Wounds

From ZuluNotes - Free Leaving Cert Notes

This Michael Longley poem is divided into 2 long stanzas of 17 lines.

Stanza 1

Theme: Memories & War.

A conversation tone is used.

Conveys a central image of violence and also of young men as they shoot in defiance, international war & civilian Ireland.

It is set in the Somme in France during the First World War.

Longley begins with the line "here are the two pictures from my father's head", showing that he is letting us into a personal account of his father that were regarded as secrets before. His father's memories are those which he shared with his son of his experiences of World War One. The bravery of the Ulster Division has stayed in his father's memory, he compares them to the Gurkahs in Nepal. "fuck the Pope" - the use of violent language in regards to Home Rule (Home Rule = Rome Rule). "...A boy about to die" - emphasising the youths involved. The use of the word "screaming" - highlights the bewilderment and refusal to be weak. The line "over a landscape of dead buttocks" shows the poet talking of the Scottish Padre resettling the dead' kilts so as to give them dignity. The last four lines of the stanza deal with the death of his father. His father died of an old war wound which became reinfected "a belated causualty".

Stanza II

It is set in Belfast during the Troubles.

Here the poet uses the experiences of his father to find some kind of perspective on the violence of the Troubles. He pictures in his mind, the burial of his father and links it to the events. Each of the objects Longley metaphorically buries with his father seems to have a symbolic significance to him. "three teenage.." - Longley states that this is a waste of young life. "..flies undone" - portrays a vulgar image, that the human is vunerable. The last 7 lines of the stanza focus on murder.