Eavan Boland-The Hanging Judge

Hello students, I hope you were able to listen to the last podcast and you've been able to better understand and appreciate Immorescence Hamatra. Today I'll be dealing with the poem "The Hanging Judge" by Ivan Boland. Now Ivan Boland is a recognized Irish poet, one of the foremost female voices in Irish literature. In Boland's poetry one finds her constructing a world which is influenced by history, mythology, contemporary and intensely personal. She leaves these three four stands to actually make her poetic landscape. Now to understand the given poem "Hanging Judge" one needs to understand the background of the Irish conflict, the Northern Ireland conflict also known as the Troubles. Now roughly from 1965, 1966 to 1998, 1999 there was like a civil war situation in Northern Ireland between those who desired to be part of the United Kingdom and those who wanted Northern Ireland to become part of Republic of Ireland. It was an era marked by political and social tensions, an era marked by something as trivial as street fighting to something as huge as sensational bombings, something as undercover as sniper attacks and something as obvious as roadblocks. There was internment without trial, there were assassinations and this confrontation was characteristically that of a civil war and it has been categorized as a low intensity conflict. So when we sort of read the "Hanging Judge" we need to understand this background. Boland wants us the reader to know this background as we move on to read the poem. Another thing because Boland situates history in a she picks up an event in the past and brings it for the reader to reread and therefore revise their understanding of individual experience. So we need to understand how Boland is looking at history herself. Now see you need to understand the very fine difference between the idea of history and past. So when we say history, history is the official version, the state's version, the state's narration or facts. But when we look at the word like past, it is in Boland's words it is a much less structured place, a place which offers no clarity, a place which is based on memory, a place which is based on remembering. So what Boland does is she visits places, she visits stories and different times in her poems and uses these as frames and what's the use of these frames, she uses these frames to come back to Irish reality. Another thing that I want you to understand is that Boland's mother was a painter. In an interview, Boland says quite clearly that her poems in her poems, you have images driving the narrative. You have one strong image putting forth, sorry, setting off the action in the poem and she says the reason for this is that my mother, I was surrounded by my mother's paintings when I was a child and one had to imagine the context, one had to imagine an explanation for every image because no explanation was offered and she says with that kind of mindset she's approached her poetry as well. So one of the most important ideas that I want you to take with you as we read the poem is number one, the difference between history and past and number two, how the image drives the narrative in her poems. Furthermore, as I start reading the poem, there is a particular idea. This poem Boland reconstructs a moment in history and she reevaluates individual experience. She wants the reader to take a relook, to revise the story of human history. Keep this in mind as we move on. I remember very clearly telling you as the semester began that the poems this time are going to be slightly more complex than the ones that you did in semester one. So this is one of the complex poems. Even Boland, the hanging judge, come to the country where justice is seen to be done, done daily. Now it's very interesting, the poem opens on a very conversational style, it's like a tourist guide asking the reader to enter into this new country, come to the country. And this very mundane, very ordinary dialogue phrase is paralleled with one of the most problematic ideas where justice is seen to be done. There's an idea which is very commonly said in the circles of law that justice should not only be done but also seen to be done. So to understand what Boland is trying to say here, it is the beginning and the crux of her poem, she wants you to go back to this idea, justice should not only be done but also seen to be done. Now as students of law you must have come across number of times when they say that the letter and the spirit of law are at loggerheads are in conflict. When one looks at obeying the letter of law but not the spirit of law, one is essentially only taking into account the literal interpretation of the words as written in law books but not the actual intent. And which is why they say justice should not only be done but also seen to be done. Now see consider this, the reason the rationale is that rules are a moral constructs, neither moral nor immoral, they are moral constructs and when they were drafted, the idea was to serve a social function but the objective behind the principle behind drafting these rules was that they serve a higher purpose human values right. I will give you two examples. If you look at the Jew, Shailag in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, he was absolutely right when he said that he had signed an agreement with Antonio and if he could not repay the loan, he will extract a pound of flesh from him instead right. And so that is why in the last scene when he is asking for his pound of flesh legally, he is absolutely right. Let's have another example from the Indian context. Let's look at Duryodhan from Mahabharad. Once the Pandas have lost Drupadi in the game of dice, he has technically won her and therefore can sort of ask or order her to disrupt herself publicly. Now please understand, I know this is going to evoke a lot of emotions but think about it. Both in both these examples, they are not wrong, legally they are right but we do not recognize this because not being in the wrong doesn't automatically or necessarily mean that one is in the right. I repeat, not being in the wrong doesn't automatically or necessarily mean one is in the right. Keep this idea with you as we go on reading the poem because this is the essential foundation of this poem. Come to the country where justice is seen to be done done daily. It's an everyday affair. We are very good at it, no pending cases here. Come to the country where sentence is passed by word of mouth and roar. She repeats, ours is a country where the sentence, the decrees, the judgements are passed by word of mouth. It's very interesting player words. Word of mouth, the dictionary meaning would be passing information or communication or really nothing in writing, the