Seamus Heaney wrote the poem Mid-Term Break after the death of his brother who died after a car ran over him. A majority of the author’s poems, including Mid-term Break, start with a memory. Although the deceased was a young boy, the poem presents the funeral sensitively. The title contrasts the actual message in the poem because it gives one a perception that the poem could be about a vacation. The poet uses the title Mid-Term Break to illustrate his broken family. Nevertheless, the title seems ambiguous and gives readers a contrary opinion about the poem. Heaney acknowledges that poems change the perceptions of people on what is happening in the contemporary world. However, he admits that the poems have a little chance of changing the …show more content…
Apart from death, both poems emphasize the importance of family. For instance, in the Mid-Term Break, the poem highlights a loss in the Heaney’s family. Wordsworth’s poem also focuses on how he is dealing with the loss of family members. The poems seem to emphasize the togetherness of a family. Loss of a family member results in frustration that denies peace of mind. Through the poems, both poets explain how they are dealing with their losses.
Both poems have melancholic tones because they focus on death. They describe an environment of sadness. Both poets feel sad because of the events surrounding the setting of the poems. Both authors use personification to present their feelings. For instance, Heaney personifies candles while Wordsworth personifies daffodils. Moreover, both authors use personification to illustrate that nature can be a source of peace for those going through some difficulties in life. They also use specific rhyme schemes to explain their points. The authors have incorporated some Irish sayings in their poems. For instance, Heaney uses the saying “poppy bruise” to mean a bruise that looks like the poppy flower .
Both poems illustrate how the two authors are trying to cope with the death of close family members. Heaney opts to face death by describing it directly. He narrates what happened during his brother’s funeral allowing readers to experience the grief that engulfed the
In Midterm Break, Heaney reflects on the memory of his younger brother’s death, and returning home for his funeral. The poem as a whole has an overall
In Wordsworth's poem, he used syntax and diction to show how the flowers changed his once depressed lonely mood to positive and grateful. While in Muir's essay, he also uses diction to tell his story of finding calypso and his overwhelming sense of happiness when he finally sat by the beautiful flower.
Each of the poems relies heavily on imagery to convey their respective messages. Often throughout each of the poems, the imagery is that of people. However, each uses similar imagery to very different, yet effective ways to explore the same
In literature, themes shape and characterize an author’s writing making each work unique as different points of view are expressed within a writing’s words and sentences. This is the case, for example, of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” Both poems focus on the same theme of death, but while Poe’s poem reflects that death is an atrocious event because of the suffering and struggle that it provokes, Dickinson’s poem reflects that death is humane and that it should not be feared as it is inevitable. The two poems have both similarities and differences, and the themes and characteristics of each poem can be explained by the author’s influences and lives.
Two literary pieces, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by, Dylan Thomas and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by, Emily Dickinson are both poems that discuss the topic of death. While there are some similarities and comparisons between the two poems, when it comes to the themes, both poets writing styles are quite different from one another which makes each poem unique. Thomas and Dickinson both use identical figurative language devices and other literature symbolisms as they explain their main themes which contrasts the differences to the concept of death. These distinct variations between poems are apparent in both the form, and how the choice of words is used in the poems. Both of the authors have presented two very different ideas on death. The poems are well distinguished literature devices, they share minor similarities and differences between each other and how they present the meaning of death to a toll.
The two poems are similar in their corresponding feeling of dread for death. Using diction,
The title of Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break” also misguides the reader in a similar fashion. The phrase ‘mid-term break’ prompts the reader to imagine time spent with family, away from the pressure of academic stress
Heaney’s attitude towards death is presented in different perspectives within Funeral Rites. A pun, based on a homonym, embedded within the title itself, suggests one’s right to have a funeral : for there to be an occasion for family and friends to mourn one’s death whilst celebrating their life. In Funeral Rites, Heaney demonstrates the beautiful serenity associated with death, while also highlighting the tragic aspect of death and dying. Funeral Rites is composed of three parts (the first of which I am going to focus on in this essay), with Heaney focusing on different attitudes towards death and dying within each section. For example, in the first section, Heaney concentrates on funerals in the past, as established by use of the past tense. The transition to present tense in the second section is confirmed by the strong adverb ‘Now’, and future tense in the third section highlights the change in customs within the change in time period. With Funeral Rites’ distinct structure, Heaney is indicating his nostalgia for the past, as well as highlighting his outlook on the situation in Ireland.
First, one similarity the novel and poem both share examples of the initial pain after a loved one has passed away.
beloved, the speakers in the two poem have very different ways of dealing with their grief. In
He explains that their love is so strong that it will survive the distance. One example he uses to compare being away from each other is death in the literal sense. The main theme of this poem was the love between husband and wife, with a metaphorical theme to death. “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” contains both themes, their roles are reversed. Death is the main theme continuing throughout the poem and is personified.
This poignant dichotomy is seen explicitly in two poems in Seamus Heaney’s Field Work. One poem, “The Strand at Lough Beg” is written for “Heaney’s cousin Colum McCartney (ambushed and shot in a sectarian killing)” and is rich with pastoral scenery, dark tones, and religious imagery (Vendler 60). Another poem, “A Postcard from North Antrim” is about “his friend the social worker Sean Armstrong (shot by a ‘pointblank teatime bullet’)” (Vendler 60). These two elegies, both with a strong presence of Heaney’s personal voice, are imbued with a sort of ambiguity as Heaney struggles with the death of two people who were both very close to him. In both poems, Heaney “tries to converse with and question the dead” in an attempt to rationalize, or at least display his sentiments on the untimely deaths (Parker 159). It is interesting to watch Heaney oscillate in imagery, tone and diction as he progresses through both poems. This wavering can be seen as a result of Heaney’s background.
The second poem is “Home Burial”, by Robert Frost. The poem is about a couple, Amy and her husband, losing their son causing Amy to go through emotional turmoil. Amy is trying to avoid the situation by trying to leave, but her husband is trying to pull her back, so he can figure out what’s wrong with her and as the poem continues the drama increases. The topic of the poem is sadness, which ties into the theme of Amy and her husband’s relationship is on the rock. The theme in this poem is that everyone goes through sadness, but bottling it up doesn’t help the situation. This is due to the death of their son and as the story continues the husband is trying to understand, why Amy is acting the way she is but she receives the message as rude and offensive. Most of the tension is coming from the graveyard, which resigns on their lot that contains their relatives and son. In lines 1-2, it expresses my theme because it has both
In the poems you have studied a recurring theme is that of ‘loss’. This can take many forms: death; identity; hope or loss of innocence
The mother's road to finding closure over her son's death is much longer than her husband's. Her feelings throughout the poem are of