Natural world Flashcards
‘Oak-Boned and brain-firkin’
Punishment
- Shows that the bog is taking over her body and returning her back to nature.
‘It blows her nipples to amber beads’
Punishment
- Shows how exposed the body is but more importantly how she is becoming one with the bog.
‘Her shaved head/like a stubble of black corn’
Punishment
- Her head being shaved shows the humiliation of her femininity being taken away - perhaps this creates a stronger bond between the body and the feminine bog.
‘Her noose a ring to store the memories of love’
Punishment
- The bog is trying to nurture her, like the Tollund man, there is a marriage-like bond between them.
- Almost as if the bog is trying to romanticise her death as some sort of comfort.
‘I can see her drowned body’
Punishment
- As if the bog is presenting the body - Perhaps to shame humanity? Or this could be Heaneys own guilt of not defending the woman back in ireland.
‘Bridegroom to the Goddess’
The Tollund Man
- The bog and the body have some sort of marital bond - however while it is still nurturing, marriages can also be controlling.
‘She tightened her torc on him and opened her fen/those dark juices working him to a saint-kept body’
The Tollund Man
- Shows how the bog is taking control of the Tollund man, and the Goddess-like figure makes everything around her holy too.
‘I will feel lost, unhappy and at home’
The Tollund Man
- ‘Heaney believes the Goddess of the bog to be present in all Bogs, and finds peace in that fact (‘home’)
‘Trove of turfcutters’
The Tollund Man
- This is an ambigious line as it could mean that the Tollund Man would be a treasure find
- However, it could also mean that the Heaney is seeing the bog Goddess as protector (so much so they see it as a treasure) of the innocent farmers back in Ireland who have been caught in the crossfire.
‘His last gruel of winter seeds caked in his stomach’
The Tollund Man
- This shows the bog as a preservative - the body is so well preserved that his last meal is still there.
‘The wet centre is bottomless’
Bogland
- This shows that Heaney views the bog as a holder of history, the bogs history is neverending.
‘Kind, black butter’
Bogland
- Butter has connotations of something rich - meaning the bog is thick and golden but also rich in history.
‘They’ll never dig coal here’
Bogland
- This shows that Heaney views the bog as a lot more valuable then any coal, due to the rich history - another contrast to USA
‘We have no prairies to slice a big sun at evening’
Bogland
- Contrasts with America, which is large and open, Heaney points out how Ireland is smaller and much more together.
‘They’ve taken the skeleton of the Great Irish Elk’
‘Butter was sunk under/more than a hundred years/was recovered salty and white’
Bogland
- The contrast of these two discoveries shows the extent of what the Bog holds
- Also highlights how pioneers are searching for history but missing the history found in the simple things.
