The Skunk Flashcards
Heaney seems in absolute awe of the skunk. It seems in control, walking around as if it owns the place. Brightening up a solemn occasion
At a funeral Mass, the skunk’s tail
Paraded the skunk
Every night Heaney expected the presence of the skunk to keep him company while he was alone without his wife. A welcome visitor. Something to remind him of her
Night after night
I expected her like a visitor
Heaney was tense with the anticipation of the skunk’s arrival. The presence of it gives him pleasure (voyeur = a person who gains sexual pleasure and excitement from watching others)
I began to be tense as a voyeur.
He is writing love letters again after 11 years meaning there is a degree of separation (he was in America at the time). He was still trying to perfect them as the separation has intensified his feelings for her and made the marriage seem new again. It is something valuable that was stored away
After eleven years I was composing
Love-letters again, broaching the word ‘wife’
Like a stored cask
Everything is beginning to remind him of her, such as the smell of eucalyptus. The smell reminded him of her and yet did nothing to make him stop missing her
The beautiful, useless
Tang of eucalyptus spelt your absence.
Once again being reminded of her and how alone he feels. One glass of wine and the memories hit him like a wall
The aftermath of a mouthful of wine
Was like inhaling you off a cold pillow.
Comparing his wife to the skunk. Oxymoron. She was complicated and contradictory. Something he could understood and yet didn’t understand. A mysterious and captivating entity
And there she was, the intent and glamorous,
Ordinary, mysterious skunk.
Mythologised, demythologised
The memories hit him like a wall. His emotions and longing for his wife come back to him
It all came back to me last night
A provocative image of his wife looking through a drawer with her arse up in the air. Quite satyrical, not taking love so seriously but rather looking at it with a humorous view
Your head-down, tail-up hunt is a bottom drawer
For the black plunge-line nightdress
