The Early Purges & Woodchucks
If asked how one feels about animals, most people wouldn’t have a definite feeling one way or another. However, when an animal starts invading their lives and homes, a feeling of strong distaste emerges. Many would not think anything of killing a rodent or insect that started taking over their home; however most people wouldn’t kill a domesticated animal because it is taking up too much room or eating too much food. In fact, killing a domesticated animal, such as a dog or cat, today could result in jail.
In the poems, “Woodchucks” by Maxine Kumin, and “The Early Purges” by Seamus Heaney, two drastic examples of killing an animal is discussed. Although both of these poems discuss the killing of animals; one is about the extermination of “pests” and the other is the killing of a family pet. Both poems tell a story of killing an animal; however, they are told from different perspectives. The following is a comparison of each of these poems and discusses how even though the narrators share a common bond; their story is very different because of their point of view, style in telling the story, and tone in describing the killings.
Poets use different points of view depending on how they want their audience to react to a certain poem. In the poem “Woodchucks”, the audience sees the poem through the eyes of the killer as the events are occurring. This allows the audience to have a better understanding of the events leading up to the killings and exactly how the killings occurred. The poet says, “Now drew a bead on the littlest woodchuck’s face” (Line 17), and “Ten minutes later I dropped the mother” (Line 19).
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The poet describes the actions of the woodchucks as they are happening as well this is seen when she says, “Next morning they turned up again, no worse” (Line 7), and “They brought down the marigolds as a matter of course and then took over the vegetable patch nipping the broccoli shoots, beheading the carrots” (Lines10-12). Because the events are being told in present tense by the killer, the reader is able to identify her actions and have an understanding for her justification; to save her garden and vegetables.
Unlike “Woodchuck”, Heaney’s poem is told from the perspective of an adult looking back on an event that occurred in his childhood. In Heaney’s poem “The Early Purges”, an adult recalls a vivid childhood memory of kittens being drowned. In the very beginning of the poem he starts out by saying, “I was six when I first saw a kitten drown” (Line 1). Although the story is being told by adult, the reader can envision a six year old witnessing this tragic event.
He remembers feeling as a child that this was a cruel punishment for the kittens, and states, “Suddenly frightened, for days I sadly hung Round the yard, watching the three sogged remains turn mealy and crisp as old summer dung” (Lines 10-12). Towards the end of the poem, the narrator, now an adult, has changed his attitude toward the killing of animals. Even though there is no other reason for killing them than to get them out of the way, he acts if killing any animal is warranted.
This is seen when the poet says, “And now, when shrill pups are prodded to drown I just shrug, ‘Bloody Pups’” (Lines 16-18). All the sadness and pain he once felt is gone. The people and storyline in this poem is very different from those in “Woodchucks”, where the killing of the woodchucks was necessary to stop them from eating the garden. Here, there is no reason given that can justify the killing of the kittens and the only understanding is how the narrator was changed as a person by being a witness to the drownings.
Every poet has their own style in the way they compose their work. Both, Kumin and Heaney share the same approach by telling a story within their poem. Although both of their stories are about killing animals, the way in which they tell it leaves a different feeling for the animals and their killers. In “Woodchucks”, the narrator takes the readers through her thought process; first, killing the woodchucks becomes her goal; she even dreams about it, “I dream I sight along the barrel in my sleep” (Lines 27-28). This shows that she can’t stop thinking about it until she gets them.
Then, she justifies her actions, “The case we had against them was airtight” (Line 4). By saying that they had a strong case against these animals, and that this was just the consequence of the woodchuck’s actions. The poet also talks about how the woodchucks are “taking the food from our mouths” (Line 13). Finally, her guilty conscience arises “If only they’d all consented to die unseen gassed underground the quiet Nazi way” (Lines 29-30). These last two lines show her guilt and how she wishes they had died when she tried gassing them so she wouldn’t feel as guilty.
If they had died this way she would have not seen their faces when she killed them so it would have been less personal, but because she shot them one by one she saw each of their faces. In “The Early Purges” the setting of the farm allows for these differences to become apparent. When the narrator was younger he was exposed to these things. Although he did not agree with them, and he was frightened his exposure was a critical role in how he later justified his actions. When Dan Taggert said, “Sure isn’t it better for them now? ” (Line 7).
The child hearing this began to lose his innocence by witnessing the event and hearing that this action was acceptable, which leads him away from childhood and into adulthood where the poet used the farm to explain that, “on well-run farms pests must be kept down” (Line 21). This is the answer that the child that is now grown and no longer innocent gives to justify his actions in harming animals. Finally tone is a technique used in both poems, but in different ways. In “Woodchucks” through her use of tone, the reader can observe a change in her attitude from one stanza to the next.
