Bogland Literary Elements

The speaker is unspecified; the only personal pronoun that appears in this poem is "we." The speaker seems to be a population of one area, perhaps at one specific time.

The poem is split into seven stanzas with four lines each. It has no regular meter, nor does it follow a specific poetic form.

Metaphors

"They've taken the skeleton
Of the Great Irish Elk
Out of the peat, set it up
An astounding crate full of air."

"The ground itself is kind, black butter"

Similes

"Only the waterlogged trunks
Of great firs, soft as pulp."

Assonance

Everywhere the eye concedes to
Encroaching horizon,

Alliteration

The ground itself is kind, black butter

Melting and opening underfoot,
Missing its last definition
By millions of years.

Poetry

This poem takes place in the Irish peat bogs.

The tone of this poem is quietly mournful. The speaker appears to search for meaning within the Irish peat bogs.

The poem has no clear protagonist nor antagonist.

The conflict in this poem is between those who dig and what they find. The landscape seems inlaid with failure. The pioneers dig deeper into the bogs, continuing a long lineage of people who have done so, but what they dig into "is bottomless."

The poem does not have a clear climax. Instead it descends, moving farther into the peat bogs that it describes.

"The ground itself is kind, black butter"