“Mid Term Break” by Seamus Heaney and “The Lesson” by Edward Lucie-Smith.

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In the course of this essay, I will be looking closely at the particular choices of language used by the poets, comparing the ways in which the poems are written, contrasting the feeling of Heaney and Lucie-Smith about the death of a relative and considering which of the poets are more successful in getting their feeling across and why?

These two poems are about two young people facing up to the death of a loved one. The two poems are "Mid Term Break" by Seamus Heaney and "The Lesson" by Edward Lucie-Smith.

The two poems are about two young boys facing up to the death of a beloved family member. In "Mid Term Break" it is Heaney's younger brother who dies in a car accident. In "The Lesson" it is Lucie-Smith who receives news of his fathers death. The poets are merely children when these traumatic events occur. These poems express the feelings that the two boys experience when they lose a loved one at that time.

"The Lesson" begins with Lucie-Smith at school. He is in his headmaster's study. His headmaster enters and he is looking at various objects, which are then distorted when he is told of his fathers death. The objects are distorted because he is crying. He cries, yet he doesn't cry tears of grief. He then cries in shame because he wasn't emotional for his father. He then was crying tears of relief because he was crying for his father. His emotions run wild. He and the headmaster then enter the assembly hall and is greeted by the turning heads of all the pupils. He felt a burst of "pride like a goldfish flashed a sudden fin." He felt pride for a moment and then left. This is use of a simile and alliteration with the repetition of "f".
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"Mid term break" begins at the college sick bay of St.Columbs, Heaney's school. He is sitting inside yet he isn't sick. He is bored and listening to the "counting bells knelling classes to a close." At the end of each class the bells rang and sounded like funeral bells.

This gives us a sense of foreboding as it is associated with the word foreboding, it also may be a warning to say that someone has died. Heaney uses alliteration with the repetition of the "c". Heaney then gets a lift home by some neighbours. When he ...

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