Heaney describes the drowned kittens as being ‘like wet gloves’. This implies that the kittens have lost life and only seem like inanimate objects; similar to gloves, in particular, because of their texture and their four legs (like fingers of a glove) bear resemblance to wet gloves.
Heaney develops a morbid curiosity and becomes fascinated by the dead kittens as the entire forth stanza illustrates as he is simultaneously repelled and attracted to the rotting carcasses of the drowned kittens.
As he matures, Heaney begins to accept the necessity for killing animals when living on a farm as he gradually assumes the mentality of Dan Taggart, abandoning the compassion he once had for the deaths of all animals, now contemptuously referring to them as ‘shrill’, shrugging off his sympathy.
The title “The Early Purges” suggests that Heaney’s mind is cleansed of any childish misconceptions that he used to have; Heaney initially sees killing animals as being morally wrong and savage but he soon learns that on a well run farm it is an essential act.
“Mid-Term Break” also focuses on the topic of death, only this occasion it is a lot more personal as the subject of this poem is Heaney’s younger brother.
The title is thought of as meaning a holiday, or a break from school. For Heaney this is partially true but the title also has meaning towards the death of his younger brother whose life; term, has been broken, midway through and hence; “Mid-Term Break”.
The poem opens ‘I sat all morning in the college sick bay.’ Upon hearing the news concerning the death of his brother, Heaney is sent to the sick bay for the purpose of isolation and to adjust to the shock of the news.
The sentence, ‘Counting bells knelling to a close’, has several hidden references; ‘to knell’ means ‘to ring a bell slowly’ usually performed in the event of a funeral or a disaster, for example, and also as ‘an indication of the end’. ‘To a close’ is also incorporated in the same way; all have reference to the death of Heaney’s brother.
In the second stanza Jim Evans says, ‘”It was a hard blow”’. This has a double meaning; it was a hard blow to the family, but also describes the way in which the young boy was killed.
In the forth stanza, Heaney again uses sibilance in order to attract the reader’s attention to the situation; ‘Whispers in formed strangers I was the eldest’.
The second, third and forth stanza all convey disorientation. Because of the tragedy nothing is as normal; everything is in disarray.
In the wake of the young boy’s death, his mother ‘coughed out angry tearless sighs,’ showing that she is angry at the injustice and the unfairness that death should come to such a small and young child, and at the same she has cried so much over the bereavement that she has no tears left to shed.
‘Snowdrops and candles’ which ‘soothe the bedside’ in the forth stanza are significant as both are associated with death. Snowdrops epitomize the theme of this poem as snowdrops bloom early in the year and perish very soon after. Candles convey the same idea as their light is soon spent. Both hold relevance to the death of Heaney’s younger brother.
In the final stanza Heaney describes the bruise on his brother’s left temple as being like a ‘poppy’. Poppies are also relative to the theme of death as they are symbolic of al the killings that occurred during World War I. Poppies are also blood-red in colour which is suggestive of how Heaney’s brother was killed.
Heaney ends the poem with, ‘A four foot box, a foot for every year.’ This final verse indicates that Heaney’s younger brother was only four years old when he died. The line expresses the tragic synonym starkly and without sentimentality.
A comparative statement between “Mid-Term Break” and “The Early Purges” is that Heaney has little time to come to terms with the death of his younger brother whereas he has supplementary time when growing up on the farm and thus becomes desensitised to the killings.
Heaney’s third poem, “At a Potato Digging”, again deals with the theme of death, but on a much larger scale, this time on the near death of an entire nation.
In the first stanza Heaney uses enjambment in order to forego the actions taking place;
‘…Stoop to fill
Wicker creels…’
Often, metaphors are used to illustrate everyone’s fear of what happened in the past; ‘Fingers go dead in the cold,’ whereas in the past people themselves would have died.
A further example of enjambment appears in the second stanza;
‘Pairs keep breaking ragged ranks to fetch
A full creel to the pit.’
Heaney also compares past and present; a constant reminder to everyone of what happened and that it may occur again without warning.
In the third stanza, Heaney compares the potato field to the sea and the abundance of potatoes to the fish in the sea. Heaney uses this comparison in order to express the point that both land and sea are in abundance, both are major forces and equally untrustworthy. In contrast, man has little significance and can be shown his true place on Earth by either of these forces. Earthquakes and tidal waves are examples of the deadly power that land and sea are capable of exerting to prove their superiority.
Heaney makes use of religious terms throughout his poem to show the faith that the potato diggers invest into their God in the hope of reaping a good harvest.
The second part of the poem targets the potatoes themselves. Heaney often associates them with the Earth which acts as a metaphor for their mother; ‘Knots of potatoes (a clean birth).’ In this sentence, Heaney compares the potatoes to people implying that the potatoes are like embryos growing in the mother’s womb which is metaphorical for the Earth.
The centre of attention in part III of the poem is, initially, those who perished due to the previous potato famine. In the second line Heaney employs the word higgledy to describe the appearance of skeletons. Higgledy was also used earlier in the poem to explain the formation of the potato diggers. The significance of using the same word twice in their respective contexts is to compare the present with the past. Heaney utilises a superstitious reference in the second stanza of part III; ‘Three days in the long clay pit.’ The number three is associated with betrayal and treachery, in this case, by the Earth.
‘Millions rotted along with it.’ This sentence is primarily interpreted as meaning the potatoes but the reader soon realises the hidden reference to the millions who suffered also.
In the forth stanza, Heaney attempts to convey the levels that the potato diggers would stoop to in desperation for receiving a good harvest; ‘A people hungering from birth, grubbing, like plants, in the Earth.’ This was demeaning and animalistic behaviour which showed no dignity at all and degraded them as people.
As the poem comes to a close, Heaney again presents a contrast between past and present; ‘Dead-beat, they flop down in the ditch and take their fill, thankfully breaking timeless fasts.’ This entails that in the present the potato diggers collapse from exhaustion, but in the past they would have fallen down dead.
