In the poem “Mid-Term Break”, Seamus Heaney narrates about a death of his younger brother, who was four (522). The author, then young boy – eldest child in the family, found that his brother was hit by bus. Neighbors brought the author to his home from school. He saw his brother for the first time in six weeks on the funeral table. My personal impression from the poem is that it shows numbness of the author’s feelings and lack of any emotions. The narration is matter-of-factly and dry. We never find out was that because of his grief or because of lack of closeness to the brother at such young age.
In the poem “Out, out…” Robert Frost tells the story of one young life gone to eternity (521). The situation described is a boy working with the rest of men with the saw in the yard. Those must have been difficult times, since at the sound of supper the boy lost concentration and his arm was cut by the saw. He could not comprehend the reality well and was pleading his sister not to let doctor cut his hand. The boy died from shock. The impression of the poem is quite heavy. The author uses the image of the saw through the whole poem and creates an impression of its significance and inevitability of something bad to happen. The most terrible was to read the boy asking his sister to keep his hand and the final lines about stopping of the heart beat.
In the poem “London”, William Blake describes the funeral or cursed marriage through the depiction of the city dwellers mood and attitude to a specific event (506). One each street, in each face, the author sees condemnation and weakness of spirit and mind. It is hard to comprehend entirely whether it is disapproval, grief or just anger that prevails in the atmosphere. In any case, the poem causes gruesome thoughts of what was going on in the city and why that event had caused so many negative emotions and disapproval from the public perspective. Overall, after reading this poem, my impression is depressing and confused.
Works Cited
Blake, W. “London” Exploring Literature Writing and Arguing about Fiction, Poetry, Drama
and the Essay. Ed. Frank Madden. 5th Ed. Landon, LD: Prentice Hall, 2011. 506.
Print.
Frost, R. “Out, out…” Exploring Literature Writing and Arguing about Fiction, Poetry,
Drama and the Essay. Ed. Frank Madden. 5th Ed. Landon, LD: Prentice Hall, 2011.
521. Print.
Heaney, S. “Mid-Term Break”. Exploring Literature Writing and Arguing about Fiction,
Poetry, Drama and the Essay. Ed. Frank Madden. 5th Ed. Landon, LD: Prentice Hall,
2011. 522. Print.
