The main similarity between the two poems is the fact that both have a common subject, which is death. But each poem interprets death in a different way. Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Mid-Tern Break’ looks at death as a tragic, sad and angry time: ‘I met my farther crying’ this shows it must be an especially sad time because it is unusual for grown men to cry. But ‘Death Be Not Proud’ is about how death does not have any power over man kind. Donne personalises death, telling him ‘Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, Kings, and desperate men.’ Death does not decide who dies, and has to rely on other factors, like fate, chance, kings (who when the poem was written could sentence people to death) and desperate men meaning murderers. Donne feels that death has no power, because he has a belief in god so his life will be eternal. So death is simply a step on the way to god, and has no importance in itself as the title suggests.
One of the most visible differences between the two poems is the form. ‘Death Be Not Proud’ is in the form of a sonnet with the first eight lines being about why death had no reason to be proud, and the last six lines about how little power death has over people. I sonnet is typically used for a love poems, this is appropriate for this poem because its about Donne’s love for god and through this love the defeat of death. But ‘Mid-Term Break’ by Seamus Heaney does not use a recognised form. It does not rhyme because it is a serious matter not a cheerful happy subject, except for the last too lines which rhyme to emphasise the last line. Also it has 7 verses of 3 lines but the last line is its own verse again to emphasise the last line. This is because it’s the most powerful line in the whole poem, ‘a foot for every year’ which leaves us feeling the same emotions as Heaney felt.
The picture of death that each poet describes is totally different. Seamus Heaney describes the image of death in ‘Mid-Term Break’ as someone having pale skin and wounds ‘Paler now, Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,’ so this shows us that he was injured before death and the use of ‘a poppy bruise’ this could have been used to create a shocking contrast between death and a flower, or to show death as a natural thing. But in ‘Death Be Not Proud’ by John, death is described as a pleasurable experience, ‘From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow.’ Sleeping and resting are virtually the same as death, so if we enjoy sleep and resting, we’ll love death.
In ‘Mid-Term Break’ by Seamus Heaney death is described as something that happens to you. But in John Donne’s poem ‘Death Be Not Proud’ death is personified ‘nor yet canst thou kill mee.’ This is to shrink the hugeness of death down into one body, to make it a less frightening thing to think about.