Comparing Mid-Term Break with Digging

Authors Avatar

English Anthology Work                Jordan Burgess 10P2

Comparing Digging, Mid-Term Break and Catrin

Like most of Seamus Heaney and Gillian Clarke Poems Mid-Term Break, Digging (both by Heaney) and Catrin (Clarke) are about family relations. Heaney has written these two poems when he was an adult, remembering back about his family. They are both written in first person (in different ways though) and are about the relationships between members of his family and him.  They all seem somewhat autobiographical. Clarke's poem Catrin is her looking back at the past when she was giving birth to her daughter Catrin and later on when Catrin is a teenager with their struggle "to become two" throughout. Mid-Term break is written in the past, Digging in the present with the writer thinking of the past and Catrin is written about times past and present. They all give the reader an idea of what happened, but in different ways and using different poetic devices.

In Digging, Heaney shows that he regrets that he didn't to continue the potato farming tradition that his fathers did before him because he says "But I have no spade to follow them". This feeling of regret is carried throughout the poem, and is shown in the nostalgic way Heaney writes "By God, the old man could handle a spade". It shows that he feels guilty from breaking away from the family tradition of farming, but by the end of the poem, he realises that what writing is just as legitimate a profession. He says (on lines 29-31 "Between my finger...dig with it", which shows he has realized the power of what he does, and has pride in it. He no longer feels guilty.

In Mid -Term Break, you can sense that Heaney felt rather detached and isolated because of the way he wrote "and I was embarrassed". He writes in a sort of third person - saying what happened to him and this really adds to the feeling of isolation. He doesn't directly mention any feelings, other than embarrassment, which leaves the reader guessing what he's feeling. It makes you feel like he is overcome with shock- so surprised, he can't feel anything. However, at the end of the poem, when he goes to see his brother, this sense of isolation goes away. The writing becomes more personal and human, noticing the flowers and candle by the bed. Its like the detachment that was felt earlier has gone away, and Heaney starts to think about his little brother's life. This makes the reader even more surprised by the last line - the revelation that the brother was four.

Join now!

Catrin continues the theme of isolation, displaying the need for the two of them to become separate with the mentioning of a red rope of love, which draws them together. In the first stanza, this is literal- the umbilical cord holds mother and child together, and they are fighting against it to be free. In the second stanza it is metaphorical- the red rope of love is the love between the mother and daughter, and even though they are annoyed with each other they cannot break it. This shows that the bond formed at birth is still strong, and ...

This is a preview of the whole essay