Eternal Sleep In Peat

Eternal Sleep in Peat At least a thousand years since he lost hope His features spoke, not of the strangling rope that robbed his breath, but of a sleep, as deep as death And peat preserved is evidence, far sharper than a photograph, not yet invented, his face, the same as one who rested on his desk to pause, and not the drama, of a flight for life, (for crime or sacrifice,) that brought him , an endless sleep in peat Suzanne Delaney This poem is based on an image from real life that affected me profoundly. When I was in Dublin a few years ago I saw a 1000 year old man in a glass case Museum Display whose body had been dumped in a peat bog with a rope around his neck. Some say a sacrifice or an execution. I was amazed to see the features were just like any 50 year old male you would see today. Most of the likenessesof people before photography was invented, were painted or sculpted images and although I wouldn't doubt an artist's eye, I was never sure they could capture the real image of what people looked like back then.