This Is Just To Confess

Today I squashed
an ant
that was in
the walkway

I hope
he wont harbor this
against
me always

Maybe I
should go to penance
wipe this violence
off my chest.

The Windeby Girl

Heaney's poetry is concerned primarily with historical themes of Ireland. His poems also tend to mirror social and cultural divisions in contemporary Northern Ireland.

In 1952 the owners of a little bog near Windeby, in the vicinity of Schleswig, Germany, discovered the corpse of a 2,000-year-old girl, aged 14 at her death, as they cut up the peat for sale. Birch branches and a large stone covered the girl when alive, weighing her down so that she drowned in the bog. Photographed, analyzed, her well-known remains now rest in the Archäologisches Landesmuseum in Schleswig, vivid testimony that that bog people of northern Europe enforced their moral code with capital punishment.

Danish archaeologist Peter Vilhelm Glob published a book in 1965 about the teenager, by then named the Windeby girl.

Heaney was attracted to P. V. Glob's 'The Bog People,' that deals with preserved Iron Age bodies of men and women that had been ritually killed. Heaney had been drawn to this book because it both served to focus a number of his traditional interests, and also offered him a particular frame of reference and set of symbols he could employ to engage with the present conflict in Ireland and its history. 'Punishment' is perhaps the most unsettling poem in North and describes a photograph of a young woman, the Windeby girl, who had most likely been shorn, stripped then killed and thrown into the bog as some form of punishment.

Why was the girl executed? The Roman historian Tacitus in his Agricola and Germania, indicates the reason in his description of how Germanic tribes punished adultery. Not only was the Windeby girl's hair cut off, but the position of the stone block, and the way her body is contorted, may show that she was put in her shallow grave to be stoned before being drowned. A punishment like that the Windeby girl suffered exists now in Nigeria.

Heaney projects a historical pattern of violence that unites the ancient victims with those who have died in contemporary troubles.

The Troubles (1969-1997) was the name given to a violent religious-political conflict that was centred on Northern Ireland and emerged as a result of perceived socio-economic inequalities between the two communities of Northern Ireland.

The poet expresses a sense of identification and empathy with the victim but soon becomes a voyeur and takes pleasure in the woman's exposed and subjected body. The conflict of emotion is given further expression in the poet's direct address to the dead woman 'My poor scapegoat', / 'I almost love you / but would have cast, I know the stones of silence'. Heaney juxtaposes pagan ritual punishment with Christian retribution. Focusing the killings of the past with the contemporary conflict in Northern Ireland.

"Punishment" famously compares the Windeby girl with Catholic girls in Northern Ireland, her "betraying sisters" (38), who consorted with British soldiers. Facts on File (1971) reports that "Outraged Londonderry women Nov. 10 tied Martha Doherty, 19, to a lamp post, shaved her head, and covered her with tar for dating a British soldier. She subsequently married the soldier. Two other girls were seized by women in Londonderry and publicly humiliated Nov. 8 and Nov. 10 for dating British soldiers." One newspaper photograph shows a teenage girl tarred, feathered, and tied to a light standard in Falls Road, Belfast. Heaney lived there and, having just read Glob's book in English translation, must have associated the two girls, one with a face tarred by her sisters, and another with a tar-black face from the bog, both punished for adultery.

This paradoxical poem, it will occur to many, helps explain Ireland and its centuries-long "trouble," where Christians, in killing each other, simultaneously feel revulsion and sorrow, and vindictive triumph.

Where Does It Go From Here?

What is a dream deferred? We all have goals and things we strive for and when first setting a new goal, we likely feel excited and motivated. But dreams do not become reality in the blink of an eye. They are something we have to work at, something we are continuously looking up to and striving for. Many times, we wait for so long without our work paying off that the dream doesn't hold the luster that it once did. This is the message that Langston Hughes conveys in his poem, “Harlem, A Dream Deferred.” Each stanza is a metaphor—a rhetorical question—that offers the possibilities of what happens to a dream deferred. The order of the stanzas in the second paragraph represents the progressing stages that the dream goes through.

