As I read the poems in Heaney’s 1975 collection, North, I recognized ritual as an important topic that appears in both Yeats and Heaney’s poetry. Just as Yeats plays were influenced by the Japanese Noh theater, and his poetry by the ritualized aristocratic manner, Heaney emphasizes the importance of the ritual of violence to Ireland’s history. The poem “The Grauballe Man” recounts “each hooded victim, slashed and dumped.” The Grauballe Man was found preserved in a bog with his throat slit. This scenario is similar to the brutality occurring between Protestants and Catholics when Heaney was writing these poems. In “Punishment,” he describes this violence as “exact and tribal, intimate revenge.” This “exact” action reminds me of Yeats’ admiration of the precision of the Irish upper class, whose repeated formalities distinguish them from the lower classes. Although I first thought of these poets as fundamentally different, particularly when it comes to style (Yeats’ structured form vs. Heaney’s free verse), I am finding that they are more similar than they appear.