Comparing Two Poems The Old Familiar Faces by Charles Lamb and Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney The poems “The Old Familiar Faces” by Charles Lamb and “Mid-Term Break” by Seamus Heaney have both similarities and difference. Both are sad poems about tragedies and want to inspire pity in the reader. Also both of them had a very similar structure. However, the diction is completely different as well as the imagery. Both poems explore sensations of grief, sadness, mortality and having to cope with the disappearance of loved ones.
But in line 3, the author wrote that, “I take my curses back”(line4) and “I am sorry for that evil wish” (line 7). The author feels sorry of parents and wants to apologize to them, but his parents died. He never has the chance to talk to them any more. It shows the tone of regret in this poem. Besides, the tone of the other poem “Seed-Merchant’s Son” is also anger at the beginning.
It represents the burden of the past on the present and Heaney’s subsequent frustration as he ponders on how ‘to conquer [the] weight’ this aspect of Ireland. Montague expresses his frustration at the “lost tradition” of the old Irish culture. He is frustrated by the way that modern society neglects its heritage despite the “shards” of history surrounding it in the form of the landscape and the language. He reflects upon his own experience of growing up in Ireland and compares it with ancient Irish history. Both poets use the Irish past as a stimulus for their poems.
In Anglo-Saxon poetry, fate ultimately is a test of finding home and working to get there. During the 7th century, exile was a very common occurrence, even if it was self imposed. In “The Seafarer” a man was facing exile and demonstrated how difficult it is for a man. ‘How the sea look at me, swept me back and earth is sorrow and fear and pain (21).’ Many Anglo-Saxon poems feature emothins such as, sorrow and fear. Often times when the original writers are sorrowful and fearful they turn to God and ask him to help them along their fate-led journey.
The summer weather becomes a part of the fruit, permitting it to grow to maturity. Yet, a negative connotation is brought out, as the berries seem to have left “stains upon the tongue and lust for…Picking”. Heaney presents to us and enjambment followed by a rejet. He takes us from the ambiguous to the specific. The word “lust” arrests our attention at one
This is particularly evident in his poems; ‘A Prayer for Old Age’ and ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’. 1) Journey of the Magi- Struggle on their journey to Bethlehem. Weather (natural hardship) ‘a cold coming we had of it, just the worst time of the year’ (social hardship) ‘cities hostile and the towns unfriendly’ Lake Isle of Innisfree- similar uneasy reaction to city life, possible alienation as Yeats moved from urban to rural location during his life, repetition of ‘go now, and go’ suggests a ready approach to escape his hardship of ‘pavements grey’. Journey of the Magi presents a depressive state in which the magi feel helpless and hopeless at what their religion is becoming, in contrast to Yeat’s acceptance of his disliking of city life, helping him to understand his own true desire to surround himself with nature and ‘cricket sing[ing]’. 2) Prufrock- different type of hardship - inner hardship and lack of inner acceptance leading to a daily hardship and neurosis in his own life.
War is not depicted as glorious or patriotic but rather as the destroyer of young lives as the realities of the hardships faced are exposed. The unnamed soldier in Disabled is key, as Owen refers to the soldier as “he” we never truly get the sense of whom he is talking about. The anonymity of the soldier suggests that he is representative of all soldiers. The soldier initially a footballer now finds himself in a wheelchair. In the beginning of the poem the soldier starts to reminisce about his past.
In order to emphasise Larkin’s outlooks onto time and it’s passing, one can highlight the similarities and differences between Larkin and Abse’s poetry. In ‘Love Songs In Age’, Larkin illustrates the view that time and it’s passing merely leads to many disappointments. The enjambment he uses amongst all three stanzas, “and stood/relearning” in the first and second and “more/the glare” between the second and third; this implies the suggestion that love cannot stop the passing of time and the instances that happen within it, for example the death of the woman’s husband. During the first stanza, Larkin uses imagery to create a memoir of the music sheets that the woman has found, “one marked in circles”, “and coloured”, suggesting that the joy of life, love and happiness isn’t appreciated until age shows what one has missed during their youth. We can then imply from this suggestion that Larkin feels time is only appreciated during the older years of one’s life.
In All Quiet on The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque paints a vivid picture of what life was like on the front lines in World War One, and the problems that arose in soldiers because of the traumatizing time spent there. In no part of the book are the issues that the soldiers face more evident than when Paul returns back to his home while he is on leave. His time at home is uncomfortable and depressing, for he discovers that the war has taken his youth and his ability to live out the rest of his life normally. When Paul goes back to his hometown on leave, he is miserable and surrounded by ignorant citizens who have no idea what life on the front lines is like. Paul is sacrificing his life daily for these people, yet they cannot sympathize with anything he is going through.
Owen uses simile to compare the young men to old “hags”. “Bent double, like old beggars”, “knock kneed” and “cursed through sludge” set a slow and agonising tone, giving readers an image of the hostile conditions. The verse; “Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood shod. All went lame; all bling; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind” show the basic quality of living in the battlefield being lost. Words like "lame," "blind," "drunk" and "deaf" suggest that the soldiers have been stripped of their bodily integrity before they even enter into battle.