The first thing that can happen is that the dream will “dry up, like a raisin in the sun.” This phase comes when a dream is not reached immediately. After the initial surge of motivation, people will start to peter out, realizing that a dream requires time and investment. This is what distinguishes those who are willing to work for a dream from those who just hope for it and wish it would happen. The phrase “a raisin in the sun” can have slightly different meaning depending on whether the raisin started as a grape or if it was already a raisin when it was set out in the sun. If we assume it was a grape, then the dream that was one fruitful, promising, and lively has dried out. It has become stale. All the life has been sucked out it and it is no longer appealing like it once was. If the dream was already a raisin, the meaning is still similar, but it suggests that the dream was delayed even longer. It was already fairly dead, and the sun took the tiny ounce of hope it had left in it and wrung it dry.

After this, the dream becomes like a festering sore. It is a source of pain, and it is also a constant reminder. There is the idea that because the sore is festering, the pain stays there as an active reminder that the dream has not been achieved.

The next line, which suggests that the dream “stinks like rotten meat,” is a stage of resignation. The person has completely given up on the dream and it has gone bad. If the dream is “rotten,” it has been prolonged for so long that it is invalid. Not only is the dream no longer good, but there is a pungent stench radiating from it. It is definitely not worth striving for anymore; in fact, it is worth getting away from. It is a source of humiliation because the person worked for the dream, but their work wasn't good enough.

The next phrase comes as a bit of a shock, suggesting that the dream “crusts over like a syrupy sweet.” This is the most stark contrast between phrases and is clearly a contradiction to the other, rather odious things that can happen to a dream. This phase represents a gradual change in thinking, that only comes after very extended periods of time or may never come at all. Possibly, a dream that was sought in youth has gone through all of the stages above. As the dream ages, or rather the person ages, the dream becomes more of an objective idea than an active goal. When this change occurs, one can look on the dream more favorably because is represents the persons past—challenges they have faced, overcome, and moved on from. It is almost a nostalgic view of the dream. There is a subtle longing for something that has never become a reality, which makes it sweet, but the dream is so old that it has crusted over. The person can no longer interact with the dream, but they can look back on it as a part of them or just as a sweet ideal.

After this come two other possibilities—that the dream either sags like a heavy load or explodes. Neither of these are included in the progression, but are offered as alternatives to the previous, more positive outcome. By ending the poem on a negative note, Hughes seems to suggest that the more hopeful outcome does not really occur, but rather the dream always remains a heavy burden. Through political ties with the city of Harlem, Hughes also suggests that the dream “explodes.” Like Harlem, which once was busy and alive, the dream gets to a point where it can never be restored, never have a hopeful essence, and it simply explodes into nothingness.

A Light In the Darkness

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but sometimes a single word can create the most vivid picture of all. The poem “A Station of the Metro” relates the near spiritual experience Ezra Pound had while he was in a Paris subway. The image that is conveyed is greatly influenced by the many connotations of the word apparition. Because the poem consists of a mere fourteen words, each word is heavily important. The juxtaposition of the two lines also lends to the supernatural feeling of the experience, for both Pound and the reader.

Look at the first half of the poem, “The apparition of these faces in the crowd...” Pound is walking along the damp underground subway. There is a rush of faces around him, dark and dim. The use of the word apparition gives the idea that these people are, in a sense, dead. They function and walk around, but they carry the deadness of the physical world. They are like hollowed out bodies drudging along, lifeless and mundane.

The word also evokes a more general supernatural feeling, which is really at the heart of the poem. In an instant revelation, Pound sees the people, not as the specters that they once appeared, but as bright, beautiful petals.

