The Theme Of Death In Mid-Term Break And The Early Purges Essay

The Theme Of Death In Mid-Term Break And The Early Purges The Irish poet Seamus Heaney is renowned for evoking his very personal experiences and feelings throughout his poetry. He frequently calls upon those experiences from his childhood to support his adult feelings over given topics and circumstances. The two poems Mid-Term Break and Early Purges both present two very personal experiences of Heaney's surrounding his juvenile experiences of death. Both poems combine a variation of techniques in miscellaneous manners to present such views. Mid-Term Break concerns itself with Heaney's remorse and suffering over his brother, an unjustified death over which he had no control. Early Purges, alternatively, concerns itself with an inability of Heaney to use such command to prevent an unnecessary death. The titles of both poems are very symbolical to what the poem is all about. 'Mid-Term Break' The word 'break' implies Heaney's break from school, and also the break in his brother's life. 'The Early Purges' The word 'Purge' means to empty, cleanse, purify, and getting rid of unpleasant things (in this poem, the unpleasant things are the kittens). Heaney's use of assonance in the opening lines of Mid-Term Break echoes the ominous noises around him. "Counting bells knelling to a close" The use of the word "knelling" advocates an immediate sense that something is wrong, since a knell is the bell rung at funerals. The repetition of the "ell" sound is almost as if the bells are chiming out. In Early Purges, however, Heaney focuses especially on using alliteration to indicate the atmosphere around him.... ...poem. Heaney finds it difficult to cope with such a loss so young, and thus detaches himself to make things easier. By contrast, in Early Purges, Heaney's attitude changes through the poem, losing his innocence verse by verse. In the final stanza's this is shown. "It makes sense:" Why does it? It is as if Heaney has been conditioned to accept death of 'pests'. The end of the poem is also very effective. Heaney shows contrast between urban and rural views of death. 'Purging' is justified as the animals are referred to as 'pests'. In both poems, Heaney loses something very intimate to him. In Mid-Term Break, Heaney loses his younger brother, in the same way as in Early Purges, he loses his innocence. Mid-Term break is a very emotional and depressing poem whereas Early Purges is very cruel and harsh.