informality of it and it is passed raw. It is not blended, it is not diluted, it is most natural state. Boys split like infinitives. It's one of the most violent images rather it is the most violent image in the bone. Boys, split like infinitives. Now split is a forcibly breaking something into two halves forcibly. Infinitive it is very interesting the way she is making us look at justice in terms of grammar. Infinitive is the smallest grammatical unit. So what is infinitive? See when we use the word two, T O with single O when we use the word two with the base form of the verb. Let's say C run laugh the first form of the verb it becomes an infinitive. This is the shortest explanation to C to run to laugh and she says we have here boys being split like infinitives for boys being forcefully drawn into halves just like grammatical units. Look here we hang our son, our only son and hang him still and still we call it law. It's a very ironical situation that she is putting forward here. These three sentences would make perfect sense once we finish the poem. I'll come back to these. She says look here she's taking the read. She's literally sort of it seems like she's holding the reader by his hand and she says come here I'll show you this is the place where we hanged our son, our only son and we continue till today to hang him and call it the law call it something that has been legally rightfully done. Moving on now she begins to tell us she begins to narrate an episode wherever we are standing wherever this tourist poet is tourist guide poet is taking us now we are standing at a position where she is about to tell us the story. James Lynch Fitzstiefen magistrate first citizen of Galway 1493 so this is a story about somebody called James Lynch Fitzstiefen he was magistrate of Galway a small county west of Ireland and the year is 1493. Spanish merchant trader his horror of deceit a byword a pillar of society with one weakness Walter whose every trade reversed his like a signature in a mirror. Now she's very interesting she's building up the narration of the episode and she's giving us the characters and she's not giving us characters in straight descriptions she's making them in her in his in her description Spanish merchant trader pillar of society of deceit a byword with one weakness Walter she is entangling all these characters much like they would have been at that point of time in 1493. I'll try and explain. James Lynch Fitzstiefen magistrate first citizen of Galway 1493. Spanish merchant trader so there's a visitor Spanish merchant trader who came visiting Galway turned into Fitzstiefen's nightmare Fitzstiefen himself was a pillar of society with one weakness Walter of deceit a byword by word you understand by word is like a a person or a thing which is sort of considered to be a typical example of a particular quality and exemplar so to speak. He says she says this man James Lynch Fitzstiefen's son Walter because his name itself became an exemplar a model of deceit was his one weakness whose every trade whose every characteristic reversed his like a signature in the mirror in a mirror inferring here that he was as opposite to his father in his attributes in his features in his understanding of the world in his way of living just like a reversed image of one's own signature in a mirror. The torch is platter the dancing supple Spanish taught starts so the scene moves on from being introduced to all the characters in this episode to an evening of dancing singing, merriment and Spanish taught dancing supple Spanish taught much like what that Spanish merchant must have taught the people around. James Lynch Fitzstiefen may disapprove but he is a man of principle. Now he may disapprove what he is seeing he may not like it but he is a man who lives by principles who lives by certain set ideas of behaving and living in the world recalls young gooms is a guest in town so now we are given the name of the third person the Spanish merchant trader gooms he considers this is a veity consideration for him that gooms is a guest in town and the girl beside beside gooms his son's choice may restore a new name and honor in an air so the situation is that gooms and this young lady are dancing which may not be approved by James Lynch Fitzstiefen but he understands that gooms is a guest and he also respects the young girl because he hopes that she would be able to bring back a new name a new respect in the air that they will have water and this young lady we move forward dawn gooms dead in a wood the Spanish heart with softened to her rigid wood steel of Walter Lynch's blade and the next scene that unfolds before us is that gooms is lying dead in the forest the Spanish heart which had softened to the love of that young lady was now lying rigid stopped just like the steel which had stabbed him in his heart and that steel was of Walter Lynch's blade wild justice there so this is the second time that she uses the word she repeats the word justice in the very first line she says justice is seem to be done and now she says wild justice there now to its restraint now to its limiting it stopping it putting up a boundary for it but not repeal you cannot invalidate this wild justice because it has already been done now to its restraint but not repeal he returns friendless so again there's no bleak inference that Walter must have taken gooms with him to the forest as a friend but now he's returning as friendless to be met by his father mounted and hunting and in the morning when he's coming back from the forest after committing this barbaric act of merging gooms he's met by his father on the horse hunting in the stair which passed slowly between them a history voices and I want you to understand what Poland is expecting us to imagine in the look in that moment when they both recognized what has been done in the stair with slowly passed between them a history remember I gave you this understanding of history and past right in the beginning a history poises a history is ready prepared how to act whatever action they decide it will become the official narration of the episode and the colon a history poises so what are the options repression and rebellion they will subdue the people they will subdue something by force rebellion and as a counter to that repression you will have an armed resistance people will rise up against the wrong or comma this scaffold and its songs the platform which is used to execute people by either sort of cutting off their heads or hanging them from a rope and it's valid like songs the principle Unsung, the principle I want you to understand, the fundamental truths, that sort of the fundamental idea that serves as a foundation for a certain system of belief, foundation for a certain chain of