Strongman by Tony Curtis and Mid-term break by Seamus Heaney

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Strongman by Tony Curtis and Mid-term break by Seamus Heaney deal

with the subject death of a family member. Compare both poems showing

how the poets introduce their subjects. Which poem did you prefer and

why?

One of the poets, Tony Curtis, is Welsh, whilst, Seamus Heaney is

Irish. Seamus Heaney has grown up on a farm in Northern Ireland with

his brothers and his parents. The whole family has taken on the family

business of farming, while Seamus Heaney received an education. Both

poets are still alive today.

These two poems describe the deaths of a family member. The "Mid-term

break" is the tragic death of Heaney's four-year-old brother and the

poem progresses over twenty-four hours. "Strongman" is describing the

author's strong, caring father who dies naturally in "his final hour".

While the "Mid-Term Break" had an awkward and devastating mood the

"Strongman" has a more positive outlook on the family member's death

as it looks back into the younger, happier times. There are a few

other comparisons that can be made, whilst the "Mid-Term Break" is a

death that shocked people, the "Strongman" was a peaceful and easy to

accept death.

In this essay I intend to look at the differences and similarities in

the poems.

The first poem I intend to discuss is "Mid-Term Break" by Seamus

Heaney. The title "Mid-Term Break" suggests the poem is about children

as we associate a mid-term break with school holidays. Other first

impressions given in this poem relate to poor health or death. We

relate to this due to the use of nouns such as "sick bay" and adverbs

describing school bells as "knelling". This could also be reflecting

the emotions of the child in the sick bay; at this point we are not

sure.

The structure is interesting, because at first glance we see that it

has a regular pattern to it, which are three lines to each stanza.

This possibly implies that the events that take place in the poem are

predictable. However, the final line is a stanza on it's own, drawing

you to it and creating a large impact on the audience.

In the second stanza an awkward atmosphere and tone is introduced. The

poet meets his "father crying"; this is one of the factors that make

this stanza awkward. Men in the days when this poem was written (1966)

were stereotypically thought of as strong people emotionally and

physically, therefore, for the young poet to see his father crying on

the porch would have made him feel uneasy. Furthermore, the dash at

the end if each line causes the lines to flow as one sentence, this is

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