The Lammas Hireling by Ian Duhig Flashcards
the poem has a number of allusions and
intentional ambiguity
the poem is a
dramatic monologue of how a framer came to hire a young man to help with his cows.
when is this set
the title and the cation of hiring at a fair takes us back a 10 years if not longer it echoes Thomas hardy and his archaic quality as it continues while the poem progresses firther
the new hired hand has an almost magical quality
the hired hand proves uncannily good with the cattle ‘yields doubled’ and the cows only give birth to the more valuable heifers.
all seems well until the ominous ‘then one night’ whichwhen he sees the hireling he
breaks the stanza and generates tension. suddenly the narrator reveals he is a widow and hes been dreaming of his dead wife, he wakes and goes to see the hireling.
when the narrator sees the hireling in nightmarish scene
the boy appears like a figure from witchcraft naked with a fox trap on his ankle as f interrupted from a dark rite. ‘knew him a warlock’ the male equivalent of a witch.
horrified the narrator
shoots him and watches how his body transforms into a hare one of the most magical creatures in British folklore.
since the murder the narrators
luck has run out, his cattle is cursed, he is haunted by guilt, and is constantly confessing his sins.
transgressions
human/ supernatural, life/ death, sexuality/ gender
the narrators relationship with the hireling and his guilt/ innocence is entirely ambiguous
it ends with his direct plea ‘bless me father’ placing us in the role of judgement but we cant judge him because he isn’t telling us the full story.
what is it that the narrator isnt telling us
was he sexually attracted to the hireling? the imagery of the narrator tracking down his wifes ‘torn’ voice to the hirelings ‘pale form’ is it the hirelings company he is so ‘fond’ of? as he knew ‘when to shut up’
