Seamus Heany Essay

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Charles Causley and Seamus Heaney are two well-known poets who have written a range of poems on different topics, one of them being school-life. Charles Causley was an English poet, who wrote most of his poetry in the second half of the nineteenth century. He served in the Second World War, and this personal experience often influenced his poetry. This is particularly evident in the poem ‘Timothy Winters.’ One of the major poets of the twentieth century Seamus Heaney also focused on human experiences, including his own in the poem ‘Mid-term Break.’ ‘Timothy Winters’, written in third person is about a young school boy who has led a very unlucky life, whereas ‘Mid-term Break’ written in first person is about a young boy who has come home from boarding school to attend his younger brothers wake (a personal experience of Heaney’s). The title of ‘Mid-term break’ ironically suggests that the poem may be a happy and joyous one about getting away from school but the poem is actually very sad and depressing. Heaney helps us to imagine the situation by homing in our senses by using war and death imagery such as ‘corpse’ and ‘poppy bruise’. Similarly the school life of Timothy Winters is sad and depressing also shown through war imagery, for example in the first verse Timothy is said to have “Ears like bombs.” This language darkens the mood of the poems. making us see or imagine what he is writing about and by making us hear what he has written about. He has done this in mid-term break by using phrases like ‘corpse’ and ‘a poppy bruise’. These phrases give the poem a very dark mood as they relate to war and death. His great knowledge of the war through his personal experience of the Second World War means that he was able to forget human emotions and discuss and write about things in a matter of fact tone. The rhythm of his poetry is very musically

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