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Mid-term break essay

English - home language - mandatory, high school - south africa.

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Preview text, poetry essay: mid-term break by seamus heaney.

Heaney used both the title and imagery to covey the message of the poem. The message of this poem is that death changes things: how people act towards those mourning, how people in mourning will experience everyday situations differently, and how life changes because of loss.

The title’s ironic as a mid-term break usually refers to a time that learners are excited about, a wonderful time. The break that the speaker’s taking from school, is filled with sorrow and pain, it’s a sombre time that the speaker isn’t looking forward to. The death of his sibling changed the excitement of going back home, into a dreadful experience.

The poem starts with bells that’s knelling. The word knelling means ‘ring solemnly’. Sitting in the sick bay, even with bells foreshadows the sorrow that will be experienced. A bell ringing to signal the end of the day, is a wonderful time for learners, but for the speaker, this bell is counting off the time he has before he has left before experiencing great sorrow.

Entering his home, he experiences the gathering of family and friends. Such a gathering is usually filled with laughter and entertainment, but all he’s experiencing is sorrow: his dad crying, older men are standing up to shake his hand to give condolence, even his mother is bereaved. Everything changed following death.

Death doesn’t only remove a loved one, it changes how those close to the deceased experience life without him, and how others act during the time of mourning.

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Subject : English - Home Language - Mandatory

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Mid -Term Break Essay

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The poem ‘Mid-Term Break’ by Seamus Heaney is a first person ballad concerning the death of a boy’s 4-year-old brother while he was away at boarding school, and the individual reactions of each of his family members towards the tragedy. Poet Seamus Heaney did well at taking the extremely heavy subject of a child’s death, and producing a substantially lighter poem that still resonated the right emotions for the theme of the poem. In my opinion, ‘Mid-Term Break’ can be broken up into three different sections.

The first of these sections includes Stanza 1, where the boy is still at school. The first section of the poem describes the main character waiting in the sick bay for someone to drive him home, which tells the reader that something bad has happened before the poem has begun, because the main character is being sent home because of some kind of misfortune or tragedy. The second section of ‘Mid-Term Break’ is the largest, and lasts from stanza two to stanza five. This section is also the darkest and most vibrant in imagery of the poem.

The second section talks about the boy being greeted by a house full of strangers after the death of his younger brother, and the different ways each of his family members are handling the situation. The tone changes from section one to a deeper, more sad feel, as the writer is describing things like the main characters father crying, and old men offering their condolences to a child. Stanzas two, three and four develop the storyline in the form of the writer leading the reader through the house, as the main character is made uneasy by things like his father crying, the baby laughing in the pram, and people whispering about him.

The Essay on Main Character Poe Romantic Man

Romantic literature is such that an author writes in an attempt to convey his feelings on what the world should be like. It is unrealistic, unreasoning, and imaginative writing. William Cullen Bryant and Edgar Allen Poe are two examples of romantic writers. Though Poe fits the mold of a romantic writer it is obvious that his writings do not mirror those of Bryant or many other known romantic ...

Stanza five is where the poem begins to explain the tragedy, through the last two lines “at ten o’clock the ambulance arrived, with the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses. ” The third part of the poem is begins at stanza six and goes all the way until the finish. This part, for me, was the most emotional of the three, and really defines the theme and feel of the poem. The ending sentence of stanza six, “I saw him for the first time in six weeks, paler now… ” tells the reader that the boy had been away for an extended period of time, and in theory, didn’t get to say goodbye to his little brother.

The third section also ties up the poem, as it takes the storyline from the previous waiting at school to grieving with his family, and finishes with a simple explanation of the tragedy, and brief feeling of regret that the boy didn’t spend more time with his brother. A Mid-Term Break usually means holidays, time off school or fun, which is the complete opposite to the themes of the poem. Although the title suggests that the poem is going to be revolving around a holiday, the reader soon discovers that the poem is dealing with a much darker subject, a death in the family.

In the opening part of the poem there is a worrying atmosphere, which for me is clear through the line “knelling classes to a close. ” This line suggests that the main character hasn’t been made aware of what has happened, but leads the reader to imagine that whatever has happened, cannot be good. The second section is where the reader knows that someone has died, and that it is an immense heartbreak for the family. This is clear through the first two lines of stanza two, where the strong, solid fatherly figure of the boy is rendered distraught and upset by the tragedy, leaving the main character virtually helpless in his own grief.

The second section also starts to introduce the reader to the deeper meaning of the poem, which is the main character becoming an adult, as the main character is feeling uneasy, and partially numb, as he doesn’t know how to react to the situation as a child. The sentence “as my mother held my hand in hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs” also gives the reader an insight into just how shattered the family is after the death, as his mother is described as being ‘too upset to cry,’ and that the main character feels that he now has to step up, being the oldest child, and comfort his family as an adult.

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Death is something that every person will have to deal with at some point in his or her life. The poems 'Dulce et Decorum Est' and 'Nothing Gold Can Stay' both deal with the concept of death, but in very different ways. They provide views of what death can be like from opposite ends of the proverbial spectrum. Death can be a very hard thing to experience, and the emotions that it evokes can be ...

