In 'Mid-Term Break, Heaney writes about death and loss. Compare the way Clarke and the Pre 1914 poets write about death.

‘Mid-Term Break’ is about death and loss, but in another way compared to ‘the field Mouse’. It is more personal. Mid-Term Break is about a boy’s brother who died while the boy was away in school. The poem is very personal because it shows the boy’s feelings. At first the boy has no idea that his brother has died. In the first stanza, it describes that the boy is at school waiting for the day to be over so that he could go home. It says, ‘knelling’. In another words, this means when somebody dies bells ring whenever there is death. This is a good resemblance to the meaning of the poem. But the boy still doesn’t know that his brother is dead. In the second stanza, Seamus Heaney mentions that the boys’ father is crying and the word ‘funerals’ is mentioned. This is when the reader then realises that somebody has died in the poem. In the third stanza, the boy shows that he is confused. ‘When I came in, and I was embarrassed’. The reason why he was embarrassed was because he didn’t have a clue what was happening. The after that it says, ‘old men standing up to shake my hand’. The boy feels ashamed because he feels that older people are showing him respect, when normally younger people are meant to show respect to older people. The boy is tensed up at this moment and doesn’t know what to do. In the forth stanza, the old men says to the boy, ‘sorry for my trouble’. In reality, you’re not allowed to say or talk about death because it ill upset the other person. So the older men are trying not to mention death to the young boy, as it is rude. At the end of stanza 4, the boy’s mother is being mention and introduced. In stanza 5, it describes his mother’s actions as, ‘angry tearless sighs’. This shows that she is shocked, angry and grieved about the whole situation. The line after that, the subject changes about people’s feelings. It goes and mentions about the time and ambulance straight away. ‘At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived’. This has no lack of emotion. The poet is suggesting that time is a dominant image. After that ‘lack of emotion’ stanza, as I would call it, the atmosphere changes totally on the next stanza. In stanza 6, it talks about the ‘next morning’ to make it look nice. ‘Snowdrops’. This quote is representing flowers drooping, which represents tears. ‘First time in six week.’ This is declaring that this is the first funeral that the boy is experiencing in his life. In the last stanza, the boy thinks to himself about his brother, ‘no gaudy scars’. This is suggesting that he expected to see his own brother in more pain bruises and cuts. The way that Seamus Heaney uses his language in this poem is by putting three lines in each stanza. He does this because he uses big sentences, so by putting three lines in each stanza it shortens it so that it is easier for the reader to understand it. I think that this poem is very sad and depressing. I can feel the pain of a child’s death through somebody else’s own eyes and interpretation. The language is controlled and is unemotional.

‘The Man he killed’ is about death and loss because it is about a soldier reflecting a man that he had killed in a battle. The man knows that what he did was wrong but he had to do it because that was his job. The beginning of the first verse is direct address because it is as if someone is speaking. Thomas Hardy, the person who wrote this poem used elegy, this is when somebody writes about someone who has just died. The second verse is talking about what happened when he killed the other guy. It describes in detail what happened. The following quotes that I picked out of verse 2 describe what happened; ‘Staring face to face’ and ‘killed him in his place’. Moving on to the next verse, the man explains why he killed the other man. ‘Because he was my foe’, this was why he killed the other guy because he was his enemy. Verse 2 and 3 are settings in the war. In verse 4, he reasons why he killed his ‘enemy’. He hesitates and pauses when he speaks and then says, ‘’was out of work’. This is definitely suggesting that he didn’t have a job, and killing other people was his only option to survive and save his country or family. The last verse discusses about fate against humanity. The way that Thomas Hardy uses his language is by keeping the poem formal. He did this by using short sentences. Also an AbAb rhyming structure is used. The man who has killed his ‘enemy’ has struggled against fate for people’s lives, he was forced into doing it and humanity go in the way for him. I didn’t particularly enjoyed reading this poem. This is because it is very ironic and sad. Also, it is a very disappointing poem.

‘On my first sonne’ is about a father who has lost his son. From the title, the reader feels that the poem is going to be depressing and lamenting straight away. When I say lamenting, I mean sad and sorrowful. The poem starts of with ‘Farewell’, this suggests that the poem and style of it is an elegy. Ben Jonson writes the poem as if he is talking to his son. He mentions ‘right hand’, this means calling son. In Christianity, the Son is Jesus. On the next line Ben says, ‘My sinne’. This was the reason why his son died and it is also a religious word. At the end of the second line, the father shows intense emotions, ‘hope of thee, lov’d boy’. The whole of the next line means that the son was here with the father for seven years, and now it is with God and is safe. On the fifth line, the fathers says, ‘I loose all father. This shows that the father knows that the son is in heaven with God. On line 8, the father also says, ‘no other miserie, yet age?’ He is saying that his son doesn’t need to suffer at an old age, and doesn’t even need to go through being old. Ben’s name is mentioned on line 10 and it says, ‘best piece of poetrie’. He is saying that his son is the best thing he has ever done. The last two lines of the poem explains that he doesn’t want to be hurt ever again in such a horrible way. The way Ben Jonson uses his language is by using elegy, which I have mentioned before. I really did enjoy reading this poem because it was sweet of the father thinking about his son that much. The poem was sad, but that was because the father did lose his son, especially at such a young age.

If you look and compare each of the four poems, then you will notice that there is a huge difference. The field Mouse is about man destroying nature. Mid-Term Break is about emotions and feelings. The Man he killed is about guilty conscience. On my Sonne is about God and regret. The similarity of each poem when combined together is that all poems experience death and loss. The field mouse is angry at the fact that the mouse has died. Mid-Term Break upset, lost and angry about the fact that his brother has died. The Man he killed regrets killing his enemy and knows that he has lost fate. On my Sonne is very upsetting that the father misses his son, and wishes that he were still alive.