Essay #2 Seamus Heany "Mid-term Break" "Mid-Term Break" is about a boy who explains his experience, when a close member of his family dies. ... When I first saw the title I was not expecting it to be about a funeral because a lot of people relate to mid-term break as being a good thing. ... It indicates a break, but the poem is nothing about that. ... The family member that died was a brother or sister to the boy that the author is talking about. ... The title of the poem is "Mid-Term Break" and, as I have said before, this title does not make you think right away that it is about the death o...

• Word Count: 1950
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

The boy replies by telling the narrator that hey have gone to the church to pray. The remaining three stanzas are told from the point of view of the boy. ... The boy appears to be a dark mysterious figure on a white pure background. It helps raise the question "why is this young boy out here all alone?" ... At the beginning of the poem the narrator talks of how the young boy is crying, but in the second stanza the boy talks about how he is happy. ...

• Word Count: 364
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

The boy runs into each occurring event, meeting people that are dealing with the tragic lost, and then realizing what everything is really about the death of his brother. Each stanza has its importance towards the poem and to the boy. Throughout the poem, the boy experiences how different aged people act towards death, which seems to help the boy realize that death is a tragic event. ... Then, the boy runs into the baby who is laughing. ... The boy doesn't see his brother until the next morning. ...

• Word Count: 564
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

In the poem "The Lamb" by William Blake, Blake writes about a boy talking to a little lamb and the boy is asking the lamb question about who made the lamb. ... In the first stanza Blake writes about the Dionysian aspect of the duality. The little boy asks the natural lamb if he knows who made the lamb "Little lamb who made thee? ... The boy tells the natural lamb of another lamb "For he called himself a Lamb;" The boy also gives chartaristics of this supernatural lamb which relate closely to the characteristic of the natural lamb given in stanza one. ... The boy tells the natural lamb that th...

• Word Count: 553
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Surely he wouldn't recall the surgery years later, but what about the psychic scars? ... However, their worries and concerns are restated when they ask about the "psychic scars". ... The boy is overjoyed by the "two cars" he received. ... The boy literally thinks he sees two baby sisters. ... The boy shouted "Victory" "when he went to pee". ...

• Word Count: 888
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The girl in "The Seduction" goes to a friend's party and meets a boy. ... We find out at the end of both poems that the girls are looked down upon and shamed by the neighbors or local people, whereas we do not hear about the Lord or boy being disgraced. ... Both girls become pregnant because of the Lord and the boy. ... The narrator in "The Seduction" seems extremely distraught about her pregnancy. ... The narrator is obviously extremely distressed about her situation; the reader is made to believe that she has not yet told her parents or even the boy of the pregnancy. ...

• Word Count: 1725
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

The adult narrator presents happy memories about past when his father was alive. ... The boy dancing with his father who spins him around making a mass in the kitchen which "make a small boy dizzy;" On the other hand reader can confuse dance with real meaning which is the beating of the child. ... The reader is missleaded by the title expecting to find a poem about loving father. ... Narrator described that a small boy was afraid of his father. ... The boy respected his father and he knew that his behavior is normal. ...

• Word Count: 564
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Not long after that incident he/or she sees a boy starring straight at them as they are coming into town. ... His experience with the young boy starring at him will always be with him, no matter how hard he tries to forget it. Being that the boy/or girl was so young to have experience this, it will give them a new outlook on life and how some people can be ignorant. ... "Incident" was written about the issue of racism, one that is world wide so anyone who picked this poem up to read could understand it. ... While arriving he sees another young boy about the same age and size as him, and de...

• Word Count: 676
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

A typical 1940's country family's evening Traveling back in time, about 60 years ago, everything was about family union. ... "The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy- (1-2): This passage leads the reader to an incorrect idea of a drunk father getting home; but the reality is that it just shows a typical farmer father drinking whiskey, which is a very common thing in cold places, and fatally will give a strong alcoholic breath for whoever drinks it, no matter how much. ... That could explain what "At every step you missed My right ear scraped a buckle- (11-12) ...

• Word Count: 540
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

In the poems "Digging," by Seamus Heaney and "Those Winter Sundays," by Robert Hayden, both write about their father in reflective poems about childhood. ... Robert Hayden writes about when he was a young boy watching his father go to work every day.  ... When Seamus Heaney also writes about his father, in the poem "Digging," he speaks about his fathers work. ... The boy unable to appreciate what his father did day to day. ... Seamus Heaney was a young boy who grew up working along side his father on the farm. ...

• Word Count: 816
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The scene portrays a pleasant memory of a father and son roughhousing before the boy's bedtime. ... The title of the poem reveals Roethke's intention to show the boy's love for his father by using the comfortable word papa instead of the formal father. ... In lines 12-14, since his father is drunk, he misses a couple of steps during their waltz, the buckle scraped his son right ear, which Roethke shows in the first stanza that waltz is not easy for boy. ... The father also cares about his son safety by hold his wrist instead of his hands....

• Word Count: 612
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Outline John Greenleaf Whittier's "Snow-Bound," A Little Boy Remembers Thesis Statement: John Greenleaf Whittier's poem "Snow-Bound" is a nostalgic poem about family life on the farm. ... In the beginning his poetry was about working on the farm. ... He wrote about being a boy, going to school, and beautiful spring days. ... It is a poem about rural life (Leary 70). ... -Myerson- Snow-Bound, a poem full of a little boy's memories, made Whittier well-known by many. ...

