Comparing Seamus Heaney Poems Follower, Mid-term Break, and Digging

3939 Words8 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Childhood on poetry

In this essay I will be comparing three Seamus Heaney poems we looked at in class these are called, “Follower”, “Mid-term Break” and, “Digging”.

There are differences as well as similarities, the similarities include: they are all poems about and set in Seamus’ childhood memories

In addition, all the poems more or less use some of the same poetic devices and techniques like: onomatopoeia and some of the same characters appear in all three poems such as like: Seamus (himself obviously) and his father.

The differences include the fact, “Mid-term break” which is more emotional in my personal opinion.

And is about a completely different situation then, “Follower” and, “Digging”, which are set on the farm Seamus lives on and is about him watching his father while he works on the farm and how Seamus feels about him.

While the overall situation in, “Mid-term break,” is that Seamus’ four-year-old brother has died. He is taken out of the Collage, “Sickbay” or first aid room where he is waiting to be taken to his little brothers funeral by his next door neighbours they are picking him up for two possible reasons:

A) There is no mention of Seamus’ family having a car.

B) Even if Seamus’ family had a car the farther would not be fit to drive because Seamus sees his dad on the Porch crying because of his lost of a son if he was to drive he would be thinking about his son instead of the road ahead and behind him and might end up being buried with his son and the last thing the family needs is another death but more accurately it is the last thing the wife needs because she would have lost not just her four year old son but also her husband as well, leaving her with only Seamus and herself.

The first Seamus Heaney poem I...

... middle of paper ...

...hing is different and that includes pieces of literacy work any type of literacy work, from letters to novels any two or three types of literacy work are not the same even if they are all poems or all letters they are all different (unless you copy it word for word) a there are accidental similarities and similarities that have been created on purpose.

In conclusion, I have found many things. Like the different topics need different structures and rhyming schemes to enforce their point.

I noticed also that different techniques and devices he used help me visualise in my mind what he describes in his poems and how he saw things in his life. Comparing his work has helped me understand other poems too.

Personally, I found Seamus Heaney’s poems interesting as they gave a child’s perspective of his life and the events coinciding with it. Not many poems do this.

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Molly And Vivian's The Orphan Train

    477 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Orphan Train is a compelling story about a young girl, Molly Ayer, and an older woman, Vivian Daly. These two live two completely different yet similar lives. This book goes back and forth between the point of views of Molly and Vivian. Molly is seventeen and lives with her foster parents, Ralph and Dina, in Spruce Harbor, Maine. Vivian is a ninety-one year old widow from Ireland who moved to the United States at a young age. Molly soon gets into trouble with the law and has to do community service. Molly’s boyfriend, Jack, gets his mom to get her some service to do. Jack’s mom allows her to help Vivian clean out her attic. While Molly is getting her hours completed, Vivian explains her past to her. Vivian tells her about all the good times and bad in her life. She tells her about how she had to take a train, the orphan train, all around the country after her family died in a fire. She told her about all the families she stayed with and all the friends she made along the way, especially about Dutchy. Dutchy is a boy she met on the orphan train and lost contact with for numerous years, but then found each other again and got married and pregnant. Sadly, Dutchy died when he was away in the army shortly after Vivian got pregnant. When Vivian had her child, she decided to give her up for adoption. Molly and Vivian grew very close throughout the time they spent together. Molly knows that Dina, her foster mother, is not very fond of her and tells her to leave. Having no place to go, Vivian let her stay at her house.

    Read More

  • Comparing 'All The Years Of Her Life And A New Perspective'

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fein show a shift in attitude in the end of the short story and the essay by the authors guiding their readers by feeling different emotions. This is very effective because it shows the reader how the children and mother both feel and what they go through. In the short story the shift is shown by the son observing his mother while she is drinking he cup of tea and realizes she has been putting up with this all her life, and how much his mother cares for him. In the essay the daughter realizes and becomes more aware when she has her own child that her mother was ill and always wanted to be there for her but could not be there. “It seemed to him that this was the first time he had ever looked upon his mother." (Callaghan). “I only know, from this perspective, that I am not the one who was." (Fein). The author shows how the characters grow and mature and realize their mothers love and do care for

    Read More

  • Allusion In Trouble With Poetry

    540 Words  | 2 Pages

    In both of the poems, "Introduction to Poetry" and "Trouble with Poetry", Collins makes an interesting form of observation of the world he lives in while possibly explaining his daily life or experiences.

    Read More

  • Comparison of Robert Frost's and Seamus Heaney’s poetry,

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ttachment or emotion. Again, Heaney repeats the use of a discourse marker, to highlight how vividly he remembers the terrible time “Next morning, I went up into the room”. In contrast to the rest of the poem, Heaney finally writes more personally, beginning with the personal pronoun “I”. He describes his memory with an atmosphere that is soft and peaceful “Snowdrops and Candles soothed the bedside” as opposed to the harsh and angry adjectives previously used such as “stanched” and “crying”. With this, Heaney is becoming more and more intimate with his time alone with his brother’s body, and can finally get peace of mind about the death, but still finding the inevitable sadness one feels with the loss of a loved one “A four foot box, a foot for every year”, indirectly telling the reader how young his brother was, and describing that how unfortunate the death was.

    Read More

  • Comparing the Stars of Bright Star and Choose Something Like a Star

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    Therefore, one can see that these poems although similar in their title and central image of the star differ in their themes, form and treatment of the author's ideas.

