"Punishment" appears in Seamus Heaney's 1975 collection North, in which it's one of several poems about ancient, fossilized bodies dug up from Ireland's bogs. This poem contemplates the body of an execution victim: a young woman "scapegoat[ed]," hanged, and drowned for what the speaker imagines was the crime of adultery. The speaker compares her public punishment—born of the sexual double standards she faced as a woman—to the tarring and feathering of British soldiers' girlfriends in modern Northern Island during the period of UK-Ireland conflict known as "the Troubles." Aware that he's both a "voyeur" to the ancient corpse and a passive witness to the contemporary injustice, the speaker (an apparent stand-in for Heaney) reflects on his own complicity in the kind of "tribal, intimate," misogynistic violence that has persisted from antiquity through today.

• Read the full text of “Punishment”

• “Punishment” Summary

• “Punishment” Themes

  • 

    The Permanence of Violence and Vengeance

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-44
  • 

    Voyeurism vs. Activism

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-12
    • Lines 23-44
  • 

    Art and Preservation

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-36
  • 

    Misogyny

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-44

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Punishment”

  • Lines 1-4

    I can feel ...
    ... her naked front.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 5-10

    It blows her ...
    ... in the bog,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 11-16

    the weighing stone, ...
    ... oak-bone, brain-firkin:

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 17-22

    her shaved head ...
    ... memories of love.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 23-27

    Little adulteress, ...
    ... face was beautiful.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 28-31

    My poor scapegoat, ...
    ... stones of silence.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 32-36

    I am the ...
    ... your numbered bones:

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 37-40

    I who have ...
    ... by the railings,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 41-44

    who would connive ...
    ... tribal, intimate revenge.

    

    

    

    

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• “Punishment” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Imagery

    

    

    

    

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    Where imagery appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-19
    • Lines 25-27
    • Lines 33-36
    • Lines 38-40

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “nape”
    • Line 3: “neck”
    • Line 4: “naked”
    • Line 5: “blows,” “nipples”
    • Line 6: “beads”
    • Line 7: “rigging”
    • Line 8: “ribs”
    • Line 10: “body,” “bog”
    • Line 16: “bone,” “brain”
    • Line 18: “stubble,” “black”
    • Line 19: “blindfold,” “soiled,” “bandage”
    • Line 27: “black,” “beautiful”
    • Line 31: “stones,” “silence”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Lines 5-6: “It blows her nipples / to amber beads,”
    • Lines 7-8: “it shakes the frail rigging / of her ribs.”
    • Lines 13-16: “Under which at first / she was a barked sapling / that is dug up / oak-bone, brain-firkin:”
    • Lines 17-18: “her shaved head / like a stubble of black corn,”
    • Lines 20-22: “her noose a ring / to store / the memories of love.”
    • Lines 30-31: “but would have cast, I know, / the stones of silence.”
    • Lines 33-34: “of your brain's exposed / and darkened combs,”
    • Line 39: “cauled in tar,”

  • Juxtaposition

    

    

    

    

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    Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-44

  • Allusion

    

    

    

    

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    Where allusion appears in the poem:

    • Lines 23-27: “Little adulteress, / before they punished you / you were flaxen-haired, / undernourished, and your / tar-black face was beautiful.”
    • Lines 28-31: “My poor scapegoat, / I almost love you / but would have cast, I know, / the stones of silence.”
    • Lines 37-44: “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.”

• “Punishment” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Nape
  • Halter
  • Rigging
  • Weighing stone
  • Bog
  • Rods
  • Barked sapling
  • Oak-bone
  • Brain-firkin
  • Shaved head
  • Stubble
  • Adulteress
  • Flaxen-haired
  • Tar-black face
  • Scapegoat
  • Voyeur
  • Combs
  • Webbing
  • Your betraying sisters
  • Cauled
  • Connive
  • Tribal
  • (Location in poem: Lines 1-3: “I can feel the tug / of the halter at the nape / of her neck,”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Punishment”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Punishment” Speaker

• “Punishment” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Punishment”

• More “Punishment” Resources

  • External Resources

    • The Poem Aloud — Listen to Seamus Heaney read "Punishment."

    • The Poet's Life and Work — A biography of Heaney at the Poetry Foundation.

    • Heaney, Nobel Laureate — Read Heaney's citation and lecture as the winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

    • Heaney Talks Poetry — Watch a late-life conversation with the poet.

    • Tarring and Feathering During the Troubles — Historical context on tarring and feathering during the Northern Ireland conflict, a.k.a. the Troubles.

    • The Bogs of Ireland — More on Ireland's peat bogs and their storied history.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Seamus Heaney

    • Blackberry-Picking

    • Bogland

    • Death of a Naturalist

    • Digging

    • Exposure

    • Follower

    • Mid-Term Break

    • Out of the Bag

    • Personal Helicon

    • Requiem for the Croppies

    • Storm on the Island

    • The Tollund Man

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