Midterm Break: Explain how the poet has used language to create mood and atmosphere in one poem you have studied.

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Mid-term Break

Essay Question: Explain how the poet has used language to create mood and atmosphere in one poem you have studied.

"Mid-term Break" is an autobiographical poem by Seamus Heaney about the death of a schoolboy's four-year old brother and the reactions and atmosphere surrounding it. Heaney uses plain matter of fact language to create mood and atmosphere for the poem. The use of 'sounds' is significantly used by Heaney to convey words of condolence.

The heading of the poem - "Mid-term Break" is ironic. The reader anticipates a joyful holiday break, nevertheless, Heaney has chosen these words carefully and deliberately to shock the reader as they learn that this poem is not actually about a holiday, but in fact about the death of an infant. The subtle and ambiguous title ironically sums up what the poem is about - a "break" in the life of a schoolboy's younger brother. The mood and atmosphere is subtly created within the title of the poem. A joyous mood is set to start, the atmosphere is inevitably contradicted within stanzas two to five and consequently, we are mislead to death, the opposite of what we first anticipated.
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In the first stanza, Heaney chooses neutral words to prepare the reader for the shock of death. Words such as "Morning," "counting," and "knelling" gives the stanza a slow beat which has the effect of time passing slowly. This is an important language technique because it creates mood and atmosphere. The word "knelling" has association with a funeral and creates a portentous feel to the reader. By assonating long-vowel sounds, the poet has provided the reader with an atmosphere of slowness. Heaney has set this atmosphere of slowness at the start of the poem because he wants to ...

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