Comparative Study of the poetry of Seamus Heaney.

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        Year Ten Coursework-Comparative Study of the poetry of Seamus Heaney

        There is a strong connection between the three poems I have been studying, ‘Digging’, ‘The Early Purges and ‘Mid-term Break’, the connection is that they are all related to childhood and past memories. All of these poems were written by Seamus Heaney, a famous poet who focused more on writing his poems about past experiences and the relationship he shared with his family. The first poem ‘Digging’ was written in admiration of Heaney’s father. A poem about a man digging for peat and realising that he no longer wanted to be a farmer, but to fulfil his ambition at being a poet. The second poem ‘The Early Purges’ is quite a graphical piece of writing, based on Heaney’s personal experiences living on a farm as a child, witnessing disturbing deaths of animals at only six years old. The third poem ‘Mid-term Break’ is a dispirited memory about Heaney’s brother (Christopher), who died in a car accident at only four years old. In this poem Heaney is starting to grow up learning about the changes that happen in life.

        Seamus Heaney was brought up living on a farm, and most of his poems are about his family, his childhood or farm life. Evidence of this is in ‘Mid-term Break’ and ‘The Early Purges’ they both start with “I”, this tells us that they are to do with personal experiences and now the reader becomes more involved in the poem. Although ‘Digging’ does not start with “I” the second letter is “my”, so again we know the poem is about the poet (Seamus Heaney).

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        In ‘Mid-term Break the theme is not set straight away, it begins with Heaney sitting in the sick bay waiting to be taken home, but in the first stanza the reader does not yet know why. I get the impression that Heaney is bored and a little agitated because he is “counting bells”, this slows the poem down. He must have been waiting there a long time if he was counting the clock, maybe he did this to take his mind of something, this makes us question why he is there. In this poem Heaney is growing up and starting ...

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