Analysis Of Punishment By Seamus Heaney

Additionally, the woman mentioned in the poem is being berated for being in loved, the most incorruptible and pleasurable feelings one could experience. Because fraternizing with the British is seen as a crime, women do not have any control of their own lives. By witnessing the young girl's moments before death, Heaney illustrates how the Irish rebellion affected many people.

A Comparison of Death of a Naturalist and Digging by Seamus Heaney The poems 'Death of a Naturalist' and 'Digging' have many similarities, and contrasts. Some of the reoccurring themes in the two poems include memories of childhood and changes in the life of the writer. There are contrasts too, in 'Death of a Naturalist'; the writer is concentrating on himself and his own experiences in life, rather than the experiences of others. In 'Digging', the opposite is true, as the writer concentrates mainly on the events in other people's lives, namely his father and grandfather.

The concept of the malign nature of the tenement is developed throughout the first stanza with Crichton Smith exploring his own role in his mother 's confinement. He tells the reader that whilst he drove away, his mother would 'wave from the window. ' Again the poet successfully employs alliterative words to draw our attention - this time to the image of his frail mother still lovingly 'waving ' from her prison 'window '. This notion is supported by Crichton Smith comparing himself to

Furthermore, Nemerov also employed alliteration to the poem, reflecting the widower’s constant sorrow and agony. “And still the hungry, angry heart/ Hangs on and howls, biting at air.” (lines 14-15). The repetitive use of ‘h’ in words ‘hangs’ and ‘howls’, as well as the similarity of pronunciation in words “hungry” and “angry” adds emphasis to the suffering of the widower.

In the poem Beowulf (Norton, 36), translated by Seamus Heaney, cultural elements of how religion in the Middle Ages is shifting away from Paganism and into Christianity. When Beowulf was written, approximately 700 – 1000 AD, religion was changing from a nature based polytheistic belief to a monotheistic religion with a central authority. Because of this change in belief, the audience can see the troubled thought or doubt in Christianity. Heaney uses the characters to display both pagan and Christian ideals together with the chaotic monsters and the heroic savior through allusions.

Throughout history, there are lesser-known occurrences in which Historians can make assertions about the society in that time period as a whole. The conviction, execution and alleged resurrection of William Cragh is one such occurrence. In The Hanged Man, Robert Bartlett writes of a man who was executed, but allegedly rose from the dead in the Middle Ages. The story of William Cragh is not only a riveting anecdote, but also, an insightful look at the legal system of the Middle Ages. The Hanged Man helps to explain the relationship between England and Wales, the legal process that led to hanging, as well as societal perceptions of criminals and outlaws in the Medieval Period. Robert Bartlett is able to present a complicated historical event through the language of an everyday person. The Hanged Man is a great example of accessible historical nonfiction, bringing an understanding of the Middle Ages to a broad audience.

Heaney’s attitude towards death is presented in different perspectives within Funeral Rites. A pun, based on a homonym, embedded within the title itself, suggests one’s right to have a funeral : for there to be an occasion for family and friends to mourn one’s death whilst celebrating their life. In Funeral Rites, Heaney demonstrates the beautiful serenity associated with death, while also highlighting the tragic aspect of death and dying. Funeral Rites is composed of three parts (the first of which I am going to focus on in this essay), with Heaney focusing on different attitudes towards death and dying within each section. For example, in the first section, Heaney concentrates on funerals in the past, as established by use of the past tense. The transition to present tense in the second section is confirmed by the strong adverb ‘Now’, and future tense in the third section highlights the change in customs within the change in time period. With Funeral Rites’ distinct structure, Heaney is indicating his nostalgia for the past, as well as highlighting his outlook on the situation in Ireland.

How much does an artist’s life affect the art they produce? One’s art certainly can be an expression of one’s surroundings and in this manner the surroundings are woven like a thread into their body of work. Seamus Heaney, born and raised in Northern Ireland, has grown up with many strong influences in his life that are visible in his poetry. As Robert Buttel claims in his article on Seamus Heaney “the imprint of this poet’s origins is indelibly fixed in his work” (180). Living in the “bogland” as Heaney has described Northern Ireland left an imprint on his poems, as he often depicts the lush green countryside and pastoral scenes of his youth. However, he also acknowledges his modern society.

“Punishment,” a poem written by Irish author Seamus Heaney, speaks of the discovery of the body of a young bog girl, who as realized later in the poem, was punished for being an “adulteress.” (23) On closer inspection and as the poem shifts from past to present the faith of the bog girl is compared with the faith of another woman in more recent violent times, namely The Troubles in Northern Ireland. In this poem Heaney thus comments, through the use of literary devices such as enjambment, contrast, imagery, metaphors and alliteration and through his diction, on the cruelty of human nature, guilt and on the question of whether we have changed and evolved over time or whether we are still, deep inside, as barbaric and savage

conversation. It isn't like a poem at all. It says "By god the old man

This essay will analyse the challenges Seamus Heaney faced during the process of translation and writing, including his own conscious effort to make the play suitable for a modern audience. It will demonstrate how Heaney’s use of language and poetry aided in presenting modern ideas through the timbre of Irish/English diction and idiom in an attempt to make the play more ‘speakable’. Identifying features of Greek theatrical conventions and how Heaney used these to shape his play. Heaney also presents social and political issues through The Burial at Thebes in a way that resonates with a contemporary audience.

Here, De Quincey is both the helpless onlooker and the perceived threat; he is culpable on two counts. His gentle recreation of memory has turned suddenly, irreversibly sour, as dreams often do, and in turn he becomes “another peril” that the anonymous girl flees from, only this flight of “panic” ends in her death. Yet this death is not brutal or bloody – instead, the girl is preserved from the neck up, with her “fair young head and the diadem of white roses around it” (52) still visible in the sand. The entire sequence is an uneasy elegy for a sister whose unexpected death compulsively haunts each one of his works, from the intangible presence of Ann in his Confessions of an English Opium Eater, to the young granddaughter of his ‘Postscript’,

The characteristics of the genre the work does meet is provide the reader thought provoking questions over their morals of what is considered a crime and what punishment should be made by delving into the mind of a criminal tormented by the guilt of a murder which presented psychological aspects, and displaying a situation that involves a criminal with motive and events that led to his imprisonment.

‘My last Duchess’ written by Robert Browning is a narrative poem, it is a Duke negotiating with a servant. During the Negotiation, the Duke shows the servant his personal art gallery and there is a painting of his last duchess. Then the Duke starts to talk about the story of his last duchess to the servant and we will slowly discover what a monster the Duke is. ‘Punishment’ is written by Seamus Heaney. This poem is written in first person as Heaney himself speaks about a visit to a bog. Heaney discovers a body of a young girl under a bog, which he realizes later on that this girl was punished for committed adultery. Heaney then compares this girl with similar cases happening in Northern Ireland.

Early Modern drama criticism has been concerned with the parallels between punishment on-stage, performed for an audience in plays such as Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy; and punishment as it was enacted on the scaffold. In his play, Kyd aligns this parallel with another: that between revenge and justice. Though separate in one sense, revenge can be understood in terms of justice, and justice therefore seemingly has some qualities in common with its presumed opposite. On top of this, Kyd superimposes the tension between Catholicism and Protestantism. The Spanish Tragedy, then, sets up and destroys a three pronged opposition: the opposition between judicial punishment and theatrical punishment; the opposition between rival forms of Christianity; and the opposition between the public and private revenger. I will discuss each of these oppositions in turn and it is through this lens that I will examine the representation of punishment in the play.