reasoning. So, the principle will remain unsung, nobody will know why things worked out the way they worked out. These are the clues in this judicial murder to a mystery unsolved tale. Now, the tourist guide poet is almost asking us to understand the spectrum. On one end, people look at it even today as a judicial murder, an unjustified execution of a death penalty, like no formality, formal proceedings, the due process of law as you understand was not undertaken, judicial murder to a mystery. And I will come back once again to the idea why is this a mystery. This falls still only to be told as a horror story, as a ghost story, against a haunting, against an evocative moving memory. It's become like a folktale of the area, which people tell each other much like a ghost story in a haunting. Last to us, as you father haunt me, the rope trails from your fingers below you the abyss. Now the poet says, "I've given you the episode, I've given you the situation, the location, but today as I stand and I look back, the father who made this decision haunts me. As in my mind, I imagine the rope trailing from his fingers below him the abyss, the bottomless deep pit. Why is it bottomless in the next few lines I'll explain. Your arms balanced as scales of justice." So this is the third time this idea, this word is coming justice. Justice is seen to be done, wild justice and scales of justice. You loop him while from your eyes fall all other scales, all other considerations, all other associations, connections, truths, they, you put them all behind and you loop him. You put the news around his neck. Too late, tears of doubt, tears of remorse, dropping on your own neck like a nose. So the last verse is essentially telling us that the father and that's the story also, that the father hanged his son, Walter from the window of his own house that very morning. So what is Boland essentially trying to say? Let's look at some of the first depotic devices and then I'll come back to the themes and the ideas that she's trying to put forth. Now let's look at your title first, the hanging judge. You know, when you look at the title, initially it seems that it's like a sort of notorious name given to a judge who is used to handing down the punishment of sentencing people to death. But by the end of the poem, it is the hanging judge converts into the idea of a dilemma, the hanging judge, the hanging by the conscience, should he, should he not, should he cover it up, should he make sure that he deserve, he gets the punishment that he deserves. Then of course, you come to lot of eliteration, come to the country, done daily, repression and rebellion scaffold and its songs to its restraint but not repeal, right? Then you also have number of similes and metaphors which help us to imagine better. For example, right here, reversed his like a signitor in a mirror. In the stair that pass slowly between them, a history for this. For arms balanced as the scales of justice and tears of doubt, tears of remorse, dropping on your own leg, neck sorry, like a nose, hanging his own son and coming to this idea subsequently that or waking up to this idea rather that in a way the nose around his son is the nose around the father's neck, the tears of doubt and the tears of the remorse. The tone of course is extremely conversational. You do not find her taking a high grand sort of language or a stand, she is in conversation with the reader because she wants the reader to appreciate the ideas that she is putting forward. Another that I found very, very interesting is raw justice, wild justice. She wants to underline the, see justice as it is is a very, very embattled concept. It is very difficult to define and then neatly categorize. She wants us to understand the course, the primitive and the savage side of the idea of justice as well. Now moving on to the seams, moving on to the seams of the poem. The first idea that she is talking about is what is the essential difference between what Walter did to goms and what Walter's father did to him. The way where I want you to place the idea of course primitive barbaric, savage idea of justice and under this idea you reread the first verse. Come to the country where sentence is passed by word of mouth and row, boys split like infinitives. No place for due procedure of law, no place for natural justice. So how are we any different in contemporary Ireland? These sort of asking you to draw parrels to the contemporary situation or rather that the situation of Ireland during the troubles. If you look at the poem you realize that the tourist poet, the tourist guide poet is highlighting the importance of law to redress wrongs in specific instances that we do put a lot of faith, we do put a lot of respect and trust in the structure of law. But Poland is questioning that when it comes to certain specific instances is law able to redress the wrongs. She's picked up an historical event, she's picked up a situation just so that she's able to add depths, yes and to make this understanding of the world that we live in, challenging and interesting. There is a, you know, you see her doing the time shifts. You are in past and you are in the present because the tourist guide poet and the reader are definitely in the present. She's taking us back to the past and then she's bringing us back to the present when she says that you father haunt me. I imagine that what you must have gone through and the last two ideas that I want you to discuss below you the abyss. It is dark, deep, too late, tears of doubt, tears of remorse, dropping on your own. Like a news. Poland is, she wants us to understand, fathers putting too much emphasis on the idea of legal duty in executing his son. And then the paysocks from father's sudden real estate. of this inhumanity of his adherence to the iron letter of law. Again I bow back to the first verse. Come to a country where justice is seen to be done done daily. This is what was happening in Ireland. We were, for not me, they were attempting that justice should not only be done but also seen to be done. Each one was living within the premise of a course, each group rather, a savage idea of justice. Alright, with this I come to the end of this point. See, before I stop, please understand that as law students these points are helping you to draw connections and parallels between how law, justice, public policies and lawyers are seen and heard in the past. Not everything is clearly black and white. Alright, with this we come to the end of this point. I know it is a complex point and I hope my analysis and reading of the point would be helpful. Thank you once again. If you have any questions you can email those to me, you can WhatsApp those to me and I would be more than happy to answer. All the best.