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Literal analysis of macbeth play
Motif of impending death in poetry
Literal analysis of macbeth play
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Mid-term Break at first glance, seems to be a fairly simple, straight forward poem, in the way that (at first) it seems to lack emotion and has a child-like quality and feel; but as you read on, you notice various elements and techniques that Heaney has subtly incorporated into the poem to make you think otherwise. In fact, this poem is very cleverly written and is extremely emotional. Heaney uses a range of really effective techniques. Because there is no rhyme and lack of rhythm the poem flows more and seems more natural, enjambment also makes the poem flow easily between lines and stanzas. Onomatopoeia are used to express emotion during the poem; such as “cooed,” “whispers,” “coughed,” and “knocked”. The use of these words seems to give the poem a definite and discrete sound.
The theme and tone throughout “Mid-term Break” being expressed in a simplistic manner, (yet pays a lot of attention to detail) reflects the boy’s voice. The title plays a part in revealing the main theme; death. At first the reader thinks the title “mid-term break” is deliberately misleading for affect, but as you look at it more it has another meaning. “Mid-term”, meaning in the middle. So the title means that the boy’s life has been broken, he has died in the middle of his life. He has died too young.
Mid-term Break opens with a boy “Sitting the college sick bay”; the reader assumes that the boy speaking is ill, “Counting knelling classes to a close”. Immediately the theme of death in introduced to us, with a knell being a funeral bell, this begins to give the poem a sombre tone, as the reader can hear the bell in their head. It is also like the “classes to a close” is the boy’s life coming to en end. The first stanza in particularly effectiv...
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...e has become more peaceful and relaxed overnight. In this half quite a bit of light/colour imagery has been used, for example, “snowdrops”, “candles”, and “paler”. Along with these words, the fact that he says “I went up” makes the atmosphere heavenly and pure. Although dead the boy is portrayed as angelic and perfect, as there are no scars.
“Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple”. This lays emphasis on how the boy’s death was unnatural and so unfair; as the “poppy” is associated with war, soldiers, young soldiers who were too young to die!
At the end of the poem the boy says “A four foot box, a foot for every year”. This is an excellent ending. It is shocking, as it is very blunt and straight to the point. The fact that it rhymes with the previous line means that it stays in the readers head, haunting them.
Works Cited
Mid-term break by Seamus Heaney
The timeline carries on chronologically, the intense imagery exaggerated to allow the poem to mimic childlike mannerisms. This, subjectively, lets the reader experience the adventure through the young speaker’s eyes. The personification of “sunset”, (5) “shutters”, (8) “shadows”, (19) and “lamplights” (10) makes the world appear alive and allows nothing to be a passing detail, very akin to a child’s imagination. The sunset, alive as it may seem, ordinarily depicts a euphemism for death, similar to the image of the “shutters closing like the eyelids”
The time period this work takes place in is a very gloomy and frightening time. He wakes up in a dark place by himself and in fear, which makes things worse. A common theme we can relate this dark place to is when we fall off of the path of God. Since God represents all things good, the dark is the exact opposite. Since everything is not so clear in the wood he his describing, the path back to God is even more difficult to attain.
The violent nature that the soldiers acquired during their tour in Vietnam is one of O'Brien's predominant themes in his novel. By consciously selecting very descriptive details that reveal the drastic change in manner within the men, O'Brien creates within the reader an understanding of the effects of war on its participants. One of the soldiers, "Norman Bowler, otherwise a very gentle person, carried a Thumb. . .The Thumb was dark brown, rubbery to touch. . . It had been cut from a VC corpse, a boy of fifteen or sixteen"(O'Brien 13). Bowler had been a very good-natured person in civilian life, yet war makes him into a very hard-mannered, emotionally devoid soldier, carrying about a severed finger as a trophy, proud of his kill. The transformation shown through Bowler is an excellent indicator of the psychological and emotional change that most of the soldiers undergo. To bring an innocent young man from sensitive to apathetic, from caring to hateful, requires a great force; the war provides this force. However, frequently are the changes more drastic. A soldier named "Ted Lavender adopted an orphaned puppy. . .Azar strapped it to a Claymore antipersonnel mine and squeezed the firing device"(O'Brien 39). Azar has become demented; to kill a puppy that someone else has adopted is horrible. However, the infliction of violence has become the norm of behavior for these men; the fleeting moment of compassion shown by one man is instantly erased by another, setting order back within the group. O'Brien here shows a hint of sensitivity among the men to set up a startling contrast between the past and the present for these men. The effect produced on the reader by this contrast is one of horror; therefore fulfilling O'Brien's purpose, to convince the reader of war's severely negative effects.
Kenyon’s choice of a first person perspective serves as one of two main techniques she uses in developing the reader’s ability to relate to the poem’s emotional implications and thus further her argument regarding the futility of mankind’s search for closure through the mourning process. By choosing to write the poem in the first person, Kenyon encourages the reader to interpret the poem as a story told by the same person who fell victim to the tragedy it details, rather than as a mere account of events observed by a third party. This insertion of the character into the story allows the reader to carefully interpret the messages expressed through her use of diction in describing the events during and after the burial.
... is reminiscing about the fact that she messed up and it cost the boy’s life. The overall tone in the end of the novel is depressing as the governess’s actions and attitudes about current events tend to reflect the tone of the situation.