The final part of the poem is the boy goes to the room where his brothers body is being is laid out. This is the event that the entire poem has been moving towards, essentially the climax of the whole poem. The final stanzas of the poem emphasise how tragic the event is, by leading the reader to imagine the younger brother as a helpless, pure, and peaceful child. Through the line “He lay in the four foot box as in his cot,” the younger brothers youth and purity is better exemplified.

The imagery used in the third section of ‘Mid-Term Break’ is the ‘last goodbye’ when the main character goes to visit his younger brother, as he hasn’t seen him in six weeks. This ‘final goodbye’ is the peak of emotion in the poem, and takes the awkward subject of peace and gives it a form of peace and serenity. The final goodbye also refers back to the deeper meaning of becoming an adult, as the main character is not only saying goodbye to his baby brother, but also his childhood. Seamus Heaney’s choice of words in this poem is what made it so emotionally raw.

The central feeling of loss and sadness in the poem is expressed through phrases like “I met my father crying,” “angry tearless sighs” and “old men standing up to shake my hand. ” The phrase “I met my father crying” tells the reader that the main character feels as though his father had been transformed into a different person by the tragedy, and he was ‘meeting’ him for the first time. The lines “it was a hard blow,” “the baby cooed and laughed and rocked in the pram” and “whispers informed strangers I was the eldest” all add a second feeling of a certain awkwardness to the poem, which defines a child reacting to death brilliantly.

The Essay on Brother Allie Holden People Reader

In J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, a young man named Holden Caulfield goes through many misadventures during a three day stay in New York. Holden acts like a careless teenager but the reader gets the feeling that he cared once and wishes that he could again. He has what is almost an obsession with death and is constantly dwelling on the death of his brother Allie, who died of leukemia. He ...

The description of the dead brother at the end of the poem uses a warm and peaceful semantic field to contrast the previous emotions and feeling of the poem, and leave the reader with the idea that while the death of a child is ugly and horrific, that doesn’t mean that is the way the baby brother should be remembered. The grammatical features of ‘Mid-Term Break’ are used to emphasise the misery and numbness of death. The phrase “Counting bells knelling classes to a close” suggests that the writer is describing the knelling of a church bell rather than the ringing of a school bell, which refers to the idea of a funeral.

The whole poems use of first person view gives the main character a feeling of detachment and isolation, as he is describing other people’s reactions to the tragedy throughout the poem, but he never describes how he feels. This feeling of isolation is also reflected through the form of rift that the death has caused through the main characters family. The main character seems to be detached from his family upon arriving home from school as he notices people talking about him being away at school, and in the same line that “his mother held his hand in hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs. The disconnection of the one sentence, split into two stanzas, shows the reader the disconnection between the boy and his mother, and his family in general. He does not feel the closeness or comfort of holding her hand; he feels a kind of awkward numbness to the situation and doesn’t know how to react. The final description of the corpse uses calm nouns and adjectives, instead of the gory description of the horrific accident.

For example, Seamus Heaney used expressions like “I saw him for the first time in six weeks, paler now,” “wearing a poppy bruise,” “he lay in a four foot box” and “the bumper knocked him clear” to leave the reader with the idea that the dead brother is nothing but a vulnerable, pure child. In ‘Mid-Term Break’ there is no concrete rhyme scheme, which says to the reader that the lack of rhythm makes the poem less optimistic and enjoyable. The general sounds of the poem are blank or free verse, therefore the poem tells the story without the use of rhyme.

The Essay on Death Penalty for Children

The death penalty issue has always been one of the most important issues of the contemporary system of justice. Years ago the majority of the criminals were male over 20 years old, but nowadays the situation has changed. Not only adults are sentenced but children who are under 18 years old nowadays they commit murders and other terrible crimes. However, a child is always a child and if he commits ...

The free verse style suits the poem well, as the story being told is so raw with emotion and has such a sad feeling to it that the abrupt style of the poet tells the story well. This also meant that the one line at the end of the poem that did rhyme was emphasised even more. This line is important to the poem as it reflects the appalling subject of a four year olds death. The fact that he was only four stresses the tragedy the family if faced with. Seamus Heaney vividly represented a child’s journey into maturity through the form of a death in the family in ‘Mid-Term Break. The writer used the perfect combination of sounds, words and syntax to express how he felt during the series of events that occur for a child after a death in the family, and did well at letting the audience live through the experience. Not only did Seamus tell the story of a boy’s baby brother’s death, but he also explained the feeling of isolation and detachment that a child has to experience when his/her parents are struck with a tragedy. The poem leaves the reader with the feeling or idea that a child is isolated on his journey

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"Mid-Term Break": A Poetic Reflection on Loss and Grief

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Mid term break.