The poet is pestered by woodchucks that are destroying her garden. The first stanza sets the story by saying, “Gassing the woodchucks didn’t turn out right” (Line 1). Kumin says the “knockout bomb” that she purchased was “featured as merciful, quick at the bone” (line 4). This shows that she hoped the gas would be a quick and easy solution to her woodchuck problem. Even though she was able to create an “airtight” seal on both exits of the underground tunnels, the gas was ineffective because the woodchucks “had a sub-sub basement out of range” (Line 6).
The second stanza describes how the problems still persists and the woodchucks are back “taking over the vegetable patch nipping broccoli shoots, and beheading the carrots” (Lines 11-12). This shows that it has now become a personal war between her and the woodchucks because they are taking what is hers. In the third stanza she describes herself as a "pacifist fallen from grace" (Line 15). Which shows her killer instinct is taking over and because of this in the fourth stanza she shoots a mother woodchuck. In “The Early Purges”, the tone changes throughout the poem as well.
The poet starts off as an innocent young child who thinks that the killing of these animals is cruel. This is seen after he witnesses a kitten being killed he says, “Suddenly frightened, for days I sadly hung Round the yard, watching the three sogged remains Turn mealy and crisp as old summer dung” (Lines 10-12). He sees this as wrong, but he is only a child and can do nothing to change what has happened. Finally he forgets what he has witnessed, but is frightened once again when he see Dan Taggert killing other animals with other cruel punishments.
As the poem continues he is now an adult, and from having experienced all these punishments he has now learned to push his feelings aside this is seen when he says, “And now, when shrill pups are prodded to drown I just shrug, ‘Bloody pups’” (Line 18). He now has no feeling when he sees animals being killed because he has grown up being shown that this was common and acceptable in society. The tone of a poem also has a major impact on how the reader interprets the poet’s work. The use of adjectives, sarcasm and comparisons within the poem creates the mood for the story they are telling.
In “Woodchucks” the tone varies from one stanza to the next. Within the first stanza, it is obvious that she is frustrated by the pestering woodchucks that are destroying her garden. She starts off by saying, “Gassing the woodchucks didn’t turn out right” (Line 1). Kumin says the “knockout bomb” that she purchased was “featured as merciful, quick at the bone” (line 4). She is obviously annoyed that the gas, which she thought would be a quick and easy solution to her woodchuck problem, failed even though she was able to create an “airtight” seal on both exits of the underground tunnels.
In the second stanza she describes how the problems still persists and the woodchucks are back “taking over the vegetable patch nipping broccoli shoots, and beheading the carrots” (Lines 11-12). Her frustration has turned into anger and she now has a personal war between her and the woodchucks because they are taking what is hers. In the third stanza she describes herself as a "pacifist fallen from grace" (Line 15). Her killer instinct has taken over any guilty conscious she may have felt once she shoots a mother woodchuck as described in the fourth stanza.
Through out the poem, her audience can relate to her frustration as well as to her guilty conscious. Like “Woodchucks, in “The Early Purges”, the tone changes throughout the poem as well, except that it covers a large time period rather than a couple of days. The poet starts off as an innocent young child who thinks that the killing of these animals is cruel. This is seen after he witnesses a kitten being killed intentionally. He describes feeling at the moment in the stanza, “Suddenly frightened, for days I sadly hung round the yard, watching the three sogged remains turn mealy and crisp as old summer dung” (Lines 10-12).
He sees this as wrong, but he is only a child and can do nothing to change what has happened. Finally he forgets what he has witnessed, but is frightened once again when he see Dan Taggert killing other animals with other cruel punishments. As the poem continues he is now an adult, and from having experienced all these punishments he has now learned to push his feelings aside this is seen when he says, “And now, when shrill pups are prodded to drown I just shrug, ‘Bloody pups’” (Line 18).
He now has no feeling when he sees animals being killed because he has grown up being shown that this was common and acceptable in society. Unlike the poem, “Woodchucks”, the tone of this poem is depressing as it includes the mind and heart of a child and how he was forever impacted by seeing the drowning. Further, there was no explanation for the killing except that it was a way of life, which offers little justification. At least in “Woodchucks”, there was a purpose and failed efforts of controlling the problem before she killed them.
The authors’ stories in the poems, “Woodchucks” and “The Early Purges” are very different from each other even though they are both about killing an animal. In “Woodchucks” it is understandable why she had to kill the woodchucks as they were destroying her garden and eating her food. After other attempts, she was left with no choice. It is easy to feel compassion for her as even though she started acquiring a killer instinct, she felt guilty and remorse that it had come to her shooting them. In “The Early Purges”, there is more of a focus on the impacts the killing had on a child.
Because there was no justification given for the killings it affected the narrator’s mind and emotional well being. He became hardened after witnessing the killing of family pets. Through each of the pieces of work, the style and tone of the poems was very different as they were from different perspectives. In “Woodchucks” the audience gets the story from the killer, herself, which provides more details in the process and in her thoughts. Whereas, in “The Early Purges”, the audience is left without answers and a rationale and instead are left wondering and pondering just like the narrator.
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The Early Purges & Woodchucks. (2018, Sep 13). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/the-early-purges-woodchucks/
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