"Violence is never far from the surface." Discuss with reference to three of Heaney's poems.

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“Violence is never far from the surface.” Discuss with reference to three of Heaney’s poems.

To discuss the topic of violence in Heaney’s poems, it is easiest to look at three of his poems that have an aggressive nature. Therefore, I am going to look at the poems: Punishment, A Constable Calls and Act of Union, all of which incorporate the theme of violence. It is useful to understand the underlying themes of the poems mentioned to understand them as violence is not always explicitly mentioned. A Constable Calls is about a police officer visiting a Northern Irish farm, checking up on the farms produce. A rather innocent task, however, in the mind of the young boy, this visit appears threatening and intruding. Punishment is about the remains of a body (a young female in her day) found in a bog. She appears to be the victim of a ritual killing, punished for the fact that she was an adulteress. Act of Union, on the alternative hand, is a complex metaphor distinguishing England as a man, Ireland as woman and Northern Ireland as the offspring. England has effectively raped Ireland in the way it treats it creating the multi-cultured society that we call Northern Ireland.

All three poems have very dissimilar themes, portraying and exploring violence in very different ways. The poems look at mental and physical violence such as in A Constable Calls where the child is very fearful of the intimidating police officer – mental violence:

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“Arithmetic and fear”

The child does not show his fear of the police officer but constantly looks at the way the constable acts and perceives these actions to be menacing and intruding:

“On the floor, next his chair”

Here, noting how the constable acts as if the chair is his, although it is not, looking at him as if being very possessive.

Punishment, in contrast, explores the visual images and after effects of violence – the physical side. Violence in this case being the punishment of an adulteress:

“I can see her drowned

body in the bog”

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