The Way Poets Present Ideas of Death and Loss in Mid-Term Break, On the Train, On My First Sonne and The Affliction of Margaret

The Way Poets Present Ideas of Death and Loss in Mid-Term Break, On the Train, On My First Sonne and The Affliction of Margaret

Works Cited Missing

In the poems 'Mid-Term Break' by Seamus Heaney, 'On The Train' by

Gillian Clarke, 'On My First Sonne' by Ben Jonson and 'The Affliction

of Margaret' by William Wordsworth, all of the poets convey a loss or

death, experienced by either the poet themselves, or other people too.

In 'Mid-Term Break', Seamus Heaney experiences the loss of his younger

brother (he is four years old: 'a four foot coffin, a foot for every

year'). In 'On The Train', Gillian Clarke writes about the Paddington

rail crash, on 5th October 1999 in which 31 people were killed and

over 500 injured. In 'On My First Sonne', Ben Jonson writes about the

death of his son, who died as a result of the plague on his 7th

birthday in 1603. In 'The Affliction of Margaret' Wordsworth writes

about a woman in despair because she does not know where her son is.

In Mid-Term Break, Heaney writes about the death of his younger

brother. It is a realistic poem as it represents a true event that has

actually happened in Heaney's life. The title 'Mid-Term Break'

suggests a period of absentness from school, and it is, because of the

death of his younger brother. He has to wait in the College Sick Bay,

where he is later picked up by his neighbours; and he is unaware of

the death, all he knows is that there has been an accident. Heaney

immediately creates a sombre tone: 'Counting bells knelling classes to

a close'. Heaney uses 'knelling' here instead of 'ringing' and this

suggests a death; but also immediately sets the poem in a sombre tone.

Heaney...

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... The four poems convey death and loss, or both. 'Mid-Term Break' by

Seamus Heaney is about the death of Heaney's four year old brother,

and the loss of the entire family. Heaney uses sombre language to set

the poem in a sombre tone, and to suggest a feeling of loss and death.

In 'On The Train' by Gillian Clarke, Clarke writes about The

Paddington Rail Crash on 5th October 1999 and the extreme loss felt by

the families of those who perished. In 'On My First Sonne', a short

poem of love and grief, the author, Ben Jonson, writes about how he

feels love and grief after the death of his seven year old son. In

'The Affliction of Margaret' by William Wordsworth, Wordsworth writes

about a woman who does not know where her son is, and is unsure if he

is dead, in a cell or dungeon, drowned in a sunken ship or lost in a

desert.