• Word Count: 1075
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The plot of The Catcher in the Rye is about Holden living his life, the reader takes a look at the insight behind all the things Holden does and why he does them. ... The first verse of "The Boxer" is this : "I am just a poor boy, though my story's seldom told, /I have squandered my resistance /For a pocket full of mumbles, /Such are promises, /All lies and jest /Still, a man hears what he wants to hear, /And disregards the rest." ... He also gives his opinion twice in the book about how he feels people don't relay messages because they don't really care. In the second verse o...

• Word Count: 555
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

In "The Chimney Sweeper" from Songs of Innocence, the narrator, a little boy who is in his innocence and youth, is unaware of how difficult his life is. ... The boy's belief that "if all do their duty, they need not fear harm" (Line 24), even though he has been abandoned by his father and is forced to work in such degrading conditions, reveals his innocence and naivety about the "harm" he is exposed to on a daily basis. ... The rest of the poem is the little boy's response – they are in "praising God & his Priest & King" (Line 11) in chur...

• Word Count: 1939
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The setting in "Ballad of Birmingham" relates to the place where God visits, so the woman refers to the church as "the sacred place" not even knowing about technologies that could destroy any places in the world. ... In "The Whipping", an old woman is whipping the boy for his wrongdoings. ... In "Ballad of Birmingham", when a boy asks his mother if the boy could go outside and play, the mother said, "No, baby, no, you may not go, for the dogs are fierce and wild [ ]" (Randall). ...

• Word Count: 883
• Approx Pages: 4

The speaker of "The Chimney Sweeper" is a young boy who is himself a chimney sweeper. ... The poem is addressed, essentially, to whom it may concern, and as such the poem seems to be a vehicle for the boy to declare who he is. ... Then the reader begins to learn about little Tom Dacre, who had to have his head shaved. ... Damon reports two more meanings: The crying of someone in a position like the boy's, or the peep, peep, of a young sparrow, overwhelmed by a sea of snow. (270) Blake also makes use of many striking contrasts to illustrate his point. ...

• Word Count: 706
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Lewis's "Walking Away" and Russell Hoban's "Summer Recorded" are two poems about joyful memories now lost in the sands of time. ... In "Walking away" you see a small boy "behind a scatter of boys"(L5) leaving his father, the boy is growing up. A timid boy "with the pathos of a half-fledged thing"(B , he looks " like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem" to young to leave fully, yet to old to stay under the protection of his parents. ...

• Word Count: 692
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

They then have to walk about four miles until they reach their destination. ... We see the use of alliteration that draws our attention to the fear and pain in the boy's eyes that he has to suffer with no mercy. ... The body will jerk in pain resulting in the boy spewing out bits of lung and blood. The description used by Owen has been deliberately graphic to emphasise such a waste of a young boy's life! After reading about the events which Wilfred Owen has witnessed, one would in most cases struggle to go on living. ...

• Word Count: 1476
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

They are shown as an opponent for a boy that, once beaten, though very resilient, will never rise again. ... This was written when he was about 45. About the time that he would have a mid-life crisis. ... We never know anything about who "I" is. ... Though both are worn about the same. ...

• Word Count: 1234
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Poems are a particular way an author shows to the reader of what he feels and thinks about the actions of the world. ... The meaning behind the words of the author proves how young this little boy actually was, and brings pity to the reader. Next the author takes the reader to a sweet dream the boy has and shows the reader of the false hope that carries keeps this boys spirit alive from day to day. ...

• Word Count: 573
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

The "Jabberwocky" is about a boy who fails to listen to his father's warnings about the fearful Jabberwocky. The boy takes it upon himself to take a journey to face the Jabberwocky alone. The boy later returns to his exhilarated father bearing the head of the Jabberwocky as his trophy: the Jabberwocky was finally dead. ... This is seen when the poem says: "About his shadowy sides". ...

• Word Count: 1003
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

He was not born into wealth; instead, he overcame adversity of being a poor boy with no real formal education, to being a widely celebrated poet. ... When his father refused, Garrison took it upon himself to make the young talented boy into something special. ... He was influenced by politics, and when he heard about the United States government's plan to destroy the warship USS Constitution, he wrote "Old Ironsides." ...

• Word Count: 738
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

In several poems, Heaney talks about the isolation he feels from his society. ... The poem North talks about his belief of the heroic Vikings, speaking to him withhindsight?. ... Born in a family, known for generations in the field of farming, Heaney grew up as an Irish country-boy. ... In Digging, Heaney also talks about the hard-working farmer as he slices down the earthfor the good turf?. ... The first two talking of Heaney's childhood and the visions seen through the eyes of a boy growing up and observing life- learning and experiencing. ...

• Word Count: 1879
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

The drunken father's breath, "Could make a small boy dizzy", yet the boy hangs "on like death" (My Papa's lines 2-3). ... The thing that is unsettling about this poem though is the word choice. ... I would not have expected a poem to be so straight-forward and bold about its sexual meaning. Roethke has written many poems about love including the two written of here. ... "My Papa's Waltz" is about a son's loving commitment to his father while "I Knew A Woman" is about a man's attraction and relationship with a younger woman. ...

• Word Count: 1292
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

An example of this is that in each, there is some sort of conflict between man and natures representations i.e. the knight and the faery, the boy and the rat, and also the man and the deer. ... The quote itself actually is a good example of how Keats brings about a cold feel to the poem at this point, which is ironic as we associate cold temperatures with loss. ... Also, the fantasy style poem brings about a strong contrast with the style used in the more recent poems of Hughes and Heaney, who have chosen to use more realistic representations in their poems with the boy and the man, and th...

• Word Count: 3408
• Approx Pages: 14