• Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

Compare the way death is presented in Mid Term Breakand On My First Sonne

Extracts from this document...


Compare the way death is presented in MTB and OMFS Both MTB and OMFS are both poems of similarity as they both speak out the loss of a child. There are however many differences in the two poems. MTB is written by thirty years old, Seamus Heaney looking from the perspective of his younger self when he brother died and explains the gradual understanding of the death. Benjamin Johnson writes differently in OMFS, about the loss of his son, at the time of the passing away. This difference already begins my comparison as the ages of both narrators influences both the poems greatly. MTB has a lack of understanding in the memories as they are remembered by a child; however, OMFS has the more mature tone because it's coming straight from an adult. The two poems may be written about the same topic, but there are many subtle differences contained within the wording and the background. Heaney wrote MTB in 1968, when he was 29, but Johnson wrote OMFS more than 350 years ago, in 1616. ...read more.


It's a very detached sentence which really kicks off the poem with no messing about. Compared with the complexity of Johnson's writing this is extremely bland and almost un-meaningful. Of course it's not un-meaningful at all because as we progress into the poem the language changes becoming more complicated, for example the description of "wearing a poppy bruise" is not as obvious as the first line. The two lines, although they prepare us for similar poems on child deaths, start us in very obvious different ways as MTB does not prepare us for a poem about death. The first line of it sets us up for a poem about a holiday for teenagers or possibly someone going home early as they're ill whereas OMFS immediately plunges into the concept of somebody lost. Both Heaney and Johnson are both from religious backgrounds but both have different styles which are inflicted into their poems. Heaney was from a strict catholic background and Johnson was in a time where everyone was strictly protestant. ...read more.


Both of the poets mention how old the dead children were, but neither of them actually says so. Heaney sneaks it in as he ends the poem "a four foot box, a foot for every year" and Johnson says "seven yeeres tho' wert lent to me" which shows that the age of the children is not important, yet still significant. The description of Heaney's brothers wounds are that he was "wearing a poppy bruise" which implies the wonder of how something so small could cause so much damage, as if he's in disbelief whereas Johnson embraces the death of his son, "Exacted by thy fate". It also gives us the war imagery as poppies are worn as remembrance for the soldiers. I find the most effective poem Heaney's Mid-Term Break because I can understand it more at first glance and I think that it is more likely to draw people in because they don't have to study it in as much detail. However the detail in Johnson's On My First Sonne does stop you and leave you wandering, so I also think this is effective. ?? ?? ?? ?? Abbie Bullock ENGLISH - DR WELLS 5th Form King Reynolds ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Pre and Post 1914 Comparison section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related GCSE Pre and Post 1914 Comparison essays

  1. Trace the history of &amp;quot;the old lie&amp;quot; with particular reference to the poetry of ...

    choirs of wailing shells", the metaphor of a shell being a choir, this helps to paint a vivid picture in ones mind of what it is like on a battlefield and what a soldier must feel like to die on one compared to an ordinary funeral, two different types of

  2. Discuss the way love is depicted in the poems The Lady of Shallot(TM), La ...

    The structure of the poem is 4 stanzas each stanza has 8 lines, this is the same as 'The Lady of Shallot' The poem is in the form of an address, like he is speaking to the lady, personally telling her about how he feels about her.

  1. Compare and contrast the way the childhood is presented in &amp;quot;Piano&amp;quot; by D.H. Lawrence, ...

    It gives us straight away an impression of childishness. Similarly the impression, that the word pair is expressing, continues in the second line, where 'Something Very Wrong' is written in capital letters. This is presented to emphasise the importance of the deed.

  2. Comparison of On my first sonne and mid-term break

    In Line 15, the subject of the poem refers to his brother as "the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses." To illustrate that the brother has past away and the body is just a shell, not the actual brother.

  1. How are attitudes to love and relationships presented in To His Coy Mistress, The ...

    In "The Beggar Woman", King uses direct speech which allows the poem to be more humorous. King keeps the poetic techniques simple in "The Beggar Woman" because as the poem was intended to be read aloud it needed to be simple so people would understand it.

  2. Compare parents in &amp;quot;On My First Sonne&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;The Affliction of Margaret&amp;quot; with two ...

    She conveys love in the same way as the mother in "The Affliction of Margaret" - through worry, as her daughter asks to skate in the dark for one more hour. Similarly, the father in "Follower" also shares a complicated relationship with his son, although not necessarily conflict.

  1. How is death portrayed in the poem White Roses(TM) by Gillian Clarke and Mid ...

    in the college sick bay counting bells knelling classes to a close" The second line also gives a sense of something is going wrong because the word 'knelling' is a type of funeral bell. Stanza 2 of 'White Roses' is about a young boy sleeping indoors and in care.

  2. Discuss how the poets of Piano, Remember, Refugee Mother and Child, Funeral Blues, A ...

    Jonson uses words with positive connotation in this phrase, and the words, ?rest? and ?soft? bring a peaceful and calm image to my mind. When Jonson adds, ?soft?, which emphasises how much he cares for his son, and how much he longs for his son to be happy during his ?afterlife?.

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work