Here is the girl’s head like an exhumed gourd.
Oval-faced, prune-skinned, prune-stones for teeth.
They unswaddled the wet fern of her hair
And made an exhibition of its coil,
Let the air at her leathery beauty.
Pash of tallow, perishable treasure:
Her broken nose is dark as a turf clod,
Her eyeholes blank as pools in the old workings.
Diodorus Siculus confessed
His gradual ease among the likes of this:
Murdered, forgotten, nameless, terrible
Beheaded girl, outstaring axe
And beatification, outstaring
What had begun to feel like reverence.
The title of the poem could be metaphorically referring to the hanging of people from trees, similar to how fruit hangs from trees.
The general point of the poem is that nothing changes within the nature of man, and that violence will always exist.
Young and innocent.
Graphic imagery. A gourd is an empty shell. This imagery shows his empathy.
All that's left of her. Highlighting the pointlessness of violence.
Wrapping a baby.
Nature imagery.
Put on display, exposed and vulnerable.
Archaic word for head. Shows his interest in history.
Oxymoron since a treasure is supposed to last for a long period of time.
Violent imagery.
Irish phrase.
Fast paced description of the girl.
Displaying her power and perhaps suggesting that, in the end, she was the victor.
Announcement of death.
Admiration.