The placement of the two lines, joined by a semicolon, but with no segue in between, is also very important to the overall meaning of the poem. The semicolon indicates that the ideas are related, but at the same time it acts to contrast them, where the second line is an interpretation of the first. Because the poem is so short, most of the meaning lies in mental process that links the two lines. The first line describes the people as being very one-dimensional, bland, and lifeless. However in the second line, the same people are instantly transformed into “petals on a wet, black bough.” He is seeing their faces for the first time. They are instantly beautiful: the kind of beauty that lies not in the person's features or their attractiveness, but in a heavenly realization that these people carry the life and beauty of their Creator. The poem itself is like the tip of the iceberg, with a rush of emotion lying underneath.

The picture of the bright yellow umbrella in the crowd represents this experience. In a crowd of darkness, you can do nothing but look at the light. It has the effect of instantly drawing your attention. The picture is a somewhat simplified view though, because for Pound it was not one spark of color, but so many that he did not know where to turn his eyes, and he was overwhelmed with the beauty of the situation.

An Immorality

Ezra Pound's poem, "An Immorality," shows the inherent selfishness of love. By nature, we are so captivated by romance that we shut ourselves off from the rest of the world and fail to seek greatness outside of the one we love.

Poets In the Hands of Death...

Death is something funny. It is something completely impending, and in this way it equalizes all men. No matter how great or strong or brave the man was in life, in death he is exactly the same as his weakest counterparts. However, death is viewed differently between people. To a young man killed in a tragic accident, death comes all to soon. To a man who has seen and lived and has been fighting the paralyzing hands of disease, death may ring in as a sweet sleep. These different perspectives of death are shown in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 and and Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.”

To Shakespeare, death is a solemn, inevitable feat that sucks the vibrancy out of a man. As the seconds tick away, death becomes more imminent. Shakespeare uses many different metaphors to portray death in his desired way. In the first quatrain, the addressee is in the last season of his life. In the sonnet, early winter is a metaphor for this encroaching time. It is damp, cold, and bare. The birds no longer sing in the trees, which seems an omen of the man's coming fate. The bitter wind shakes the winter branches just as the clutches of death weaken the man. Most of the colored leaves have fallen from the trees and in the same way, all of the color and spark has faded from the dying man's life.

The second quatrain compresses time into not an entire season, but a single night, which shows how rapidly the time is approaching. There is a personification of death as a dark night that “takes away.” Through the use of this technique, death is seen as a powerful, antagonistic force that steals time and life from all men.

The final quatrain focuses on the death of the man's youth by comparing it to the ashes of a fire. The collection of ashes symbolizes the collection of his time on earth. His past experiences used to feed his life and give him something to thrive off of, just as the ashes of a fire feed its flame. As the ashes grow, the thought of how much time the man has already lived smothers the hope for any future youth and the faint flame of life goes out.

Death hits with a much more mixed response in “Do Not Go Gentle Into The Good Night.” As the author looks around and sees men putting their fists up to death, he cries out to his father to do the same. Thomas must admit that, to some, death is seen as a much needed rest, as a sort of relief; however, this is the exact mindset that Thomas desperately fears his father will take on. He cannot face the thought of losing his father. He even begs to see his tears because they would show at least some resistance to the coming of death.

Thomas compares his father to other men, and urges him to imitate their strength against death. Even wise men, who know in their heads that it must come, do not accept death because they feel like they have not had the impact they could have. Similarly, good men see in their last moments that their attempts in life were weak and could have glowed had they put more life into their work. Because of this they fight the clutches of death. On their deathbed, wild men see that they did not live as vibrantly and they thought. Grave men see with perfect clarity that though they thought they were blind, they could have experienced life. When they realize how much they missed, they are angry at death and cry out in their hearts for more time.

Just as Thomas begs his father to fight death, he himself does the same in his poem. His attitude seems to be that, by fighting death, men can stretch out the last moments of their life. Thomas uses the “good night” as a metaphor for death. This characterization makes death a sort of weak, restful event. On the other hand, Shakespeare has a much more passive view of death. It is something inevitable that he cannot resist. By the way Shakespeare personifies death, he gives it the power of a supernatural force that is completely removed from the hands of man.