“I wanted to grow up and plough, /To close one eye, stiffen my arm.” (“Follower” 17-18). Seamus Heaney is writing about a son; interested in following his father’s footsteps to become a farmer. The poem depicts the son’s past memories of his father. Fascinated in his father’s work, influenced by his mastery at farming, the son strives to become the same at a young age. “The Writer” on the other hand, portrays a father’s observation of his daughter, struggling to write a story as an author. Both pieces, share a common interaction between parent and child, but the parent-child relationships themselves are fundamentally different. These poems represent a reflection of how the parents respectively tackle the task of raising their child.
In ‘Anthem of Doomed Youth’ Owen shows another version of the suffering- the mourning of the dead soldiers. When Owen asks “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?”, his rhetorical question compares the soldiers to cattle as they die and suffer undignified. Owen uses this extended metaphor to confront us with the truth, that there are too many fatalities in war. As such, the soldier’s deaths are compared to livestock, to emphasise their poor treatment and question our perspective about soldiers dying with honour. With an overwhelming death toll of over 9 million during WWI, Owen depicts how the soldier’s die with the repetition of “Only the...” to emphasise the sounds of war that kills soldiers in the alliteration ‘rifles’ rapid rattle.’ Owen also illustrates the conditions that the soldiers died in and how they were not given a proper funeral in the cumulation ‘no prayers nor bells,/ nor any voice of mourning.’ Owen painfully reminds us that we have become complacent with the deaths of soldiers, seeing them as a necessary sacrifice during human conflict. Thus, Owen shows us what we have overlooked about war, that is, that it brings endless death and long-lasting grief to the surviving soldiers and the people around
...ttachment or emotion. Again, Heaney repeats the use of a discourse marker, to highlight how vividly he remembers the terrible time “Next morning, I went up into the room”. In contrast to the rest of the poem, Heaney finally writes more personally, beginning with the personal pronoun “I”. He describes his memory with an atmosphere that is soft and peaceful “Snowdrops and Candles soothed the bedside” as opposed to the harsh and angry adjectives previously used such as “stanched” and “crying”. With this, Heaney is becoming more and more intimate with his time alone with his brother’s body, and can finally get peace of mind about the death, but still finding the inevitable sadness one feels with the loss of a loved one “A four foot box, a foot for every year”, indirectly telling the reader how young his brother was, and describing that how unfortunate the death was.
The main event is the death of the child, which has happened previously to the beginning of the poem. This event foreshadows the death of the marriage which will happen after the poem. The husband and wife go through the grief process in many different ways. The wife believes that her husband does not understand her or the grief in which she feels. Online 10, she shouts at him, “You couldn't care!...
He was born on April 13th 1939 and was the eldest of nine children to
..., the content and form has self-deconstructed, resulting in a meaningless reduction/manifestation of repetition. The primary focus of the poem on the death and memory of a man has been sacrificed, leaving only the skeletal membrane of any sort of focus in the poem. The “Dirge” which initially was meant to reflect on the life of the individual has been completely abstracted. The “Dirge” the reader is left with at the end of the poem is one meant for anyone and no one. Just as the internal contradictions in Kenneth Fearing’s poem have eliminated the substantial significance of each isolated concern, the reader is left without not only a resolution, but any particular tangible meaning at all. The form and content of this poem have quite effectively established a powerful modernist statement, ironically contingent on the absence and not the presence of meaning in life.
Beowulf is a poem translated by Seamus Heaney that tells the story of the protagonist named Beowulf. Beowulf was warrior who had the strength of many men. He had grown up and molded himself to fulfill the role of a hero, throughout many occasions. Everytime he had finished a remarkable feat, it was subjected as evidence which was always there showcasing his accomplishments, godsend strength, and loyalty as a leader. Even in the most difficult situations, Beowulf had the courageousness to be side by side with God, letting him be victorious than anyone had ever
These six poems all vary in tone and messages yet all connect to death. Poem at Thirty-Nine explores the feelings the poet had towards her father 's death and looks back on her relationship with him, leading onto how she thinks he would see her now if still alive. Remember requests a lover to remember the speaker when they die, but not so much that it affects their daily life. Do not go gentle into that good night shows the poet lamenting his father 's decreased health and encouraging him to cling to life. Funeral Blues is once more the poet mourning his partner 's death and wants the world to share his grief. Poem shows the poet weighing up an average man 's life, in the end avoiding making a definitive judgement. Death be not proud takes to death directly, saying he has nothing to be proud of, instead being
The poems, “Digging” and “Progressive Insanities of a Pioneer” by Seamus Heaney and Margaret Atwood respectively both revolve around selfhood and identity and the difficulties in attaining the same.
Ever since children are young growing up and becoming an adult is something that children cannot wait for while it is something their parents dread. Seamus Heaney published his poem Follower in 1966 in his book Death of a Naturalist. Follower mostly takes place in the past where Heaney viewed his father as role model and wanted to be like him. Heaney was his father's shadow, but as time progressed his father then in turn became his follower and his shadow. Heaney published another poem titled The Harvest Bow in 1979. In The Harvest Bow Heaney talks about his memories of his father plating and making a bow out of wheat, something he did very often