Bog Queen by ted Hughes

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
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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
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Street Art

10. Terrorism or Freedom Fighters?
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11. Violent Past
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12. British
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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
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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.
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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.