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            Essay #2 Seamus Heany "Mid-term Break".              "Mid-Term Break" is about a boy who explains his experience, when a close member of his family dies. The author explains what the boy is feeling through the funeral. When I first saw the title I was not expecting it to be about a funeral because a lot of people relate to mid-term break as being a good thing. A mid-term break is a time, which a lot of students look forward to because it is a break from school. It indicates a term being broken in half, a time of relaxation and enjoying the time of school. It indicates a break, but the poem is nothing about that. It indicates a sad period for the people involved and when they should be having fun, instead they are grieving for the death of a family member. The age of the boy in the poem is clearly not stated at all as he does not know how to respond to the death. We can tell by his maturity level. The family member that died was a brother or sister to the boy that the author is talking about. In the essay I am going to look at the use of language the author uses. The title of the poem is "Mid-Term Break" and, as I have said before, this title does not make you think right away that it is about the death of a young boy or girl. The characters in the play are mainly just a boy who has lost a brother or sister, but his father does show a valid point in the poem. The rest of the characters are not that significant. .              In "Mid-Term Break" the time changes quite a lot. In the first stanza it straightaway changes what you think from when you read the title. You find out that it does not start as you expected because the title indicates the poem to be set in a mid-term break but actually it starts at the end of the college. The boy is obviously in pain:.              "Counting bells knelling classes to a close." (line 2).              This shows that the boy is in pain as knelling usually relates to sadness. The only thing that is on his mind is that he is counting the bells.

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Mid-term break essay

‘Mid-term Break’ Seamus Heaney

Often poetry describes a significant event. Choose such a poem and write about its effectiveness in communicating this event.

‘Mid-term Break’ by Seamus Heaney is about a boy who is away at school when his little brother gets hit by a car and dies. The poem talks you through him being brought home by his neighbours, not knowing what is going on and then put in this uncomfortable situation. This poem is good at describing a significant event, you are not told what is going on straight away so you keen on reading and it helps you see how Seamus felt when he didn’t know what was going on.

    The title ‘Mid-term Break’ makes you think of good, happy times because a mid-term break is a holiday in the middle of a term. The feeling of the opening stanza is quite sad. Seamus chooses his words carefully to show this, he uses words like “knelling” to describe how the bells were ringing:

        “I sat all morning in the college sick bay         Counting bells knelling classes to a close”

By using the work “knelling” we immediately know that something sad or bad has happened because the word “knelling” is a word that is used to describe how bells are rung on a sad occasion.

    Seamus dose not tell you what is going on immediately to make the read want to read the whole poem to find out what is happening/ what has happened. Seamus gives the reader information in different stages in the poem to show how under informed he was at the time.

This is a preview of the whole essay

    When Seamus got home he was confronted with his father crying on the porch, even though he had always “taken funerals in his stride”. This had come to a shock to him as he was not use to see his father cry. Big Jim Evans who by his names seems to be a big hard man was affected by this event. Seamus was embarrassed by the old men standing up to shake his and tell him they were sorry for his trouble. This was difficult for Seamus when he was a young boy because he was not used to the older men showing his lot of respect. The effect this has on him is that he seems very uncomfortable and embarrassed in this situation.

        “When I came in, and I was embarrassed

        By old men standing up to shake my hand”

This shows that Seamus felt uncomfortable with all this attention from the older men.

The baby’s reaction seems quite harsh and hard hitting. This shows that the baby was excited to see Seamus and that he is unaware what has happened. He doesn’t know that his reaction is inappropriate. This has been placed at this point in the poem to show the innocence of youth and to compare it to how the father is reacting:

        “The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram         When I came in, and I was embarrassed”

This shows that the innocent baby doesn’t understand that is was a sad occasion and that that reaction was inappropriate.  

   The mother’s reaction is quite unexpected as you would think that the mother would be crying showing a lot of emotion and the father to be taking it in his stride but not in this case as it is the other way round. This effects Seamus in such a way that he is confused why his father is crying and his mother is keeping all her emotions to her self. The effect this has on the reader is that it shows that his mother was being brave in front of Seamus to make him feel a little as ease with all that was going on. This was created by the reaction the mother was giving the strangers whispering  about Seamus:

        “Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,

        Away at school, as my mother held my hand

        In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.”

His mother was obviously up set by what had happened but was trying to be strong for Seamus.

   Seamus was in a way avoiding acknowledging that his little brother was dead by saying:

        “At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived

        With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.”

He uses word choice to show this. By using “the corpse” in stead of his brother’s name he is avoiding believing that his little brother is dead. This seems quite nasty and impersonal but it helps Seamus avoid believing that he is dead.

   The used of understatement in the poem has a great effect because it shows that he was really hurt by what happened and that many years latter it still effects him in such a way. The last line of the poem is hard hitting it makes it all real. He controls his emotion well and tries to come to senses about what happened. Seamus puts this event across extremely well as you really get to see how him and his family were feeling at the time.

   In this poem, Seamus Heaney describes a tragic significant event in his past. By using various techniques he describes this event powerfully, allowing the reader to share his experience. I think that Seamus wrote this poem well and he definitely described how this event affected him well by using great word choice.

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• Subject English

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