Badger
From ZuluNotes - Free Leaving Cert Notes
This poem focuses on different aspects of the animals life. The poem is split into 3 sections. This is a precise, detailed and unsentimental view of the life, activites and death of a common Irish animal.
Contents |
Section 1
Stanza I
This verse deals with the badgers movements. It is suggested that he has great determination and strength, the poet does this by producing an image of the badger using the "wedge of his body". The badgers movements are premeditated. The poet uses the word "excavates" to show that the badger has planned it's movements, it is easy to see the badger as an archaeologist who plans out their route and ways in which to find what they are looking for. References to Cromlech and a stone circle associate the badger with ancient and ritualistic Ireland.
Stanza II
In this stanza, the poet carefully differentiates between the badgers movements and movements of a fox or hare. He shows the badger as an animal with a unique status in the animal world. By comparing the path of the fox and the badger, Longley shows once again that the path of the badgers is precise and accurate unlike the path of the fox which is in "zig - zags".
Stanza III
The 3rd stanza prodcues remarkable visual images. The reader should know that the badger is a nocturnal animal. "night's silence around his shoulders, his face lit by the moon", here the stillness of the night is obvious as here he is depicted digging by the moonlight. These lines also suggest that the badger has an understanding, if you will, with the moon and the night, that they can facilitate him in his tasks. "he manages the earth with his paws", this line suggests that the badger is at one with the earth and a sense of authority over it is present as he has no difficulty in fulfilling his task. The last line of the verse is one of the awakening sort to the reader as Longley reveals that the badger is choosing his place to die.
Section 2
This section looks at the badger from a different view. It is a bodily, tactile account of the badger's intestines. It's heel, it's head and it's name, which in Irish, (Broc) has been incorporated into many place names,eg. Donnybrook. Although the badger has chosen his area or rest, he is moving " a heel revolving acorns". Longley brings a human's attitude to the badger in this stanza. He states that the badger is an animal that is hunted " a head with a price on it".
Section 3
The 3rd part of the poem focuses on the death of the badger in a violent and savage manner. It is puzzling enough that the badger's death is described as a difficult birth. The image of the hunter's using tongs to remove the badger from his set is one of cruelty and pain. It is perhaps, meant by Longley that the set has been like a womb to the badger,that has protected and sheltered him. The badger is vunerable to the cruelty of the humans hunting him. There does not seem to be lack of apathy from Longley regarding the badgers death.
Sections 2 & 3 are each one sentence long. Longley has spoken elsewhere of trying to write "all in one sentence to try and get the headlong emotion"
