Tropical Death and Mid-Term Break | Analysis

equatorial Death and mid(prenominal)- bourn Break AnalysisCompare and limit the bewilderation of goal and sorrow in both numberssIn this essay I will be examine and contrasting the presentation of death and grief in the two poems, Tropical Death and Mid- shape Break. Grace Nichols, the poet of Tropical Death, was born in Guyana, 1950, and then migrated to England at the age of 27. In all of her writing, her own history and that of her demesne have distinctly had a profound impact as she says, I am a author across two worlds I just cant forget my Caribbean culture and past, so theres this contrast fundamental interaction between the two worlds Britain and the Caribbean. Seamus Heaney, the poet of Mid Term Break, was born in Ireland in 1939 as the eldest of ix children. Many of his works concern his own family history as well and besides seems to focus on characters in his own family they can be read as elegies for those family members.The inwardness of both the poems pr esents the themes of death and grief. both poems deal with two poetic illustrations discussing and dealing with death. In Tropical Death she is mean the end of her vitality whereas in Mid Term Break he is dealing with the loss of his brother. In Tropical Death, the content consists of a Caribbean stern woman wanting a brilliant tropical death. Grace Nichols discusses pass back to her stem country beca subprogram she is planning the end of her sprightliness and would like a dramatic, traditional death. I gauge this as she suggests so much of her own death that the contributor presumes she has come to the end of her life. I, as a reader, find the poetic voice in the category of integrity. This is because she is feeling ready for her own death and is hence planning for it. We excessively know she wants a dramatic death because it says, no quiet dork tear wiping, a civilized hearse withdrawal, proving the woman wants an over the top end to her life. The poetic voice wants a tragic death, as it also states all the sleepless droning/ red-eyed wake nights. This suggests vigil. In Mid Term Break the content consists of an account of a family tragedy. In the poem the poetic voice attends the funeral of his younger brother who, at the age of four, was run over. We know this because it says my mother held my hand, met my father crying, they were down(p) for my chafe and I was the eldest. All these quotes tell us, as the reader, what the family is going through. This ramp ups us feel compassion for the poetic voice. The poetic voice is actually Heaneys own as this really did happen in his life. This make the peace feel more(prenominal) heart-felt and emotional because all these things Heaney chatters about were real.The ideas the poets may have cherished us to think about presents the themes of death and grief. In Tropical Death, an idea Nichols wanted us to think about was how she knows and has identified the way in which she would like to die. Woman want, she is portrayed as eternally wanting which shows pride, determination, self-radiance, independence and strength. She had thought so much about her death that she knows either detail, down to what sic she would like to wear, vipers bugloss sea dress/ to wrap her neat. When I outset read this I thought the poetic voice meant she wanted to drown, dress being the waves and neat meaning to take her life quickly and painlessly. Yet having re-read it, I realised the woman was actually just referring to her plans for her traditional Caribbean outfit in which she wanted to be buried in. In Mid Term Break, an idea Heaney wanted us to think about was the reckonry apply to express ideas of death. Heaney uses a metaphor to describe the only mugful on the boys body, poppy bruise. This is also the only colour talked about in the piece which makes this one dinero more intense. It says he had no gaudy scars because the bumper knocked him clear and having this one microscopical bruis e, although it was probably quite small, seems super vivid and sickening. The colour also contrasts with the boys skin, which is described by the poetic voice as paler now. This also emphasises the poppy bruise for us, as the reader, to imagine the mark to stand out quite spectacularly. Another image Heaney wants use to imagine is the four foot box, which is alliteration. This device emphasises the negative tone and harsh nature, devising the thought of this lay more believable and realistic. My favorite device Heaney uses is onomatopoeia whispers, coughed, sighs. This helps create the effect that we are actually there, hearing what the poetic voice is hearing. It makes the scene so much more real, again, like we are actually there- this emphasises the quite distressfulness.The modal value and atmosphere of both poems present the themes of death and grief. In Tropical Death the wit is quite exotic and I, as a reader, could almost imagine a Caribbean woman saying these things. This was because it was written in a language that captures the Caribbean dialect, but I will go on to write more about this later on on. Grace writes, No quiet jerk tear wiping. This is not sample English, emphasizing the Caribbean influence, and there is no punctuation throughout the piece. The mood is tropical, the writer talks about heat and cool and shade which suggests the temperature, making the reader feel as if we are there, in the Caribbean. The mood is also quite upbeat, with colourful spoken language such as brilliant, blue sea dress and red eyed. This vibrant textbook makes us think of the bright colours on the island. After all the sleepless droning the mood softens, her mothers sweet breast, cool bless. These peaceful descriptions lower the tension levels to make the last orthodontic braces seem stronger. In Mid Term Break there is a noticeable change in atmosphere between stanza five and stanza six. In the first five stanzas the atmosphere is tense and cold as the ambulance arrived and the arrival of the corpse stanched and bandaged. The energy level of the poetic voice is low throughout these first five stanzas, like the poetic voice is tired and drowned from all that is going on. However, in the final a couple of(prenominal) stanzas the atmosphere changes peaceful, snowdrops, candles