Also, both of these poems suggest that the loss of life has an impact on the world and the environment, for example, if the ploughman's mate had not died in France,
“For it would have been
Another world' 'Ay, and a better...”
In 'Interruption to a journey', the hare's death momentarily made the location “the most important place there was”. For both poems, death means change.
However, the poems do have some differing features. In 'As the Team's headbrass flashed out' presents the loss of life in France through narrative, a conversation between the ploughman and the unidentified man, and in 'Interruption to a journey' the loss of life is expressed through description.
In 'As the Team's headbrass flashed out', the poet describes the deaths as remote to the environment the poem describes and 'Interruption' has tied the hare to the location:
“It was left in that landscape.”
That is the part of the road where the hare was hit.
Both poems emphasize how important the ability to move is important to the environment. 'As the Team's' describes the “acceptability/price of going to war:
“I could spare an arm. I shouldn't want to lose
A leg...”
Likewise the death of the hare meant it would no longer be moving:
“And a bow broken forever
That had shot itself through so many
Darkness and cornfields.”
This now won't happen again, therefore showing the termination or 'loss' of something that used to be.
In Thomas' poem, we see a connection between the tree falling in the blizzard with the death of the friend in France as he died during the “very night of the blizzard.”
In “Interruption” the poem treats the hare's death as a singular event, one that took place because of a simple coincidence and had no link to other events, other than having an effect on the people who hit the hare.
Maccaig describes the death of the hare almost matter of factly. It was literally a interruption to a journey, a relatively and seemingly insignificant event. Thomas describes the losses as having a major impact; “Many lost?” “Only two teams work on the farm this year.”
In conclusion, although both poems share the feeling of loss and permanent change, the way they are brought upon and the effects they have are very different.
