The two poems I am going to compare are Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney

The two poems I am going to compare are Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney

and Death Be Not Proud by John Donne.

The first poem I am going to study is a poem by Seamus Heaney called

Mid-Term Break.

Seamus Heaney was born in County Derry into a farming background. He

attended St. Columb’s College in Derry where he was a border. Heaney

went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The poet’s title Mid-Term Break is somewhat ambiguous as it would

suggest a holiday of some sort, whereas, the poem is actually about

the death of Heaney’s young brother who was killed in a tragic

accident.

The thoughts of death are brought to the fore almost immediately as

the poem begins with a funeral note in line two:

‘…counting bells knelling classes to a close.’

The word ‘knelling’ reminds the poet of the church bells tolling for a

funeral.

In the second stanza we are aware that the tragedy which has occurred

is different as funerals usually did not disturb his father in the way

that this one had.

Heaney recalls the embarrassment he felt when the adults sympathised

with him and paid his deference saying ‘they were sorry for my

trouble.’ This seemed to perplex him as it was a reversal of roles.

There is a sense of alienation in the forth stanza when he heard the

whispers of the neighbours, apart from his mother’s hand in his. His

mother seems to be trying to control her emotions but is clearly

outraged by what has happened.

When Heaney’s brother is returned home, the poet refers to his brother

as a ‘corpse’. This seems to suggest that Heaney is emotionally

detached but it could just be a case of denial.

Heaney injects a note of tranquillity to the poem when he describes

the ‘snowdrops’ and ‘candles’. ...

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... hand, deals with the mystery and fear that sounds

death. Although we will all have to die eventually it is still

something that scares us but Donne tries to alleviate those fears by

telling us that death is just another part of life that will lead us

to eternity.

Heaney seemed to be emotionally detached throughout his poem until the

final line whereas Donne was very passionate about his feeling from

the start.

When I first read both poems I was drawn instantly towards Mid-Term

Break only because of the simplicity of the language. However, after

carefully studying both poems my preference now lies with Death Be Not

Proud. It is an interesting poem that expresses the act of dying as

something natural and pleasant; abandoning the reputation it has for

being frightening or powerful. It expresses that death is not the end

of life, but only the beginning.