soothed, he lay. These bring down the tension levels as we picture the calm, relaxed mood roughly the cot. Heaney uses pathos, I met my father crying. This emphasises the bleak tone of the poem, playing on the readers feelings.How the poems are written present the themes of death and grief. The poem Tropical Death has a refrain which is repeated at the start of every stanza (except for the ordinal one). Having the same line every time we start a new paragraph of the poem helps us, as a reader, to be brought back to what the whole poem is about, as a constant reminder. This repetition is an eternal rhyme and its a connotation of death. It is also alliter ation, a device Nichols uses throughout her poem. The refrain also stands out due to its stressed syllables, which are short and staccato vowel sounds. The t and the k earn make the beat hard and unappealing. Repetition is thought to originate from the call and response tradition of Africa it could be a big part in her writing due to Grace Nichols background. The poem also hints at several lovely parts of death blue sea dress/ to wrap her neat, polite hearse, in the heart/ of her mothers sweetbreast, in the shade/ of the sun leafs cool bless, in the bloom/ of her peoples bloodrest. This tells me, as a reader, that the fat black woman awaits the end of her life with dignity, her head held high having fulfilled her be after life and is subsequently planning her own death for when it may arrive. The structure of Tropical Death is change integrity into five stanzas and one refinement couplet. Stanza one, two, three and four all start with the line the fat black woman want. The fift h stanza doesnt start with this but then the couplet does, also the fourth and fifth stanzas are longer than the first, second and third. This could be to emphasise the final image more, by giving the reader a break from the refrain and also the length of the two stanzas before outline the short and snappiness of the ending couplet. This break is to not detract from the message and there is also no punctuation in the couplet, this is so the reader is left with a strong image. This image has been building up throughout the piece, the fat black woman want/ a brilliant tropical death yes. Tropical Death is written in a language that captures the Caribbean dialect. It uses some unfamiliar vocabulary, e.g. hibiscus is a plant native to warm tropical regions blue sea dress is a traditional African dress. It creates as strong sense of the voice of the speaker. It clearly sets the poem in a culture other than that represented by Standard English. By utilise a mixture of Standard English an d a dialect form it emphasises a particular idea, in this poem the idea is of wanting to go back to her home country. This technique gives a sense of the soprano voice that the poet possesses. Nichols enjoys exploring these cultural differences I like working in both Standard English and Creole. I tend to want to fuse the two tongues because I come from a background where the two worlds were eer interacting, though Creole was regarded, obviously, as the inferior of the colonial powers when I was growing up. In Mid Term Break the rhyme scheme is non-existent. I believe this is to make the tone of the piece more undecomposed and grown up. It is written like an episode rather than a poem. This highlights the realist mood and atmosphere. The finishing couplet is more memorable as the middle is slower and bland. The rhyming couplet seems to sooth. Heaney writes, No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear/ A four foot box, a foot for every year. This decreases the tension and affirms the ending of the peace. The dialect is Standard English, with punctuation. This helps us to imagine the poetic voice to live somewhere cold and unappealing because the language used is harsh and unwelcoming.How the poems are similar presents the themes of death and grief. Both poems finish with a punchy line, to leave the reader with an image to take with them. In Tropical Death this is the fact that the poetic voice wants to go back to her home country to die in a traditional way yet in Mid Term Break this is the fact that a boy has died young from a tragic accident. These final images conclude both poems strongly. Both poems have a similar layout, with regular stanzas and a final shorter stanza. Both poems overall talk about the same things, but Tropical Death discusses in a more up-beat, lively and innate sort of way- it is the natural order of life. Whereas, in Heaneys poem, it is written in a more dejected and sad kind of way.How the poems are different present the themes of death and grief. In Nichols poem she talks about the planning of her death whereas in Heaneys poem he talks about a boy who has died young- his life was rails tragically short, without any notice. Nichols is basically saying all that the boy in Heaneys poem had, she doesnt want. She says not a cold tarry/ in some North Europe far/forlorn. That is exactly what the little boy in Heaneys poem got. Nichols says she doesnt want a polite hearse and yet thats what Heaneys poem has, sorry for my trouble, whispers. The fat black woman wants some bawl, Sleepless droning unlike the boy had in Heaneys poem, coughed out tearless sighs, I was embarrassed. All these things prove that everything Heaney describes in his poem is everything Nichols is saying she doesnt want both poems sum up the cultural norms. Our culture is presented in Heaneys poem as cold, snowdrops with lots of secrecy, whispers, and this contrast greatly with Nichols culture which is described as lively and welcoming. The col dness and grayness hit us in Heaneys poem, no gaudy scars and white snowdrops. This is such a contrast from Nichols vivid and warm piece, heat, tropical. In Mid Term Break there is tension, embarrassed, there is forced politeness and secrecy. It is a hint that we dont have a welcoming culture, unlike Nichols culture, ours seems cold and behind doors, a cold sojourn as described in Tropical Death. In conclusion, these two poems present death and grief in two different ways- we hear the negativity of Heaneys traumatic experience, which completely contrasts with Nichols positive request to recidivate to her homeland for her death.