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Discussion Groups / English Usage / June 2008Brain-firkin
Hello: Any idea what: "barked sapling" Could it be "killed youth?" ------ bark 4 : to bring down or kill (a squirrel in a tree) by striking the bark of the tree with a bullet MW Unabridged --------- Also, how about: "oak-bone" (bones heavy as oak?) "brain-firking" (brain-twitching?) could mean in the following: ---- I can see her drowned body in the bog, the weighing stone, the floating rods and boughs. Under which at first she was a barked sapling that is dug up oak-bone, brain-firkin: her shaved head like a stubble of black corn, her blindfold a soiled bandage, her noose a ring from Punishment, by Seamus Heaney, p. 112 http://frontpage.montclair.edu/dennisk/poetry/bearla/poem077.html ---------- Thanks. Marius Hancu > Hello: > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Could it be "killed youth?" > ------ To bark = to debark google ring-barking/ed. Sapling is literal here. > > "barked sapling" > > Could it be "killed youth?" > > ------ > > To bark = to debark OK, now I've got it:-) Thanks. Marius Hancu > Hello: > > Any idea what: > > "barked sapling" > Could it be "killed youth?" The poem is about a "bog person" (prehistoric corpse, presumably of a human sacrifice 1000 to 3000 years ago) of which many were discovered in boggy regions of Europe in the 20th century (Google for "Tollund Man.") The poet's impressions seem mainly quite literal, e.g. this body when first found seemed to be a slim tree trunk with no bark.  SignatureDon Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) > ------ > bark [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > Thanks. > Marius Hancu > Hello: > > Any idea what: > > "barked sapling" > Could it be "killed youth?" She's very clearly a "she" while "youths" are guys. No, she is being compared to wood. > ------ > bark [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > Also, how about: > "oak-bone" (bones heavy as oak?) Bones became like wood from the acid. You do know about the Bog People, right? Ancient individuals mummified in peat bogs. Black, leathery. Some showing signs of violent death, such as the noose here. > "brain-firking" (brain-twitching?) It's firkin, a small wooden barrel. > could mean in the following: > [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > from Punishment, by Seamus Heaney, p. 112 > http://frontpage.montclair.edu/dennisk/poetry/bearla/poem077.html SignatureBest -- Donna Richoux > Bones became like wood from the acid. You do know about the Bog People, > right? Ancient individuals mummified in peat bogs. Black, leathery. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > It's firkin, a small wooden barrel. Thank you all. Marius Hancu On Jun 29, 11:45 am, t...@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux) wrote:' In the same poem, there's also: ------- I who have stood dumb when your betraying sisters, cauled in tar wept by the railings -------- Two questions, pls: 1. Is the present perfect "have stood" correct in a past ("wept") context? Or is it done just for rhythm? 2. Couldn't find the verb "to caul." Does it mean to cover the head in somethng like a cap? (for a woman)? Thanks. Marius Hancu > On Jun 29, 11:45 am, t...@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux) wrote:' > [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > 2. Couldn't find the verb "to caul." Does it mean to cover the head in > somethng like a cap? (for a woman)? A caul is a membrane which encases bodily organs - some human babies are borh with them covering their heads. It also means a cap or net worn by women to cover hair. The reference to tar makes me wonder if he's also referring to "caulked". SignatureDavid > The reference to tar makes me wonder if he's also referring to "caulked". That is exactly what I first thought:-) Thanks. Marius Hancu >> On Jun 29, 11:45 am, t...@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux) wrote:' >> [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > >The reference to tar makes me wonder if he's also referring to "caulked". The words "betraying sisters, cauled in tar" suggest that they had been punished for their betrayal by being "tarred and feathered" (without the feathers). Examples from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_and_feather Following the Liberation of France in World War II there were instances of alleged German collaborators being tarred and feathered[citation needed] by street mobs. Most of the victims of this practice were women accused of a Collaboration horizontale, i.e., sexual relations with German soldiers. Similar tactics were also used by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the