The Death Trap in Dove and Heaneys Poems - Essay Example

The Death Trap in Dove and Heaney’s Poems The Death Trap in Dove and Heaney’s Poems Rita Dove’s “FifthGrade Autobiography” and Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-term Break” both talk about the same concept, death. The former talks about the death of the author’s grandfather through suddenly kindled memory while the later is a direct commentary about the funeral of the Poet’s young brother. In both the poems the speaker or the author has lost someone close to their heart. In "Fifth Grade Autobiography" the poet is reminded of a death which happened long ago while looking at a photo casually. In Haeneys "Mid-Term Break" the author talks about the grief he experiences directly on the day of his young brothers death. Both the poems leave the readers mind burdened with an unexplainable melancholy towards the end, though they do not have any direct descriptions about death in them. Dove’s poem starts by describing a photograph in past tense “I was four in this photograph fishing” The nice rhyming in the poem with ‘this’ and ‘fish’ kindles the readers to continue further. The characters in the photograph are introduced one by one, starting with Dove’s brothers. The poem proceeds to describe the boys somewhat raggedy dressing style. Any literary analyst will note alliteration here, with the emphasis on the “K” in the following lines. The cap of the brother is explained in detail creating a vivid picture of the extra furry cap and the bushy tail hanging beneath it any mind that reads it. By this time, the reader understands, the author’s childhood memories are rekindled when she is watching an old photograph. The poem continues in a swift pace in colloquial style in broken sentences. The dialectical tradition of African-American poetry actually increases the interest to finish the poem fully. The poem proceeds with the line “My grandfather sits to the far right in a folding chair,” The seating of the grandfather with his hands of the tobacco pocket is explained followed by the rhyming description of how the grandmother leans on to the brush. The sun light creates beautiful images on her dress as she stands against the ice chest. This situation is described aesthetically as “sun through the trees printing her dress with soft luminous paws.” The humble smile in the grandmother’s mind will come to the readers mind, without any mention of it. Dove suddenly mentions about her jealousy at her brother during his first horse ride. The childishness of the author makes us compare the meaning of the poem with the title automatically. Dove changes the subject again taking about her grandfather smells of lemons and suddenly out of nowhere about his death in just two words “He’s died –” The incompleteness of the sentence leave place for ample imagination. She just ends by saying she still remembers his hands. The sudden abruptness of the grandfather’s death gives the user a jerk. It makes them wonder about several things what might have caused it and when. The author leaves all the answers to be answered according to the readers will, contemplating on the dead man’s hand. She had established her connection with him fully. Dove’s main strength is the folk elements prevalent throughout the poem in several places like the brothers dressing style and grandfather smelling of lemon. There is no introspection about anything. She just writes about what happened in a simple but lively tone. She deals with truthful emotions without giving them any extra trimming or decorative words. There is no metaphor, simile or any other poetic strategy used in the poem. But, it does make the readers feel morbid and nostalgic towards the end. Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-term Break” deals with death in a more elaborate European manner. The poem starts with the poet waiting uneasily for his neighbors to pick him up from college. Instead of going home for the mid-term break happily with his parents, someone else is coming to pick him up. The reader’s interest is kindled as to what happened. The poet keeps building up the suspense by describing how he meets his macho father crying. He mentions the word funeral for the first time in the poem. Every father is a hero to his boy. Most boys dont know their fathers could actually cry. This childish shock is explained indirectly in the second stanza. He also mentions his utter surprise of seeing his father crying in the lines “In the porch I met my father crying--” In contrast to depicting his father crying, the author describes his mother sighing tearlessly in the lines “as my mother held my hand In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.” The mother who is expected to cry is dried of tears while the father who is expected to stay calm is weeping because of the hard blow. The poet continues to express the uneasy feeling when the strangers start respecting him suddenly by shaking his hand and expressing their condolences. Since, the father is broken with grief the poet is inclined to accept their sympathies as the eldest son of the household. The last three stanzas deal with the actual dead person. The corpse arrives dressed by nurses. The poet takes a look at his young dead brother, looking pale and sleeping in his coffin like a cot. He goes on to explain how he died hit by a car. The last line of the poem says “A four foot box, a foot for every year” The metaphor in the last stanza comparing the cot to the coffin and the size of the box to the dead boy’s age does the trick. It makes the readers feel sorry for the dead boy and his family. There are three main similarities in both the poems. Family love emphasized beautifully in both the poems. Both of them deal with the same concept death and both the poems are written in first person prospective. The three poems contrast with each other in certain terms too. Both the poems use a different style of writing. The first one uses dialectal folk type words and styles while the later uses the Standard English language used in European households. The first poem deals with memories and the second one deal with the actual happening in the present tense. The third main contrast is the descriptions. No description about the death or how it happened is mentioned in the first poem while the second one deals elaborately about the funeral scene, corpse description, reason for death etc. Conclusion Both the poems deal with the same subject and create the required nostalgic or morbid feelings in the readers mind. The former one is a simple mans view and description of life, while the later is a refined and educated persons recording of his first grief in life. Both are masterpieces in their own accord. References 1. Dove, Rita. Fifth Grade Autobiography. Poetry Foundation . 1989. 12 Sept 2012 . 2. Heaney, Seamus. Mid-term Break. Famous Poets and Poems. 1966. 12 Sept 2012 3. Alison Booth, J Paul Hunter, and Kelly J Mays. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2005. Read More