How Has Heany Expressed His Concern About the Voice of the Silent And Oppressed?
Punishment is a notable literary work by Seamus Heaney. A complete discussion of this literary work is given, which will help you enhance your literary skills and prepare for the exam. Read the Main texts, Key info, Summary, Themes, Characters, Literary devices, Quotations, Notes, and various study materials of Punishment.
Answer
How has Heany expressed his concern about the voice of the silent and oppressed?
Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) is a famous Irish poet who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Heaney’s poetry often grapples with themes of the silent and oppressed. Heaney’s deep connection to the political and social landscape of Northern Ireland, particularly during the Troubles, heavily informs his work.
Several poems exemplify his concern for the silenced and oppressed.
“The Tollund Man”: In “The Tollund Man,” Heaney reflects on discovering a well-preserved Iron Age bog body in Denmark. The poem describes the bog body, which is an ancient sacrificial victim. The description of the bog body draws a parallel between the ancient sacrificial victim and contemporary victims of political violence in Northern Ireland. Heaney writes:
Some day I will go to Aarhus
To see his peat-brown head,
The mild pods of his eye-lids,
His pointed skin cap.
The poem speaks to the continuity of human suffering across time. It suggests that the Tollund Man’s silence echoes the silenced voices of those oppressed by modern conflict. Heaney uses the ancient body as a metaphor to comment on the cyclical nature of violence and the suppression of voices throughout history.
“Punishment”: In this poem, Heaney explores themes of silence and oppression through the figure of a young woman. The young woman was punished for infidelity in Iron Age society. Heaney links this woman’s suffering to the punishment of women in contemporary times:
I can feel the tug
of the halter at the nape
of her neck, the wind
on her naked front.
Heaney critiques the societal oppression of women that led to such brutal acts, both ancient and modern.
“The Strand at Lough Beg”: In “The Strand at Lough Beg,” Heaney addresses the murder of his cousin Colum McCartney during the Troubles. The poem critiques the political violence that claims innocent lives:
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