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 adulteress,
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 voyeuur
of your brain’s 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.
The cultural function of ritualized violence is to control the masses, make people feel like they have an identity and to enforce beliefs through fear.
This poem is rather voyeuristic, meaning its narrative is told from the point of view of an outside observer.
Making it personal.
Exposed and humiliated. Vulnerable.
Preserved.
On a ship.
Suggesting urgency. Imagery used for empathy.
Similar to "I can feel," this phrase also makes the poem more personal.
Water imagery.
To keep her under water.
Frail and young.
Hardened.
Small vessel.
Humiliation before death.
Relating her corpse to nature and vegetation.
Further nature imagery.
Suggesting love has no beginning or end, but that in this case, it has killed her.
Enjambment to continue the narrative.
Patronizing and demeaning, but also reveals the reason she was "punished." Furthermore, the previous mention of her "ring" proves that her crime was indeed adultery.
Depersonalized, collective.
Pale hair.
In the past.
She was essentially blamed.
He wouldn't be brave enough to defend her.
Clever, but deceitful.
Water imagery.
Archeologists use this technique for reassembly.
Women caught up in the Troubles.
Group violence of men. Also an oxymoron.