Bog queen
- 1. Seamus Heaney Seamus Heaney is one of Ireland’s most famous poets. His poetry has been on the GCSE syllabus for decades. He even won the Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of his work He is interested in the link between Ireland , the ‘land’, its archaeology, history and its affect on Irish society. The poem we are going to study is called ‘Bog Queen’ which seems a bit of a strange contrast!
- 2. The Haraldskær Woman (or Haraldskjaer Woman) is a bog body of a woman found naturally preserved in a bog in Jutland, Denmark, and dating from about 490 BCE (pre-Roman Iron Age). So what are ‘bog people’?
- 6. North V South This Power Point Presentation was designed by V.A.Mann Northern Ireland- under British rule. 2/3 Protestants originally descendants from mainland UK. Want to stay ‘British’. 1/3 Catholics-want to be Irish. This is the richest part of Ireland. If we pull out our forces, Protestants and their business’s may suffer. Southern Ireland – won its independence in 1921. Eire wants the whole of Ireland to come back to the Irish people. This is the poorest part of Ireland and mostly agricultural, thus pretty, green and where the island gets it’s nickname the ‘Emerald Isle’
- 7. The ‘Troubles’ in Ireland Since the eruption of the "Troubles" on the streets of Northern Ireland in 1968, there have been more than 3,600 deaths and 30,000 casualties. In 1974, the I.R.A. were responsible for the Birmingham pub bombing that killed 19 people. They assassinated a member of the royal family, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, in 1979. In December 1983, the I.R.A. were said to be responsible for the Harrods bombing in London which killed 9 people and injured 60 as they did their Christmas shopping in the famous department store. They then tried to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Brighton, England, 1984 and in 1987 a Provisional IRA bomb exploded without warning as people gathered at the war memorial in Enniskillen for the annual Remembrance Day service. Eleven people were killed and 63 injured. In 1991 there was a Bombing Blitz with numerous explosions in London and Ireland. The U.D.A. responded to these acts with their own terrorist revenge attacks.
- 8. Protestants V. Catholics • British Irish • Northern Ireland Southern Ireland • Protestant Catholic • Ulster Eire • Loyalists Republicans • U.D.A I.R.A • (Ulster Defence Army) (Irish Republican Army) • Sinn Fein This Power Point Presentation was designed by V.A.Mann
- 9. This Power Point Presentation was designed by V.A.Mann Street Art
- 10. Terrorism or Freedom Fighters? This Power Point Presentation was designed by V.A.Mann
- 11. Violent Past This Power Point Presentation was designed by V.A.Mann
- 12. British This Power Point Presentation was designed by V.A.Mann
- 13. The Irish Flag orange — standing for Irish Protestants Green — signifying Irish Catholics and the republican cause white — representing the hope for peace between them
- 14. Orange v. Green This Power Point Presentation was designed by V.A.Mann Why Orange? The colour orange is associated with Northern Irish Protestants because of William of Orange, the King of England, who conquered Ireland in 1690 massacring around 7000 Irish men, women and children. The traditional Orange day marches celebrate this massacre each July 12th as Protestants march through Catholic areas of Northern Ireland. Green for the Emerald Isle? Green representing the Irish Catholic nationalists of the south may have something to do with shamrocks and green landscapes, and the ‘nickname’ the Emerald Isle’ but more importantly, green symbolizes revolution.
- 15. Peace at Last? • Following various peace initiatives, the main paramilitary groups declared ceasefires in 1994. The Belfast or Good Friday Agreement (1998) led to the establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly and a power-sharing Executive. The new institutions remain fragile and sectarian violence continues, though at reduced levels. This Power Point Presentation was designed by V.A.Mann
- 22. • 4000 year old body in the bog
- 23. Till a peer's wife bribed him. The plait of my hair, A slimy birth-cord Of bog had been cut And I rose from the dark, Hacked bone, skull-ware, Frayed stitches, tufts, Small gleams on the bank • Bog Queen By Seamus Heaney I lay waiting Between turf-face and demesne wall, Between Heathery levels And glass-toothed stone. My body was Braille For the creeping influences: Dawn suns groped over my head And cooled at my feet, Through my fabrics and skins The seeps of winter Digested me, The illiterate roots Pondered and died In the cavings Of stomack and socket. I lay waiting On the gravel bottom, My brain darkening, A jar of spawn Fermenting underground Dreams of Baltic amber. Bruised berries under my nails, The vital hoard reducing In the crock of the pelvis. My diadem grew carious, Gemstones dropped In the peat floe Like the bearings of history My sash was a black glacier Wrinkling, dyed weaves And phoenician stichwork Retted on my brests' Soft moraines. I knew winter cold Like the nuzzle of fjords At my thighs - The soaked fledge, the heavy Swaddle of hides. my skull hibernated in the wet nest of my hair. Which they robbed. I was barbered And stripped By a turfcutter's spade Who veiled me again And packed coomb softly Between the stone jambs At my head and my feet.
- 24. Bog Queen is a story of decay, describing processes the body has been through until found and excavated. It is different from the other bog poems in that the body speaks: "I lay waiting." There is a sense of restraint here, creating suspense. The body lies "between heathery levels" suggesting an overgrown world, nobility rotting. "My body was braille" creates a vision of communication between the body and the land, "the creeping influences". In a sense the process of decay can be read as symbolic of Irish history, and the degradation of Irish culture as a result of English intervention: "the seeps of winter/digested me, the illiterate roots/pondered and died". Still the body speaks "I lay waiting" enhancing the reality of her strange existence, yet also asserting that she remains undefeated. She is not destroyed, rather she is altered, made part of the land, "brain darkening/ a jar of spawn" hinting at new beginnings. She is a frozen, preserved work of art, described meticulously in icy images, her sash "a black glacier", the winter cold "like the nuzzle of fjords". All this is described in slow, deliberate language, ‘waiting’. Yet, like in Tollund Man, the tone grows more forceful towards the end, as she describes "the wet nest of my hair/which they robbed". This again might be read as relating to English interference, as the body says "I was barbered/ and stripped/ by a turfcutter’s spade". Her discovery is a matter of chance. Here, the clipped language brings a sense of anger which in the last stanza turns to triumph "and I rose from the dark", evoking her past and glory. With the rising of the body, Heaney offers a hope for the rise Irish cultural identity and nationalism.
- 25. A detailed, vivid account of a woman given an opportunity to speak, telling her strange existence between the world of life and death, the poem is also, on the metaphorical level, related to incarnation of goddesses who demand sacrifice, related to the feminsation of the land in Tollund Man, and perhaps to the image of a Mother Ireland calling for new sacrifices. Her excavation elevated to the level of a rising, a metaphoric connection to the theme of invocation in Tollund Man, yet not a resurrection because she had never died.