A Comparison of Seamus Heaneys Mid-Term Break and Digging Essay

A Comparison of Seamus Heaneys Mid-Term Break and DiggingI am comparison two poems by Seamus Heaney- Mid-Term Break andDigging. Both of the poems are pen ab come to the fore his childhood and hisfamily.The first poem I analysed was Mid-Term Break, where the open andstraight forward title Break caught my attention suggesting to methat this poem is freeing to be a positive experience, a break fromwork, a succession to relax.The commencing stanza, the first line reads, ?I sat all morning in thecollege black bay?, which has connotation of depression, illness andsuffering suggested from the word sick. Also with the reference tocollege the endorser makes that the boy is in his late teens. winkline, ?Counting bells knelling classes to a close?, the wordknelling in that line is associated with funerals and terminal so weget the feeling that something might be wrong and gather a sense offoreboding at what is to come. The final line, ?At two o?clock ourneighbours drove me rest hom e?, is unusual, why are his neighbours thrusthim home and not his parents? The question why are his parents drivinghim home this increases the sense of foreboding. Also there is fallingrhythm in this stanza.In the second stanza, the line begins, ?In the porch I met my fathercrying?, and this confirms to the reader that something is wrong, thatsomething tragic has happened. The second line mentions that he takesfunerals in his stride, so that says to me that he?s attended quitea lot of funerals even though he?s not that old. The final line, ?And vast Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow?, leads me to believe that BigJim Evans is a close ally and also that he is quite large suggestedby the adjective Big to descri... ...o poems Mid-Term Break and Digging are two good poems,which are both about families. Mid-Term Break is about when heleaves college and returns home to find out the news about his littlebrother. Digging is about his grandfather and how he?s getting oldand finding work difficult, so both poems are about family, but quitedifferent circumstances. The layout of the two poems is rattlingdifferent. Mid-Term Break being very straight forward, just havingthree lines to severally stanza and Digging being completely opposite andfollowing no strategic pattern.Overall I think that Mid-Term Break is a better poem, as I find itmore serious and was personally more good by this poem due to itbeing quite sad talk of the town about his brother and that dwell line, ?A fourfoot box, a foot for every year?, which is a very emotional last lineto finish a poem.