Throughout the poem, Heaney uses a very descriptive and imaginative language in order to create a tone of sympathy towards the reader; nevertheless, this tone is accompanied by a tone of adoration and admiration towards the bog girl. The poem consists of five stanzas, all of similar length with a regular rhyme scheme.
It can also be seen as sexual because again the protagonist is finding the most beautiful attributes of the skunk and relating it to his wife. The first five stanzas are based on memories of California nights, and the last stanza is a recent memory of waiting in bed for his wife as she changed into her nightdress.
Both poets lives in the United Kingdom and has been living for a long period of time ?
Heaney might have done this to further allow the readers to feel what the protagonist is feeling. These two poems deal with simple experiences but important.
Generally Heaney's poems are influenced by animals through his childhood experience, specifically within 'The Early Purges' and 'An Advancement of Learning'.
Flax-dom is an onomatopoeia and festered has association of sickness and decay. Many of these associations can be interpreted as absurd and irrational, but they can also be seen with a different perspective. These associations can be seen and sacred and sexual, sacred because the poet is relating the skunk to the garments of a priest and a funeral mass, these both are very sacred.
The poet utilizes numerous poetic devices through the poem, such as similes, metaphors and his choice of words, in order to create a captivating tale from the poem's beginning to middle to end.
The title of Heaney uses many associations within the play and many of them and startling and blasphemous.