Essay 2: Mid-Term Break - Seamus Heaney.
The title reinforces this entire notion, as a Mid-Term Break, unlike a summer or winter break, is but a short, temporary pause from schooling, and within it there is the idea that a return to school, or in the speaker’s case, reality, in imminent, and unavoidable. Additionally, the fact that Heaney ends the poem with a singular, unique couplet, again pointing out the finality of the last.
In conclusion, we can see that the title of the poem, “Mid-Term Break” doesn’t relate at all with the poem; because the title makes us think of vacations and fun when it is actually about death. This is called tragic irony. The overall effect this poem had on me, as really strong. It made me feel sad, disturbed and shocked, but despite this I believe it is wonderfully written.
Poem Analysis: Mid-term Break Essay Seamus Heaney himself is the narrator in the poem, Mid-term Break, a sad story from his childhood. It depicts the reactions of everyone around him and of himself to a death in the family. It does this through the poem’s three parts: the waiting at school, the behaviour of everyone at home, and his solitary viewing of the body.
The first section of the poem depicts the speaker’s initial absentness from reality as he comes home. The poem begins with the speaker having “sat all morning” (1) “counting bells knelling classes to a close” (2). Since the speaker has spent his entire morning in the medical bay, he is pers.
Seamus Heaney, Mid-Term Break. In Seamus Heaney’s poem “Mid-Term Break” one is misled by the title which normally would bring to mind parties, frivolous activities, and a much needed break from classes.The writer immediately extinguishes these thoughts as the college sick bay is mentioned (Heaney, 1).Heaney does not use rhyming or specific sentence structure but still manages to draw a.
The poem Mid Term Break by Seamus Heaney has an ambiguous title which presents a gap between expectation and reality. Normally, one would expect the poem with such a title to deal with the joys of holiday or the relief at the term being over. However, this seemingly innocent title reveals that unlike any other mid term break, this one is going to be totally different from what has been widely.
Seamus Heaney was born in April of 1939 in Castledawson, Northern Ireland. He was the oldest of nine children, born to parents Patrick and Margaret. His father was a farmer and cattle dealer who was also born into a large family. Read more of Seamus Heaney’s Biography.