Punishment by Seamus Heaney
Punishment by Seamus Heaney

Punishment

Seamus Heaney * Track #5 On North

Download "Punishment"

Punishment by Seamus Heaney

Release Date
Wed Jan 01 1975
Performed by
Seamus Heaney
About

This poem follows two time-scales — the Iron Age and the discovery of a body of a woman preserved in a bog; and The Northern Ireland Troubles. It is thought that the body Heaney had in mind was Windeby 1 from North Germany, a woman believed to have been executed for adultery, but he relocates the st...

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Punishment Annotated

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 adultress,
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.

Punishment Q&A

Who wrote Punishment's ?

Punishment was written by Seamus Heaney.

When did Seamus Heaney release Punishment?

Seamus Heaney released Punishment on Wed Jan 01 1975.

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