Attitudes toward Death in “Mid-Term Break” and “My First Son” Emma Goldfield 11th Grade

The piece “My First Son”, was written by Ben Johnson and the poem “Mid-Term Break” was written by Seamus Heaney. Both poems revolve around the death of a loved one. The directed audience of both these poems, are people who have lost someone close to them. Throughout the first half of the poem, Johnson grieves after the death of his seven-year-old son, Ben Johnson, however towards the end he begins to unexpectedly envy his son. Heaney’s poem describes the effects of the death of his infant brother of which he learns when he returns from school following the tragedy.

Both Johnson and Heaney follow the popular meter, iambic pentameter as in every line an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable, for example line 12, “As what he loves may never like too much” and in Heaney’s poem “Counting bells knelling classes to a class” with the exception of line 22 as this does not follow the structure. An obvious similarity is that, neither Johnson nor Heaney give away the main storyline of their poem in the title. The title “Mid-Term Break” could lead the reader to believe that the poem is about a holiday, yet it revolves around something which is quite the opposite of leisurely or joyous. Johnson’s poem could mislead the...