Title: THE BOG PEOPLE
1THE BOG PEOPLE
2EGYPTIAN MUMMIES
3MUMMIES IN EUROPE
- Mummies have also been found in the swamps of
Europe preserved unintentionally in the peat moss
- Most of the people were drown in the swamps for
heinous crimes
4THE BOG PEOPLE OF GERMANY
5SEAMUS HEANEYThe author of Punishment
- Born in 1939 and raised in Ireland
- Received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995
- Interested in the events of the past
- Compared with Yeats
6PUNISHMENT
I can feel the tug, of the halter at the nape of
her neck, the wind on her naked front. It blows
her nipples to amber beads, it shakes the frail
rigging of her ribs. I can see her drowned body
in the bog, the weighing stone, the floating rods
and boughs. Under which at first she was a barked
sapling that is dug up oak-bone,
brain-firkin Her shaved head like a stubble of
black corn, her blindfold a soiled bandage, her
noose a ring To store the memories of love.
Little adultress, before they punished you You
were flaxen-haired, undernourished, and your
tar-black face was beautiful. My poor
scapegoat, I almost love you but would have cast,
I know, the stones of silence. I am the artful
voyeur of your brains exposed and darkened
combs, your muscles webbing and all your
numbered bones I who have stood dumb when your
betraying sisters, cauled in tar, wept by the
railings, Who would connive in civilized outrage
yet understand the exact and tribal, intimate
revenge.
7Critical Thinking Questions
- Why do you think Seamus Heaney was so interested
in the Bog People? - Do you think this was a just punishment for the
crime of adultery? - Why do you think half of her head was shaven?
- What is the theme of this poem?
- What are some literary devices that are important
in this poem?
8FOR TONIGHT
- Go on the internet and find one interesting fact
about the Bog People, that we have not discussed
in class. - Take your one fact and put it into a two slide
PowerPoint presentation for class tomorrow. - Finish completing the critical thinking question
worksheet on Punishment.