Seamus Heaney : Mid-Term Break And Personal Helicon Essay, Research Paper
`For this piece of coursework on Seamus Heaney, I
will be choosing two poems Mid-Term Break and Personal Helicon, and I’ll be
writing a commentary on each of them.?
Firstly I will be writing an introduction about Seamus Heaney, which
will include his poems and on his educational background and then on what types
of poems he writes.? I will then write
about each of the poems Mid-Term Break, and Personal Helicon, which are
similar, as they’re both about his child hood. Finally I’ll write a final
conclusion about Seamus Heaney, which will show how effective his poems are.Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet who was born in April
1939 and still lives today.? Seamus
Heaney was a very bright boy who as a country boy attended local primary
schools and colleges to gain scholarships at Colleges. At college Heaney was
taught Latin and Irish and moved on to Queens University in Belfast.? In the course of his career Seamus Heaney
has always contributed to the promotions of artistic and educational causes both
in Ireland and abroad.? In recent years
Seamus Heaney has been the recipient of several honorary degrees, he’s a member
of the Aosdana (Irish academy of artist and writers), and a foreign member of
the American Academy of arts and letters.Mid-Term Break is an incredibly sad
poem.? Mid term break is basically about
a little boy, who was actually Seamus Heaney’s brother, who was sadly killed by
a speeding car.? Seamus Heaney describes
in the poem of what he did that day when he’s younger brother was killed. The stanza begins with the "morning" in
line one, but it is two o’clock in line three, showing that hours have passed
in waiting. The second stanza begins with the image of Heaney’s
father "crying".? Heaney’s father
appears to be a strong man of few words, so having him crying causes a powerful
emotion in the reader.? Heaney skilfully
takes the reader with him as he enters the house (showing he was scared)
through the porch as we meet his father; "Big Jim Evans"; the baby in
its pram; the old men gathered in the room; and finally Heaney’s mother
coughing out "angry tearless sighs", which show that she was hiding
her true emotions.? The little brother
of Seamus Heaney was hit on his head, as it says the ambulance arrived at 10
o’clock, with the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses. We learn in the sixth stanza that Heaney hadn’t seen
his brother for six weeks having been "away at school", which
suggests he went to a boarding school.?
The words "paler now", hang at the end of the stanza on line
18, causing a sad pause before the sentence continues and describes how little
changed in appearance from when the boy was alive and dead, the big difference
is his paler colour and his "poppy bruise". The final line stands out of the rest of the
poem.? Almost every word is special so
that the reader must take in the line’s message and the shock and deep grief
that the family must have felt.? There
is shock for the reader reading it for the first time also, when they discover
who has died and that he was only four years old. The little four-year-old
child who suffered a hard hit to the head from a speeding car was well written
in the poem.? The mood is set almost
immediately in the second line: Counting bells knelling classes to a close. I
noticed how Heaney uses an alteration to the funereal sound of the bells and
the feeling of time dragging.Personal
Helicon is
basically about childhood and discovery.?
This poem is well written, which cleverly makes us think so that we may
see ourselves better as a species.? Looking at the first and last stanzas, I can see
opposing points of view. The first line begins ‘As a child’ and in the last
line Heaney says that these activities are now ‘beneath all adult dignity’. He
also begins by describing the very real echoes found in wells, but the last
line "I rhyme to see myself, to set the darkness echoing", which is
about echoes of a more metaphorical kind.?
The poem itself seems to be about the journey from childhood to
adulthood that he has taken. ?This means
he has moved away from the poetry he wrote when he was younger to a more mature
kind when he became older. I find some lines in the poem wild and disgusting,
words such as "fructified", fungus", "dank" which were
said earlier in the poem, and later Heaney speaks of "a clean new
music", reflecting his life as he has become more mature.? Looking at the two poems Mid-Term Break and Personal
Helicon I have learnt that Seamus Heaney’s poems can be very meaningful and in
depth.? You could have so many ideas of
what the poem is suggesting which makes you think what’s happening and what the
poem is all about.? Looking at the poem Mid-Term Break I thought it was
very well written.? The poem builds up
lots of tension towards the final stanza, which makes you wonder what’s going
to happen, which makes it highly exciting.?
The highlight of this poem would probably have to be the way it was
written as it builds up tension, and also makes people feel sympathies for the
little four-year-old boy who was killed as he looked like he was sleeping in
the coffin as he slept in his cot. In Personal Helicon, Seamus Heaney writes about
childhood and discovery, which is very hard to understand.? He creates a mirror with his rhymes.? In a way, archaeology is like
"hands-on" poetry.? Its
purpose is to "pry into roots" of humanity, "to set the darkness
echoing" so that we may see ourselves better as a species.