Seamus HeaneySeamus Heaney was born in April 1939 in Northern Ireland. His father owned and worked fifty acres of farmland in County Derry in NIP. Patrick Heaney had always been involved in the cattle trade. Seamus' parents died very early in his life and so from then on his uncle had to look after him. Heaney grew up as a country boy and attended the local primary school. At twelve he won a scholarship to St.Columb's College, a Catholic boarding school located in the city of Derry. Heaney moved to Belfast later in his life where he lived for fifteen years and then moved to the republic. Since 1982 he has made annual visits to America to teach and has since begun writing his poetry. Heaney's first poem was titled "Digging". The purpose of this essay is to compare two poems by Seamus Heaney that deal with the theme of childhood. The two poems are titled "The Early Purges" and "Mid-Term Break". The importance of the title "The Early Purges" is that it informs us about what happens during the poem and tells us what the poem is about. The poem goes straight into the topic and is based on the death of animals on a farm and is subject to two people's opinions on killing animals. The poem is very ambiguous and ironic, with a gory tone due to the in-depth description of death. The poem has seven three-line stanzas called tercets, and each line contains five to ten words, keeping the poem easy to read throughout. Heaney chose to use this verse structure and line length because it builds tension and keeps you in suspense. It is also easier to digest in small stanzas and I think he did this to let us get the full effect of the poem. There is a rhyme scheme in the poem, but it is divided into para-rhymes because it gives a flow to the poem and holds the reader's attention all the way through. Seamus Heaney uses a lot of imagery in this poem to make the reader really imagine what the animals were like. processed in the company. Heaney mentions a phrase that Dan Taggart had said at the farm. “Like wet gloves” Dan had thought they looked like wet gloves when they were about to drown. Furthermore, while Heaney had seen the kittens drowning, he said he had seen them "becoming mealy and crusty like old summer dung". As you can see, once again how Heaney exaggerates the killing of