Part 1 of Essay
Death in the family is shocking, and it is even more appalling when it is unforeseen and when it takes a child. Three poets have written from personal experience three renowned poems on this theme. Margaret Atwood wrote “Death of a Young Son by Drowning”, Seamus Heaney gave us “Mid-term Break”, and Ben Johnson penned On M ....

Part 2 of Essay
.... and break from school. The author of this poem used this title ironically. He anticipated the reader’s expectations, and took the poem in a different direction. The character in the story is certainly not having a “normal” spring break at all, as he is spending it grief-stricken over the death of his four-year old brother. If one examines this title on an interpretive level, the word “break” takes on a new meaning, as it could refer to the death of the child as breaking the heart or spirit of the family and the ....