Ian Duhig What is the story In this dramatic monologue a farmer hires a young man to help with his cows The new hand is uncannily good with the cattle his affinity has a magical quality to it A turning point occurs at the end of the first stanza the hireling is revealed to be a warlock and t ID: 543973
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Slide1
The Lammas Hireling
Ian DuhigSlide2
What is the story?
In this dramatic monologue a farmer hires a young man to help with his cows. The new hand is uncannily good with the cattle, his affinity has a magical quality to it. A turning point occurs at the end of the first stanza, the hireling is revealed to be a warlock and the farmer kills him. After this the narrator’s luck runs out and the poem takes on the form of a confessional. Slide3
How is the story told?
Work through each stanza, what is taking place? Identify the archaic or dialect words – what effect do these have on the narrative? How do they affect the atmosphere?
What is the role of magic and superstition in the poem?How would you describe the relationship between the narrator and the hireling?Where are the moments of transformation? How do the sound patterns dramatize this idea?
Explore the boundaries between the real/supernatural, animal/human, male/female, guilt/innocence, life/death, sleeping/waking, and sanity/madness.
Consider the effects of
the vowel sounds and the change
in
pronouns
.Slide4
Dialect
Lammas – festival of ‘loafmass’ 1
st August, traditionally a time for hiring help with the harvest.‘a cow with leather horns’ – Irish riddle meaning hare – one of the most magical creatures in British folklore.‘muckle’ – much.
‘elf-shot- - cursed.
‘casting ball’ – process of making shot for a shotgun, gamekeepers often made their own.Slide5
Unreliable narrator?
The reader is forced into the position of a priest at the end of the poem but the narrator only offers us a partial confession – what is he not telling us?
Is he sexually attracted to the hireling?What happened to his wife?Is he in ‘sound mind’ or has his subconscious/disturbed mind conjured up this demonic image of the hireling?
Why can he not tell us everything?Slide6
How do Ian Duhig and Roderick Ford present their mythical/folklore characters in their poems ‘The Lammas Hireling’ and ‘Giuseppe? Slide7
After the fair, I’d still a light heart
And a heavy purse, he struck so cheap.
And cattle doted on him: in his timeMine only dropped heifers, fat as cream.Yields doubled. I grew fond of companyThat knew when to shut up. Then one night,
Disturbed from dreams of my dear late wife,
I hunted down her torn voice to his pale form.
Stock-still in the light from the dark lantern,
Stark-naked but for the fox-trap biting his ankle,
I knew him a warlock, a cow with leather horns.
To go into the hare gets you muckle sorrow,Slide8
The wisdom runs, muckle care. I levelled
And blew the small hour through his heart.
The moon came out. By its yellow witnessI saw him fur over like a stone mossing.His lovely head thinned. His top lip gathered.His eyes rose like bread. I carried him
In a sack that grew lighter at every step
And dropped him from a bridge. There was no
Splash. Now my herd’s elf-shot. I don’t dream
But spend my nights casting ball from half-crowns
And my days here. Bless me, Father, I have sinned.
It has been an hour since my last confession.