Compare the poems 'Out-Out' and 'Mid-Term Break'

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Compare the poems ‘Out-Out’ and ‘Mid-Term Break’

The Two poems I will be comparing are Out-Out by Robert Frost, and Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney.

Out-Out is the story of a young boy working on a Timber yard who has an accident and dies. The poem describes this as an almost everyday occurrence, and portrays the reactions of the family around him; that is that they carry on as if nothing has happened.

Mid-Term Break approaches death from the other angle.

An adolescent boys younger brother dies in a car accident, and on arriving home he feels he is being viewed in disdain for not being there to protect his sibling. This poem portrays the feeling of the older brother and his emotions before and after the accident.

'Mid-Term Break' by the poet Seamus Heaney is about a personal experience that he when he was younger encountered. It deals with the issues of life and death in a family and also how different people cope.

The title at first suggests that the poem is going to be about a holiday, but as you get into the poem further, you realise that the title has a far deeper and darker meaning...

In the first stanza, we learn that Seamus Heaney is in a college sick bay waiting to be picked up. You get suspicious when he is being picked up his neighbour, which could indicate that something serious has happened.

Time is passing slowly, and Heaney uses alliteration to show this.

"Counting bells knelling classes to a close."

This also makes the reader tense and already so early in the poem, we sense that something is wrong due to the poets word choice of 'knelling'. Knelling is when a church bell rings to signify a funeral. The clues become more apparent as you move through the stanzas, and are very effective in arousing your suspicions.

When Seamus arrives home, he is greeted by his father crying on the porch. A stereotypical male would usually hold back his feelings and Heaney uses parenthesis to show this.

"In the porch i met my father crying

---He had always taken funerals in his stride---

And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow."

Obviously something had caused him great pain, and parenthesis is effective in showing that normally Heaneys father would bottle up his feelings, and be strong for everyone else, taking things in his stride.

Meanwhile in the next verse.

"The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram"

This extract shows that the baby is oblivious to its surroundings and to what is happening. Heaney uses the baby to represent new life and how life goes on no matter what happens.

Heaney uses enjambement to effectively link the stanzas, making them flow continuously, and they almost always have a deeper meaning. For example, in a couple of the stanzas, he uses the word 'hand' to link the verses together. This is a very obvious way of using enjambement but it works really well.

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As Seamus Heaney walks into the room, he talks about how he was embarrassed to see old men standing up and shaking his hand to show their respect. He is then met by his mother who is in such a state of shock and disbelief that she is coughing out angry and tearless sighs, meaning that she cannot come to terms with what has happened. We now start to realise that something has happened which would make a mother and father break down, and suggests that it is a brother or sister of the poets.

Later on in the poem, ...

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