My first Sonne and Mid Term Break Essay -- English Literature

My first Sonne and Mid Term Break In this essay I will be comparing and commenting on the poems ‘My first Sonne’, by Ben Johnson and ‘Mid Term Break’ by Seamus Heaney. These poems are all a reflection on a close relative’s death and portray the poet’s emotions, feelings and thoughts. However while Ben Johnson loses a son Seamus Heaney loses a brother, from these poems we see two different types of emotions. Mid term break is an autobiographical poem written by Seamus Heaney when thinking back about the death of his little brother. ‘My first Sonne’ is also autobiographical, but is about the death of Ben Johnson’s seven year old son. Despite the fact that both poems are about death the poets’ emotions are very different, ban Johnson regrets loving his son and Heaney finds peace when he sees his brother once again. In life there is a moral order of death, which is that parents should never have to bury their children, but both the poems are the opposite of the moral order. Even though both poems are different responses to death I think that they are both equally effective. The poets’ use of lexis, structures and themes help make their poems effective. Meaning is important in both poems, it shows us that death can strike at any time and can have a great impact on us. I think both poems have straight forward meaning- we see Benn Johnson trying to create meaning in his poem for why his son died. Ben Johnson blames himself for loving his child too much, even though we know that infant mortality was high at this point. Johnson does not take into mind the context of the time he was living in. Structure is important in poems as it affects the rhythm and the tone, this could affect the whole meaning of a ... ...e Gods with Jesus’. Even though the reader may not be religious the use of expressions makes it easier to understand than Mid Term Break. Heaney in his final line uses alliteration to end the poem, this final stanza gains our sympathy and we empathise with him. Johnson uses a similar technique, using his final line to gain the views understanding and sympathy. Both poets use words which describe what has happened and how they feel, for example Johnson describes his son being ‘exacted’. This is another meaning for collecting, debt collecting. I feel that both poems are effective in their meaning- however personally My First Sonne gains my empathy more than Mid- Term Break. I think this is because it is more understandable and not as complex. Having lost a close person I can understand what Johnson feels- a rush of anger followed by love and regret.