Mid-Term Break Essay

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Mid-Term Break There are many forms of self expression in life. People use poetry to convey opinions, feelings, actions, experiences, and memories. Seamus Heaney meaningfully captures the painters vision in “Mid-Term Break” with the use of strong dialogue and imagery to convey emotions as they come alive off the page guiding you through his journey of acceptance. It is unapparent the nature of the poem by the title so Heaney slowly feeds the reader important pieces of the poet’s account to develop an implicit understanding of the unfolding event. Within the first stanza the poet uses specific diction to convey the theme of the poem. While mid term breaks are classically viewed as a type of holiday Heaney describes the potential start of his spent in the “..college sick bay, counting bells knelling classes to a close.” The sick bay connotes a sense of isolation and Heaney identifies the sounds of the bells “knelling” the classes to close, introducing the idea of death. Without the association of the college sick bay and the poets perceptions of the way the bells sounded the reader could not perceive the darkness that can be found in the tone of the poem. In the third line of the tercet he uses diction further by referencing specific time, “At two o’clock our neighbors drove me home.” Normally we don’t recall precise time unless the event taken place is specifically memorable making this a realistic dimension of time and life, a message that cannot be conveyed through a mere snapshot image. Thus Heaney repeats this methodology in line 14 quoting the exact time the ambulance arrives. Instead of the word body Heaney uses the word corpse, describing it as “stanched and bandaged by the nurses.” These words are cold and uneasy, transmitting tone otherwise unattainable without the poets distinct dialogue. In each stanza there is an increased sense of

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