Bogland
Bogland - meaning Summary
History Buried in Peat
Bogland presents Ireland as a landscape without open prairies, defined instead by bogs, wetlands, and enclosing horizons. The speaker suggests that the land is inward-looking and layered with history: old animal remains, butter, and trees are preserved in peat. The poem contrasts this rich buried past with the idea of frontier expansion, ending with the sense that the bog’s centre is still deep and unexplored.
Read Complete AnalysesWe have no prairies To slice a big sun at evening-- Everywhere the eye concedes to Encrouching horizon, Is wooed into the cyclops' eye Of a tarn. Our unfenced country Is bog that keeps crusting Between the sights of the sun. They've taken the skeleton Of the Great Irish Elk Out of the peat, set it up An astounding crate full of air. Butter sunk under More than a hundred years Was recovered salty and white. The ground itself is kind, black butter Melting and opening underfoot, Missing its last definition By millions of years. They'll never dig coal here, Only the waterlogged trunks Of great firs, soft as pulp. Our pioneers keep striking Inwards and downwards, Every layer they strip Seems camped on before. The bogholes might be Atlantic seepage. The wet centre is bottomless.
for T. P. Flanagan
Feel free to be first to leave comment.