early years of the Northern Ireland conflict. Many of the victims were women who had been in sexual relationships with policemen or British soldiers. There was a report of a swindler being tarred, feathered, and ridden on a rail near Pigeon Forge, TN, in the 1990's. In addition to six weeks in hospital, he spent three years in prison for his crimes. His attackers were never identified. In August of 2007, loyalist groups in Northern Ireland were linked to the tarring and feathering of an individual accused of drug-dealing. "Tarred and feathered" is a standard phrase which may be used even when no tar or feathers are used. In Northern Ireland paint has been used in place of tar. SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) On Jun 30, 8:54 am, "Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <m...@peterduncanson.net> wrote: > >A caul is a membrane which encases bodily organs - some human babies are > >borh with them covering their heads. It also means a cap or net worn by [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > had been punished for their betrayal by being "tarred and > feathered" (without the feathers). Yes, this I know. Still, about "cauled in tar" is it poetic/created, or common usage (in Ireland?)? Thanks. Marius Hancu >On Jun 30, 8:54 am, "Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <m...@peterduncanson.net> >wrote: [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] >Still, about "cauled in tar" is it poetic/created, or common usage (in >Ireland?)? I have never met the phrase before. It is likely to be poetic/created. SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) On Jun 30, 11:51 am, "Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <m...@peterduncanson.net> wrote: > >Still, about "cauled in tar" is it poetic/created, or common usage (in > >Ireland?)? > > I have never met the phrase before. It is likely to be > poetic/created. Thanks. Marius Hancu >> In the same poem, there's also: >> I who have stood dumb >> when your betraying sisters, >> cauled in tar >> wept by the railings >> Two questions, pls: >> 1. Is the present perfect "have stood" correct in a past ("wept") >> context? Or is it done just for rhythm? It's correct. >> 2. Couldn't find the verb "to caul." Does it mean to cover the >> head in somethng like a cap? (for a woman)? It's one of those verbed nouns meaning "provided with a [noun]". > A caul is a membrane which encases bodily organs - some human > babies are borh with them covering their heads. It also means a > cap or net worn by women to cover hair. There are superstitions that assign mystic powers to someone born with a caul, especially protection against drowning. > The reference to tar makes me wonder if he's also referring to > "caulked". The tar, the shaved head, and the betraying sisters seem to be an allusion to the modern punishment of female "collaborators", in Ireland possibly for fraternising with British, not German, soldiers. This brings the poem forward into Heaney's lifetime, and so the "have stood" is further justified. I get the feeling that the betraying sisters may also be non-human, perhaps tar-covered "floating rods and boughs", sisters to a peeled sapling, now dripping by the railings. Marius Hancu <Marius.Hancu@gmail.com> wrote in news:2f92cd8e-4739-461c- aaaf-7ee1fcc6b8f2@m36g2000hse.googlegroups.com: > On Jun 29, 11:45 am, t...@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux) wrote:' > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > 1. Is the present perfect "have stood" correct in a past ("wept") > context? Or is it done just for rhythm? It's in the past > 2. Couldn't find the verb "to caul." Does it mean to cover the head in > somethng like a cap? (for a woman)? Here, I suspect that he's referring to standing by without comment, (stood dumb) watching the young women who were accused of "consorting with the enemy" (betraying sisters) whose hair was shorn and heads were painted with tar for doing so ((cauled in tar), something that has been a practice during both Catholic/Protestant and Irish/English Troubles. > Marius Hancu <Marius.Hancu@gmail.com> wrote in > news:2f92cd8e-4739-461c- [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > tar), something that has been a practice during both > Catholic/Protestant and Irish/English Troubles. Yes. Having read the replies that arrived after I posted, I think what we have in these lines is a comparison of the bog-woman who was drowned for her crime with the modern Irish women who were tarred for theirs, the "caul" being both a punishment and a substitute for (and therefore a protection against) drowning. |
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