better judgement? These suggested poems in the question create a conflict of fighting societal values and questioning the length of justice and rational behind them. Was killing the girl in this fashion, right? There’s the side of no as she was not the only party involved and was killed in a horrific manner, but there’s also the side of yes as she did participate in this relationship and committed adultery. It’s these 2 warring sides that create the internal conflict of questioning society.
In the last 4 stanzas Heaney then takes another shift as he uses the word ‘I’. By doing this the question then becomes man vs self. In stanza 8 Heaney writes:
‘I who have stood dumb
when your betraying sisters,
cauled in tar,
wept by the railings,’
With this readers then have to question ‘would I have stood dumb as this happened?’ Would I have let injustice happen? While I think we would all love to say ‘YES! Absolutely!’ I don’t know that we all would. Even though we may feel that we know what is right and feel we would fight against it, many of us also don’t want to go the grain of society. Usually going against the grain lands us in a vulnerable or bad situation just as the girl ended up.
Looking at the present year of 2020 the overall conflict or question of the poem can still be just as relevant today. As a society do we punish, and on the flip side reward actions as they should be, and also to the right people? Also are we willing to go against the grain of society, or stay silent as we see injustice happen? These are constant questions we as readers should ask ourselves as we try to better ourselves, and in turn help better society.
Citation
Heaney, Seamus. “Punishment”. The Norton Introduction to Literature: Shorter 12th Edition with 2016 MLA Update. Mays, Kelly J. W.W. Norton &Company, 2016.
During the course of this poem Heaney goes from objectively describing the girl, to viewing her in first person, to standing in for society as a whole. Up through the first 4 stanzas Heaney starts the poem by describing the girl who is being viewed. In the way she’s described Heaney tries to create empathy for the girl. This empathy helps to create the conflict found in the poem. However, in stanza 5 at the last line ‘her noose a ring’ Heaney begins to shift the tone of the poem. By saying her noose a ring Heaney describes the ring that was given to her by a married man the noose, which could correlate to the death penalty. He then goes on to describe the girl as a scapegoat. What could Heaney mean by calling the deceased girl a scapegoat? This is where the conflict begins. By calling someone a scapegoat the term suggests someone talking the fall or blame for someone else. At this moment Heaney begins to have the man vs society conflict. If the girl was the scapegoat for the adultery committed between her and a man, the author is beginning to question the girl being killed in such a brutal manner as the man walked free. Society at the time handled adultery in this way by killing the girl in a violent manner, while letting the man continue on as if nothing happened. Is this truly justice, by punishing one party and not the other… especially since there are good odds the man would have been the older of the two. Shouldn’t he have been the one to have better judgement? These suggested poems in the question create a conflict of fighting societal values and questioning the length of justice and rational behind them. Was killing the girl in this fashion, right? There’s the side of no as she was not the only party involved and was killed in a horrific manner, but there’s also the side of yes as she did participate in this relationship and committed adultery. It’s these 2 warring sides that create the internal conflict of questioning society.
In the last 4 stanzas Heaney then takes another shift as he uses the word ‘I’. By doing this the question then becomes man vs self. In stanza 8 Heaney writes:
‘I who have stood dumb
when your betraying sisters,
cauled in tar,
wept by the railings,’
With this readers then have to question ‘would I have stood dumb as this happened?’ Would I have let injustice happen? While I think we would all love to say ‘YES! Absolutely!’ I don’t know that we all would. Even though we may feel that we know what is right and feel we would fight against it, many of us also don’t want to go the grain of society. Usually going against the grain lands us in a vulnerable or bad situation just as the girl ended up.
Looking at the present year of 2020 the overall conflict or question of the poem can still be just as relevant today. As a society do we punish, and on the flip side reward actions as they should be, and also to the right people? Also are we willing to go against the grain of society, or stay silent as we see injustice happen? These are constant questions we as readers should ask ourselves as we try to better ourselves, and in turn help better society.
Citation
Heaney, Seamus. “Punishment”. The Norton Introduction to Literature: Shorter 12th Edition with 2016 MLA Update. Mays, Kelly J. W.W. Norton &Company, 2016.