Analysis of 'Mid-Term Break' and 'Follower'.

MY ANALYISIS

Mid-Term Break’ is set in three places, unlike ‘Follower’, which is based in one place. The introduction of ‘Mid-Term Break’ is based in the college sick bay. Heaney is sitting there, waiting for the neighbours to drive him home. This is because he is going to go to his brother, Christopher’s, funeral. Christopher was hit down by a car. The next place Heaney writes about is his house. His father is crying on the porch. He is crying because of the loss of his son in such a tragic accident. The last place Heaney writes about is Christopher’s bedroom. There are snowdrops and candles soothing the bedside. The snowdrops in the room are like tears in shape.

There are many people in ‘Mid-Term Break’. Each of these people has an importance. Heaney is the most important. This is because it is his memory. The neighbours are important because they are the people who drove him home so that he could got to Christopher’s funeral. The old men and Big Jim Evans are equally important in the poem. They show us that the family has a lot of support. He feels embarrassed when the old men stood up to shake his hand. Heaney’s parents are also key factors in the poem. They bring out the emotion of the poem as well as showing that they care for Heaney. This is shown by the quote:

‘My mother held my hand in hers’

The poem begins with him waiting to go home. This is when the reader is wondering what has happened. Line 2, which says:

‘Counting bells knelling classes to a close’

this is an important line because it sets the tone for the poem. The line means that the school bell sounds like a funeral bell to him, this gives the reader a clue as to what has happened.

Line 6 is another important line that comes shortly after this. This is when Jim Evans says:

‘It was a hard blow’

This line shows irony and has a 2 meanings. At the time, the ...

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Line 6 is another important line that comes shortly after this. This is when Jim Evans says:

‘It was a hard blow’

This line shows irony and has a 2 meanings. At the time, the reader thinks this is a greeting, but when we later learn that Christopher was knocked over by a car, the line could also mean that the car hit him hard. The poem then goes on to talk about how others greet him and how he reacts when he sees his brothers for the first time in six weeks. The final line, which says:

‘A four foot box, a foot for every year’

is like a sending off to the life of Christopher. It also shows the waste of such a short life.

‘Follower’ is a poem that is set on the farm where Heaney lived as a child. The poem is about Heaney watching his daddy at work. His daddy is a decent farmer. Throughout the poem, Heaney writes about what his daddy did and how good he was at it.

There are only two people in this poem. They are Seamus Heaney and his daddy. His daddy was an ‘expert’ at what he did. Heaney watched what his father did very carefully and was a careless old fool. This is because he was:

‘Tripping, falling, yapping always’.

The poem shows us that Heaney’s daddy was an expert when it came to his work. It tells us about the skill involved in ploughing and about how Heaney’s daddy worked to such a high level of precision. It also shows what Heaney thinks of his daddy and that when Heaney was younger he wanted to be a farmer, but as he grows older he grows out of it. The poem applies to his childhood and his adulthood. The last stanza, which says:

‘But today it is my father who keeps stumbling behind me, and will not go away’

is significant and has different interpretations. It is significant because it adds to the closeness of the relationship between Heaney and his father because they are still together. It could mean that Heaney’s father is old and is stumbling behind him wherever Heaney goes but it could also mean that Heaney’s father now watches as Heaney works.

The two poems, ‘Mid-Term Break’ and ‘Follower’, can be linked in many ways. The first link that can be made between the poems is that they both include nature. In ‘Mid-Term Break’ the nature is about Christopher’s death and in ‘Follower’ the nature is about the farm. The two types of nature featured in the poem are very different but yet similar. The next link that can be made is that both poems are memories from Heaney’s childhood, although ‘Mid-Term Break’ is a dispirited memory and ‘Follower’ is a more pleasant memory. Adulthood is another link that can be made between the two poems. This is because both poems are of Heaney looking back on his past when he is older. There is also an element of growing up in both poems. In ‘Follower’ the element of growing up is shown when he wants to grow up to be a farmer. In ‘Mid-Term Break’ the element of growing up is that he has to deal with different things as he grows up.

There are also subjects that are dealt with in only one of the poems as well. In ‘Follower’ these are country life and his father. In ‘Mid-Term Break’ they are his family, the community and death.

In conclusion, I have found that ‘Mid-Term Break’ and ‘Follower’ are two similar poems. The topics dealt with in each poem vary but some are alike. Heaney’s life has changed a great deal over the years. An example of this is in ‘Follower’, as a child wants to become a farmer but as he grew older he grew out of this and became a poet which was right descion.