Poems Mid Term Break And Personal Helicon example essay topic

'For this piece of coursework on Seamus Heaney, I will be choosing two poems Mid-Term Break and Personal Helicon, and I'll be writing a commentary on each of them. Firstly I will be writing an introduction about Seamus Heaney, which will include his poems and on his educational background and then on what types of poems he writes. I will then write about each of the poems Mid-Term Break, and Personal Helicon, which are similar, as they " re both about his child hood. Finally I'll write a final conclusion about Seamus Heaney, which will show how effective his poems are. Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet who was born in April 1939 and still lives today. Seamus Heaney was a very bright boy who as a country boy attended local primary schools and colleges to gain scholarships at Colleges.

At college Heaney was taught Latin and Irish and moved on to Queens University in Belfast. In the course of his career Seamus Heaney has always contributed to the promotions of artistic and educational causes both in Ireland and abroad. In recent years Seamus Heaney has been the recipient of several honorary degrees, he's a member of the Aos dana (Irish academy of artist and writers), and a foreign member of the American Academy of arts and letters. Mid-Term Break is an incredibly sad poem. Mid term break is basically about a little boy, who was actually Seamus Heaney's brother, who was sadly killed by a speeding car. Seamus Heaney describes in the poem of what he did that day when he's younger brother was killed.

The stanza begins with the "morning" in line one, but it is two o'clock in line three, showing that hours have passed in waiting. The second stanza begins with the image of Heaney's father "crying". Heaney's father appear to be a strong man of few words, so having him crying causes a powerful emotion in the reader. Heaney skilfully takes the reader with him as he enters the house (showing he was scared) through the porch as we meet his father; "Big Jim Evans"; the baby in its pram; the old men gathered in the room; and finally Heaney's mother coughing out "angry tearless sighs", which show that she was hiding her true emotions. The little brother of Seamus Heaney was hit on his head, as it says the ambulance arrived at 10 o'clock, with the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.

We learn in the sixth stanza that Heaney hadn't seen his brother for six weeks having been "away at school", which suggests he went to a boarding school. The words "paler now", hang at the end of the stanza on line 18, causing a sad pause before the sentence continues and describes how little changed in appearance from when the boy was alive and dead, the big difference is his paler colour and his "poppy bruise". The final line stands out of the rest of the poem. Almost every word is special so that the reader must take in the line's message and the shock and deep grief that the family must have felt. There is shock for the reader reading it for the first time also, when they discover who has died and that he was only four years old. The little four-year-old child who suffered a hard hit to the head from a speeding car was well written in the poem.

The mood is set almost immediately in the second line: Counting bells knelling classes to a close. I noticed how Heaney uses an alteration to the funereal sound of the bells and the feeling of time dragging. Personal Helicon is basically about childhood and discovery. This poem is well written, which cleverly makes us think so that we may see ourselves better as a species. Looking at the first and last stanzas, I can see opposing points of view. The first line begins 'As a child' and in the last line Heaney says that these activities are now 'beneath all adult dignity'.

He also begins by describing the very real echoes found in wells, but the last line "I rhyme to see myself, to set the darkness echoing", which is about echoes of a more metaphorical kind. The poem itself seems to be about the journey from childhood to adulthood that he has taken. This means he has moved away from the poetry he wrote when he was younger to a more mature kind when he became older. I find some lines in the poem wild and disgusting, words such as "fructified", fungus", "dank" which were said earlier in the poem, and later Heaney speaks of "a clean new music", reflecting his life as he has become more mature.

Looking at the two poems Mid-Term Break and Personal Helicon I have learnt that Seamus Heaney's poems can be very meaningful and in depth. You could have so many ideas of what the poem is suggesting which makes you think what's happening and what the poem is all about. Looking at the poem Mid-Term Break I thought it was very well written. The poem builds up lots of tension towards the final stanza, which makes you wonder what's going to happen, which makes it highly exciting. The highlight of this poem would probably have to be the way it was written as it builds up tension, and also makes people feel sympathies for the little four-year-old boy who was killed as he looked like he was sleeping in the coffin as he slept in his cot. In Personal Helicon, Seamus Heaney writes about childhood and discovery, which is very hard to understand.

He creates a mirror with his rhymes. In a way, archaeology is like "hands-on" poetry. Its purpose is to "pry into roots" of humanity, "to set the darkness echoing" so that we may see ourselves better as a species.