From the Frontier of Writing

Throughout Seamus Heaney's "From the Frontier of Writing," Heaney uses an extended metaphor and diction to create a militaristic setting and a tone of hard work and harsh procedures.
The whole poem has an extended metaphor of comparing the process of writing to the military/police. for example, in the second line "the troops inspect its make and number" this implies literally that a car is being stopped by a groups of soldiers to go through a car and make sure there is nothing wrong. But metaphorically speaking, this really symbolizes the process of writing in the sense that your writing first gets looked at by someone with a higher power. The second stanza metaphorically stands for the way critics are constantly watching your every move of your writing and are looking for ways to take action.
This process continues throughout the whole poem, comparing this violating search to critics o writing or an authoritative figure always on the lookout. finally towards the last two stanzas the poem begins to take a turn. The tone changes from an irritated to a more relieved. The second to last stanza means finally you are done with the writing process and your work was finally accepted.
I really like the way this poem is written because at first you would never think that this was an extended metaphor but once you read it more thoroughly you realize the impact it puts on the reader.

"Mid-Term Break"- i cant wait till summer!!

Throughout "Mid-Term Break" Seamus Heaney uses imagery to create a tone that is very sad and sympathetic by using words such as "crying" and visual words like "candles soothed the bedside." The narrator of this poem is going through the process of mourning and the tone creates the effect of hurt and sympathy.
I noticed that throughout the poem there is a shift between diction with happy words and sad words. For example, the second stanza has an overall sad tone to it because of the words such as "crying" and "funerals". These words imply that the narrator has had something sad occur in his life. But then in the third stanza the narrator uses words such as "baby cooed" and "laughed" which shows a change in the tone at that given moment. Then moving on the the fourth stanza it switches back to sad and continues throughout the rest of the poem.
Heaney uses visual imagery to create a sad and mournful image in the readers head. For example, he uses details like "college sick bay counting bells knelling classes to a close" which creates an image of a person sitting by the bay picking at flowers. Another image that Heaney creates through this poem is when he describes the "corpse, stanched and bandaged." This plays a role in the mood because it shows how disturbed the narrator was with the situation at hand.

Side Note:
Me and Jenna were getting ready for volleyball practice and we were looking at this poem and i asked her a question. I came up with a theory that the poem was written backwards...i know that sounds stupid but it kinda makes sense. Just hear me out if you read the last four stanzas and find out the narrators four year old brother died-and then u read first four stanzas it makes sense. Its like before and after: his brother died, then he is sitting by the bay and going to the funeral.
Also if you notice the times also support the fact that the poem was written backwards. In the first line it says that it is 2 o'clock and in the fifth stanza it says that it is 10 o'clock.
Just that it was quite interesting