    Read More

  • fall on your knees

    1522 Words  | 4 Pages

    The childhood of Frances Piper consists of inadequate love, loss of innocence and lack of concern, ultimately leading to her disastrous life. As a six year old child, she encounters several traumatic events, explicitly the death of her loved ones and the loss of her innocence. Over the course of one week, there have been three deaths, two funerals and two burials in the Piper family. “Frances was crying so hard now that Mercedes got worried. ‘I want my Mumma to come ba-a-a-a-ack.’”( McDonald 174). As a young child, there is nothing more upsetting than losing a mother. A family is meant to comfort each other to fulfill the loss of a loved one; however, this is not the case in the Piper family. Mercedes, only a year older than Frances, tries to console her even though she herself is worried. The loss of motherly love and affection has a tremendous impact on her future since now her sole guardian, James, expresses no responsibility towards her. Instead, he molests Frances on the night of Kathleen’s funeral to lessen the grief of his lost daughter. As a result “These disturbing experiences plague Frances with overwhelming feelings of low self worth and guilt that haunt h...

    Read More

  • Lanston hughes comparison of two poems

    825 Words  | 2 Pages

    In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by the name of Langston Hughes. A well-known writer that still gets credit today for pomes like “ Theme for English B” and “Let American be American Again.”

    Read More

  • Death and Emily Dickinson

    1312 Words  | 3 Pages

    ..., they are somewhat similar in comparison because they both have an inevitable ending, death. Both of the poems also used rhythm to give the reader a better insight and experience. The use of rhythm helps to set the tone right away. The use of symbolism and tone helped to convey an overall theme with both of the poems.

    Read More

  • Young Hickory

    1014 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nonetheless, there was one more death in the family to come in the following years, this time one that actually benefitted the young man. His grandfather in Ireland died an...

    Read More

  • Searching For Independence In Dubliners

    1683 Words  | 4 Pages

    James Joyce is the author of Dubliners, a compilation of Irish short stories that reflect on the feelings he associates with the city of Dublin, where he grew up in a large impoverished family. After he graduated from the University College, Dublin, Joyce went to live abroad in Paris, France. This action indicates a sense of entrapment that led to his desire to escape. The situations in his stories differ significantly, but each character within these stories experiences this sense of escape that Joyce had. In “An Encounter”, two boys make their first real move at being independent by skipping school to explore Dublin. In “Eveline”, the main character has a choice between taking care of her unstable father or leaving him to lead a new life with a man she has been seeing. In Joyce’s story, “The Dead,” a young man is thrown into deep human assessment, becomes unsure of who he is, and soon after is frightened of this newly discovered truth. The stories in Dubliners implicate this need for independence through characters in different situations and experiencing the feeling of entrapment.

    Read More

  • James Joyce's Dubliners

    1443 Words  | 3 Pages

    James Joyce created a collection of short stories in Dubliners describing the time and place he grew up in. At the time it was written, Joyce intends to portray to the people of Dublin the problems with the Irish lifestyles. Many of these stories share a reoccurring theme of a character’s desire to escape his or her responsibilities in regards to his relationship with his, job, money situation, and social status; this theme is most prevalent in After the Race, Counterparts, and The Dead.

    Read More

  • Comparing the Works of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman

    1325 Words  | 3 Pages

    Whitman wrote in ambitious proportions, while creating a style of rhythmic structure, creating stanzas and complex lines. By Whitman making his works synonymous it truly recognizes him as a great American Poet. With Whitman using free verse poetry he was able to change the original idea of structure with the rhythm of cadence, this helped people to emphasize poetry as an expression. With Whitman he uses non-orthodox type of structuring his poetry; he traditionally does not have a type of length for his works of stanzas, poems, or his lines.

    Read More

  • Desire of Escape

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Dubliners, James Joyce tells short stories of individuals struggling with life, in the city of Dublin. “It is a long road that has no turning” (Irish Proverb). Many individuals fight the battle and continue on the road. However, some give up and get left behind. Those who continue to fight the battle, often deal with constant struggle and suffering. A reoccurring theme, in which Joyce places strong emphasis on, is the constant struggle of fulfilling responsibilities. These responsibilities include; work, family and social expectations. Joyce writes about these themes because characters often feel trapped and yearn to escape from these responsibilities. In “The Little Cloud”, “Counterparts”, and “The Dead” characters are often trapped in unhappy living situations, often leading to a desire of escape from reality and daily responsibilities.

    Read More

  • The Poetry of Kingsley Amis and Philip Larkin

    2182 Words  | 5 Pages

    Of  course, each of these poets has a different perspective, for there is not one single motive, desire or drive that can be defined as the essence of life. One cannot describe someone's work as being all or none of this or of that. What is interesting, though, is the subjective nature each poet has in their view of life and how that is portrayed in their poetry. Each one has a unique quality that sets them apart from the rest and each has characteristics that provide the reader with clues as to their perspective on life.

    Read More

  • Modernism In The Works Of Wallace Stevens And Modern Poetry

    790 Words  | 2 Pages

    “If you hate difference, you'll be bored to death.” (Beta, 2010). All three poets, Wallace Stevens, Archibald MacLeish, and Marianne Moore are more different than similar. However, as Toba Beta says, it is much more interesting to be different than all the same. It is very interesting that all three of these poets were alive during the same time, but came up with such different works of art and each were considered successful. Here and there, you can find similarities within their writing, but these authors are all very different which is why their poems all have a different opinion of what right.

    Read More

More about Comparing Seamus Heaney Poems Follower, Mid-term Break, and Digging

Open Document