The two poems I am going to compare are Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney and Death Be Not Proud by John Donne.

... POETRY BY LISA FLEMING The first poem I am going to study is a poem by Seamus Heaney called Mid-Term Break. Seamus Heaney was born in County Derry into a farming background. He attended St. Columb's College in Derry where he was a border. Heaney went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. The poet's title Mid-Term Break is somewhat ambiguous as it would suggest a holiday of some sort, whereas, the poem is actually about the death of Heaney's young brother who was killed in a tragic accident. The thoughts of death are brought to the fore almost immediately as the poem begins with a funeral note in line two: '...counting bells knelling classes to a close.' The word 'knelling' reminds the poet of the church bells tolling for a funeral. In the second stanza we are aware that the tragedy which has occurred is different as funerals usually did not disturb his father in the way

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