Punishment

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1975

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Historical Context

Historically, “Punishment” is heavily inspired by archaeological findings of the 20th century, particularly that of the bog bodies of Northern Europe. Bog bodies are mummified remains that have been preserved by the unusual chemical makeup of peat bogs. Although the level of mummification varies among the bodies, most of them are hundreds or thousands of years old, and the bodies retain vestiges of skin and internal organ systems. The bodies typically take on a tanned appearance, turning a deep brown or copper color as a result of the bog environment. While there is a consensus on the environmental causes of bog mummification, research into the cultural, social, or political reasons for ancient bog burials remains ongoing. Some theorists speculate that bog bodies are the result of human sacrifices or other ancient cultural rituals.

Heaney’s North collection reflects heavily upon the bog bodies and connects their ritualistic and violent demises with the civil unrest of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Although some people have criticized Heaney’s work for its fascination and seeming exploitation of violence, “Punishment” and other poems from North address the artistic exploitation of violence head-on and do not shy away from indicting all artists for their roles in sensationalizing war, violence, and death.

Socio-Political Context

The social, political, and literary work together in Heaney’s poetry. Heaney is a poet of the Postmodern age, and as such, his work is naturally tinged with a preoccupation for the socio-political and cultural strife of the late twentieth century. As an Irish poet specifically from Northern Ireland, the violence and pain of the Troubles appears consistently in Heaney’s body of work.

In order to understand the majority of Heaney’s art, it is important to cultivate a level of understanding of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The Troubles started in the 1960s, but the cultural, political, and religious divisions between unionists, who want Northern Ireland to function as part of the United Kingdom, and the Irish nationalists, who would rather Northern Ireland officially join with the Republic of Ireland, has been ongoing for much longer. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, England purposefully moved Protestant British and Scottish settlers to the Northern Irish province of Ulster. This period in time is often referred to as the Plantation. The Plantation led to battles and war between Protestant settlers and the Irish Catholics native to the area. In the 1920s, Ireland was divided by the Government of Ireland Act (1920) in an attempt to monitor and curb the violence and fighting. Unfortunately, the division only worsened the strife between groups, and the fighting reached its highest point in the late twentieth century with the official onset of the Troubles. Heaney grew up in Northern Ireland during this time period, so his poetry often comments upon the Troubles as an example of violence as a cyclic problem of human existence.